The U.S. Department of Energy has purchased 1.5 MMbbl of sour crude in a tender seeking supply to refill the Bayou Choctaw SPR site in Louisiana.
Five companies submitted 19 proposals and the contracts were awarded to two companies. ExxonMobil was awarded 1 MMbbl and the rest went to Shell. The total purchase price was $111.5 million, which works out to an average of $74.31/bbl.
In addition, the DOE issued a solicitation for a total of 6 MMbbl of sour crude oil for delivery in Q1 2025 for its Bryan Mound SPR complex in Texas (see map below). This is a 4-MMbbl increase to the purchase tender that was issued August 6. Up until now, the DOE hadn’t been seeking supplies for this site because it had been undergoing extensive upgrades.
