Whiplash: U.S. to Buy 3 Million Barrels of Oil at $80 a Barrel After Just Selling 12 Million

In April 2023 a net release of 7.5 million barrels of oil was released with 4.1 scheduled on May 23 of our oil reserve. Now Granholm says that we “intend” to start to replenish our supply. Just where are we going to buy this oil from? Iran? Looks like a Ponzi scheme to me. It is for sour crude. In the graph below the tale is told.

Just this past February I posted:

Joker in the White House Sells More of U.S. Oil Reserve

February 14, 2023 — bunkerville

Whiplash.... Biden talks to oil companies about buying oil for $70 buckeroos a barrel to refill reserve, at same time selling the oil reserves for around $80. After saying he had stopped selling oil.  At a time when the winds of war rattle around the world.

Five weeks after the US stopped draining oil from the Strategic Midterm Petroleum Reserve, which helped push gasoline prices sharply higher in January.. Biden sells again.

According to Bloomberg sources, the congressionally mandated sale will amount to 26 million barrels of crude, and is “in accordance with a budget mandate enacted in 2015 for the current fiscal year”, said a spokesperson for the Department of Energy.

Just where is all this profit from the oil sales going?  The Joker versus Biden…. the jokes on us. Total madness.

“DOE is committed to executing an SPR replenishment strategy that provides the best deal for taxpayers— aiming to repurchase crude at a lower price than the average of about $95 per barrel it was sold for in 2022, while strengthening energy security by providing certainty to the industry in a way that helps encourage near-term supply. DOE intends to purchase more oil later this year.”

From Bunks pot of past gold

Biden Truth: Shipping U.S. Oil Reserve to Asia Since 2021

The first time Biden released our oil reserve last fall it made its way to Asia. Now we learn that this batch is headed to..drum roll please… Europe. These releases were suppose to bring the price of oil down here. Forget that the purpose of the oil reserve was for emergencies. Just where does the money received from these sales go Mr. Joe? Just thought I would ask. It is being sold as reducing our cost. First the update and then a trip down memory lane:

Recall, Joe Biden wanted to fill the Strategic Reserves with $80 per barrel oil. Just three years ago the Democrats blocked President Trump from filling the Strategic Oil Reserves at $24 per barrel.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it will purchase up to 3 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after the Biden regime aggressively drained the US stockpile.

A record-breaking 180 million barrels were released from the SPR by the Biden regime. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the SPR held about 638 million barrels of oil when Biden took office in January 2021. It has dropped to its lowest level since October 1983 today, at 362 million barrels.

“Today’s announcement advances the President’s replenishment strategy following his historic release from the SPR to address the significant global supply disruption caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine and provide a wartime bridge for domestic production to increase,” according to DOE’s news release. Now that is a lie.

Biden announced he was going to open the US oil reserves in 2021 even before the Ukraine-Russia war, in an effort to lower gas prices ahead of the holiday season.

Chuckle time from the State of the Union.

Reuters reported:

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm had signaled to lawmakers late last week that her department could start repurchasing oil for the stockpile soon, after a record sale last year during a spike in prices that pushed the level of the reserve to the lowest since 1983.

The new purchase would be for sour crude oil delivered to the Big Hill SPR site in Texas sometime during the month of August, according to the announcement.

 

SPR Quick Facts 

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a U.S. Government complex of four sites with deep underground storage caverns created in salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts.

To add to the mayhem I add this factoid. From Fact Sheet: Strategic Petroleum Reserve. 

Congressionally mandated drawdowns are required by law and require the SPR to sell crude oil in a competitive auction to the highest bidder. Funds from Congressionally mandated sales either go to the Treasury to help fund other government programs or to the SPR Modernization Program to repair aging equipment. Once the crude oil is sold from a mandated sale, the SPR does not replenish the oil sold. Additional In 2015, the crude oil export ban was lifted, allowing the United States to export crude oil and refined products— this means that the SPR cannot dictate whether or not companies export crude oil received from the reserve. U.S. companies are permitted to place bids on SPR crude oil, DOE cannot dictate what selected bidders will do with the SPR crude oil after delivery. Since oil is a commodity traded on the global market, the release of SPR crude oil can have an effect on overall crude oil prices. It is estimated a vast majority is used domestically. Further SPR sales provisions are available here. For more information on the SPR, visit the Office of Petroleum Reserves website. For more information on the SPR please visit Infographic: Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The man says it all.

The best of the swamp.