US Energy Department Awards 16.75 Million Barrel SPR Oil Loan to Five Companies Including Trafigura, Gunvor and Vitol

The U.S. Energy Department announced that five companies will borrow 16.75 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, out of the 17 million barrels the government offered, making the loan round nearly fully subscribed. The borrowers include major commodity trading houses Trafigura, Gunvor, and Vitol, along with two other unnamed participants, under a return-exchange program in which companies take oil now and are obligated to return it to the reserve at a later date.

The near-complete uptake of the offered volume signals strong commercial demand for SPR barrels under the loan mechanism, which the administration has used as a tool to ease supply conditions without a permanent drawdown of reserves. The 0.25 million barrel gap between what was offered and what was borrowed is marginal, underscoring how attractive the terms were to the trading community.