US to sell up to 50M barrels of oil from SPR

The White House announced on Tuesday that it will make up to 50M barrels of oil available from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), according to Reuters. 32M barrels will be sold over the next several months, while 18M in sales over the next few months will speed up sales already authorised by the US Congress.

The White House added that China, India, South Korea, Japan and the UK would also be releasing oil reserves in tandem with the US, and that the Biden administration stands ready to take additional action on oil prices if necessary. 

The release is in line with market expectations. Analysts at Citi had previously estimated that the US could release between 45M and 60M barrels from its reserves. The bank said that when the release of reserves by other nations was taken into account, 100-120M barrels of oil could end up being released.

Market Reaction

Oil markets have seen a bit of chop in recent trade, but front-month WTI futures remain broadly in line with where they were prior to the announcement around the $75.70-$75.80 area. On the day, WTI is down just under 1.0%.