HOUSTON, July 5 (Reuters) – More than 5 million barrels of oil were exported to Europe and Asia last month as part of a historic publication of U.S. emergency oil reserves aimed at reducing domestic fuel prices, according to data and sources, even when U.S. gasoline and diesel prices hit all-time highs.
Crude oil and fuel exports are reducing the impact of U.S. President Joe Biden’s measures designed to cut record pump prices. Biden on Saturday renewed a call for gasoline suppliers to lower their prices, and received criticism from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Read more
About 1 million barrels a day are being released from the Strategic Oil Reserve (SPR) by October. The flow is draining the SPR, which last month fell to its lowest level since 1986. U.S. crude oil futures are above $ 105 a barrel and gasoline and diesel prices are above 5 dollars per gallon in one-fifth of the country. U.S. officials have said oil prices could rise if the SPR were not taken advantage of.
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The fourth largest oil refinery in the United States, Phillips 66 (PSX.N), shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour oil from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy, according to customs data American. Trieste hosts a gas pipeline that sends oil to refineries in Central Europe.
Atlantic Trading & Marketing (ATMI), a branch of the large French oil company TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), exported 2 cargoes of 560,000 barrels each, according to the data.
Phillips 66 declined to comment on business activity. ATMI did not respond to a request for comment.
SPR crude shipments also went to the Netherlands and a Reliance refinery (RELI.NS) in India, an industry source said. A third cargo was headed to China, another source said.
At least one load of crude from the West Hackberry SPR site in Louisiana was to be exported in July, a shipping source added.
“Crude oil and fuel prices would probably be higher if (SPR releases) hadn’t happened, but at the same time, it’s not really having the effect it was supposed to,” said oil analyst Matt Smith Kpler’s main.
Recent exports follow three vessels carrying SPR crude to Europe in April that helped replace Russian crude supplies. Read more
U.S. crude inventories are the lowest since 2004, as refineries are close to peak levels. U.S. Gulf Coast refineries had 97.9% utilization, the highest utilization in three-and-a-half years.
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Report by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
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