Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: THE Trump administration said on May 11 that it will loan energy companies 53.3 million barrels of crude from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as part of a global agreement to calm oil markets that have spiked on the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Nine companies, including Exxon Mobil, Trafigura, and Marathon Petroleum Company, borrowed only about 58 per cent of the 92.5 million barrels the Department of Energy (DOE) last month had offered to loan from the SPR.
The DOE this spring had already loaned about 80 million barrels from the SPR as it seeks to release a total of 172 million barrels.
Oil and fuel prices have been pushed higher by Iran’s shutting of the Strait of Hormuz, a choke-point through which about 20 per cent of the world’s oil usually passed each day.
Fatih Birol, the IEA’s head, has said the war has created the biggest-ever energy crisis. If supply disruptions from the war continue, the IEA is ready to release additional oil from strategic reserves, Birol said on May 7.
