A maze of crude oil pipes and valves is pictured during a tour by the Department of Energy at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas, U.S. June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Richard Carson/File Photo

WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday it had approved an exchange of 400,000 barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for release to Atlantic Trading and Marketing Inc, an arm of French company TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) .

This latest swap is the fifth since the Biden administration in November announced the release of up to 50 million barrels of oil from the SPR, a series of heavily guarded caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coasts, to help control oil prices that hit seven-year highs. read more

Companies that receive SPR crude oil through the exchange agree to return the amount of crude oil received, as well as an additional amount counting as interest.

After mostly falling since the November announcement, Brent oil prices have again hit their highest level since 2014, above $87 a barrel, on worries about potential supply disruptions after Yemen's Houthi group attacked the United Arab Emirates.

Combined, the Energy Department has so far released more than 8 million barrels of the 32 million in exchanges of SPR oil outlined in November. This month it also announced the results of a sale of 18 million barrels of SPR oil which was part of the release. read more

The United States for the first time coordinated with other consuming countries, such as China, India and South Korea on concerted releases of oil from national reserves. China will release crude from its stockpiles around the Lunar New Year holidays as part of that plan, sources said last week. read more

Reporting by Paul Grant and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler and Marguerita Choy

Source: Reuters

Powered by NewsAPI.org