WASHINGTON — Taking advantage of low oil prices, the government is resuming purchases of crude oil for its emergency stockpile.
The Energy Department said Friday it will seek contracts and make other arrangements for the delivery of nearly 20 million barrels of oil to the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the coming months. The reserve, a system of caverns on the Louisiana-Texas coast, holds 702 million barrels of crude.
The department said it will buy 12 million barrels to replace the oil that was sold from the reserve in 2005 to meet shortages after Hurricane Katrina disrupted oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. Another 2.18 million barrels will be bought to make up for oil that didn’t go into the reserve last year after Congress banned purchases because of high prices and tight supplies.
The Associated Press
