Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum are the biggest beneficiaries of the Biden administration’s releases from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve taking nearly half the crude offered, according to Reuters analysis published Wednesday, September 21.
Valer, the second largest US refiner by capacity, has snapped up 52.7M barrels, while top oil processor Marathon Petroleum has secured 45.2M barrels.
Other big buyers included ExxonMobil with 24.7M barrels, Motiva Enterprises with 22.1M barrels, Phillips 66 at 16M and Shell with 15.2M.
Some of the barrels were exported by Exxon, Phillips 66, TotalEnergies and Sinopec, according to US Customs, adding to the controversy surrounding the program.
Awards of 218M barrels over 12 months ended on September 30 and have helped lower energy prices, although AAA reported that US retail gasoline prices have increased for the first time after a 98-day streak of declines.
The releases have reduced the SPR to 427M barrels, the lowest level since 1984.
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