About 1 million barrels of crude oil that will go toward replenishing the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve have been purchased, the U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday.
The oil will be delivered to the Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve site near Freeport, Texas, in December and January, the Energy Department said in a statement. The U.S. petroleum reserve contains about 410 million barrels of crude oil and at full capacity can hold approximately 714 million barrels.
The strategic reserve, the Energy Department said in a release, was weakened by the previous administration’s “reckless” 180-million-barrel drawdown in 2022.
The drawdown caused delays to critical infrastructure maintenance and put unprecedented wear and tear on storage and injection facilities, the department said.
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