Houston, July 7 (BNA): More than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of the US historical emergency reserves to reduce domestic fuel prices were exported to Europe and Asia last month, according to data and sources, even with US gasoline and fuel. Diesel prices have reached record levels.
Crude oil and fuel exports limit the impact of US President Joe Biden’s moves to cut record pump prices. Biden on Saturday renewed calls for gasoline suppliers to lower their prices, drawing criticism from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Reuters reported.
About 1 million barrels per day are released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through October. The influx is draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which fell last month to its lowest level since 1986. US crude futures are above $100 a barrel and gasoline and diesel prices are above $5 a gallon in a fifth of the country. US officials have said that oil prices could rise if the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not exploited.
“The Strategic Petroleum Reserve remains an important energy security tool to address disruptions to global crude oil supply,” a spokesperson for the Department of Energy said, adding that emergency releases helped ensure stable crude supplies.
The fourth largest US refiner, Phillips 66, has shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy, according to US customs data. Trieste is home to a pipeline that sends oil to refineries in central Europe.
The data showed that Atlantic Trading and Marketing, an arm of French oil major Total Energy, exported two shipments of 560,000 barrels each.
Philips 66 declined to comment on trading activity. ATMI did not respond to a request for comment.
An industry source said shipments of SBR crude also went to the Netherlands and to the Reliance refinery in India. Another source said a third shipment was headed to China.
A shipping source added that at least one shipment of crude was scheduled to be exported from the West Hackberry SPR site in Louisiana in July.
“Crude oil and fuel prices are likely to be higher if[the SPR releases]didn’t happen, but at the same time, they didn’t have the impact that was supposed to,” said Matt Smith, Kpler’s principal oil analyst.
The latest exports follow three ships that took SPR crude to Europe in April to help replace Russian crude supplies.
US crude stocks are the lowest since 2004 as refineries operate near peak levels. Refinery utilization in the US Gulf Coast was 97.9%, the most in three and a half years.
MI