The U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday it has finalized contracts to purchase 2.73 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

The U.S. has contracts to purchase 930 million barrels (MB) from Exxon MobilXOM.N, 600 million MB from Phillips 66PSX.N, 600 MB from SunocoSUN.N and 600 MB from MacquarieMQG.AX. The contracts total $215,929,510, according a statement from the department.

The purchases are part of a plan to slowly replenish the SPR after a record drawdown last year to ease prices in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Caitlin Webber)