US to loan 53.3 million barrels of oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The Trump administration said on Monday it will loan energy companies 53.3 million barrels of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a

global agreement to calm oil markets that have spiked on the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.



Nine companies, including Exxon Mobil, Trafigura, and Marathon Petroleum Company, borrowed only about 58%of the 92.5 million barrels the Department of Energy 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.



The U.S. agreed to that larger amount in March in a pact with more than 30 countries in the International Energy Agency to release about 400 million barrels. The agreement was an attempt to relieve oil and fuel prices pushed higher by Iran's shutting of the Strait of Hormuz, a choke-point through which about 20% of the world's oil usually passed each day.