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Valero’s (NYSE:VLO) trading division was the largest buyer of crude oil in the second sale from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve that was part of the Biden administration’s attempt to combat rising energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Department of Energy said Thursday it awarded 12 contracts for 30M barrels of oil from the SPR that were marked for May-July delivery, and it plans to offer another 40M barrels of SPR crude May 24 for delivery in June and July.
In addition to the 6.85M barrels awarded to Valero, other successful bidders included 4.05M barrels to Motiva Enterprises, 3.6M to Exxon Mobil (XOM), 2.75M to Shell (SHEL), 2.6M to Glencore (OTCPK:GLCNF) (OTCPK:GLNCY), 2.5M to Phillips 66 (PSX) and 2.4M to Marathon Petroleum (MPC).
Benchmark crude prices have stayed mostly above $100/bbl since the war in Ukraine started despite emergency stock releases by the U.S. and other countries.
Seeking Alpha head of quantitative strategies Steven Cress recently tapped Valero (VLO) as one of his top five S&P 500 stocks to buy now.
