The US Department of Energy is preparing to start purchasing crude oil to partially refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after it sold 180mn bl last year in response to the war in Ukraine. "We would like to start buying within the next year, depending on the window of opportunity," said Christopher Roark, senior crude oil marketing analyst at the US Department of Energy, speaking at a meeting of the Crude Oil Quality Association. Even though the US government is "not the fastest at things," the department could "react quickly to the market" through a competitive solicitation process to buy oil, Roark ... (full story)