US offers up to 40 million barrels from Strategic Oil Reserve
The sale runs counter to a refilling plan the administration has promoted since late August
Published
The US is offering to sell up to 40 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an offer that runs in the opposite direction from the refilling plan officials have been promoting since late August.
That plan centred on Venezuelan crude, which President Trump framed as the mechanism for topping off a reserve already sitting at 1982 lows. Energy Secretary Chris Wright had already complicated that picture on September 2, saying the Venezuelan oil would likely be swapped rather than stockpiled. A sale of up to 40 million barrels would draw the reserve down further just as officials have promised to rebuild it, with no clear timeline given for when that rebuilding might happen.
Crude has been volatile in recent sessions. US oil reversed earlier gains on Monday and traded near $92 a barrel, a pullback described at the time as noise rather than a shift in the supply-demand outlook. A day earlier, US crude futures had jumped more than 4% in pre-market trade, touching $96.44 a barrel, after Iran's delegation in New York ruled out further talks. Brent's rise over the week to Sunday followed a Houthi claim and a stockpile draw, part of a broader pattern rather than a single new trigger.
On its own, an offer of this size is modestly bearish for crude, since it adds supply optionality to the market. It does not change the underlying picture: a reserve that is already low, with a refilling narrative that now looks murkier than officials first suggested.