Six companies bought 14 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a sale required by law to help fund medical research and the federal government, said the Department of Energy on Thursday to Reuters.
BP Oil Supply, Exxon Mobil Corp, Phillips 66, Shell Trading, Valero Marketing and Supply Company, and Macquarie Commodities Trading bought oil from the reserve, which is held in salt caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
The companies bought the oil at a range from $46.98 to $47.91 a barrel, slightly below the current futures price of about $49.70 per barrel, depending on which location the crude came from and whether it was sent by pipeline or directly to vessels, which could export the petroleum. For more details on the sale.
Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Diane Craft
