The U.S. Department of Energy sold crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to a foreign government for the first time, according to the agency. The government of Australia and six companies were awarded supply in a DOE tender to sell 10.1 million barrels of SPR crude. The Pacific nation will be receiving 195,000 barrels of crude, the DOE said on its website. Last year, Australia was the first foreign country to lease storage space at caverns operated by the Department of Energy, which made it eligible to participate in the tender.
Glencore Ldt., Marathon Petroleum Supply and Trading LLC, Motiva Enterprises LLC, Phillips 66 Company, Shell Trading (US) Company, Valero Marketing and Supply Company were among the other awardees in this tender, which offered oil deliveries during March and April.