The buyback campaign will focus first on 3 million barrels of crude oil, which the American state wishes to acquire at 96 dollars per unit, which would be a “good deal for taxpayers”.
The US Department of Energy will start buying back oil to refill the strategic reserves of black gold that the Biden administration has drawn heavily on for more than a year to bring down gas prices. .
The government started the calls for tenders by inviting operators to sell to the American State “oil at a price lower than 96 dollars per barrel, the average price at which” they had bought it, which constitutes a ” good deal for taxpayers.
The buyback campaign will focus first on 3 million barrels of crude, according to a press release from the Department of Energy, published Friday.
With the general rise in prices following the end of the Covid-19 pandemic and then the war in Ukraine, the price of a barrel had risen to 120 dollars during the year.
The Biden administration then decided to draw exceptionally on the country’s strategic reserves (SPR) in order to put downward pressure on prices.
Since the beginning of September 2021, the government has drawn some 216 million barrels from these reserves, which have decreased by more than a third and are at their lowest level since January 1984, at 382 million barrels.
In October, President Joe Biden announced that the government would begin buying back oil to replenish reserves.
“This first step in the resupply strategy (…) follows the historic release of these reserves to deal with the significant disruption to global supply caused by Putin’s war against Ukraine,” the statement said. ministry of energy.
Drawing on reserves “has helped to lower gasoline prices” which are now “at their lowest since September 2021”, adds the government.
A barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is currently trading below $80.
It is slightly above the threshold publicly set in mid-October by Joe Biden, a range between 67 and 72 dollars, to begin to replenish strategic reserves.
As for the price of gasoline at the pump, which had reached a record in June at more than 5 dollars per gallon (3.78 liters), it fell to 3.17 dollars on average, according to the American Automobile Association.