After a previous effort to buy millions of barrels for the emergency stockpile was cancelled over a lack of funding, the Trump administration plans to lease out space for energy companies to store oil in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The new plan could help the country deal with a growing glut of crude oil. As the pandemic cuts demand for fuel, the oil glut risks sending world energy prices deeper into a tailspin as well as overwhelming commercial storage tanks.
The plan is a change from the initial scheme. The previous plan was crude purchased using federal funds by the Department of Energy (DOE) from domestic drillers.
To help oil producers who suffer from the global oil price drop, the DOE on March 13 ordered by US President Donald Trump to fill the reserve “to the top”. Funds for the buys were not approved by the congress. The DOE was forced to cancel the proposal last week.
