Washington, D.C. - The U. S. Department of Energy announced today the award of contracts for delivery of crude oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. BP Products North America, Inc., will deliver 2,197,500 barrels and Noble Americas will deliver 2,000,000 barrels to the Reserve’s Bryan Mound site in Freeport, Texas. Deliveries are expected to be completed by July 31, 2015.

The awards are repurchasing crude oil sold during a 2014 test sale, using $239.2 million funds from the sale. The Department is required by law to buy back petroleum products within one year of completion of a test sale to the extent funds are available from the sale. Funding from the test sale was also used to establish the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve in 2014.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the largest stockpile of government-owned emergency crude oil in the world. Established in the aftermath of the 1973-74 oil embargo, the Reserve provides the President with a powerful response option should a disruption in commercial oil supplies threaten the U.S. economy. It also allows the U.S. to meet its International Energy Agency obligation to maintain emergency oil stocks, and it provides a national defense fuel reserve.

Presently, the Reserve holds 691 million barrels of crude oil in four storage locations in Louisiana and along the Texas Gulf Coast.