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US Offers 40M-Barrel Oil Loan From Reserve as Prices Climb

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Washington will lend energy firms 40 million barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve as the Ukraine and Iran conflicts push oil prices higher.

The United States said on Tuesday it would lend energy companies 40 million barrels of crude from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a step aimed at easing prices driven higher by the wars in Ukraine and the unresolved standoff with Iran.

The offer completes a plan set out earlier in the year. In March, Washington pledged to release 172 million barrels from the reserve as its share of a coordinated effort by around 30 International Energy Agency members to put 400 million barrels onto the market. The Trump administration made the last 40 million barrels available in June. By the end of that month, though, officials revealed that companies had taken up only about 500,000 barrels.

The latest move lands as the fighting between Russia and Ukraine intensifies and as the American confrontation with Iran remains without a clear outcome. Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russian energy sites to choke off the revenue funding Moscow's campaign. On Sunday night, Ukrainian forces hit oil installations in Russia's Krasnodar region.

"We are consistently using our long-range capabilities to respond to Russian strikes," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, urging Moscow to halt its escalation.

India squeezed by falling Russian supply

The pressure is being felt in India. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Indian refiners anticipate further drops in Russian crude deliveries through October and November. With Russian shipments thinning and Chinese buyers competing hard, Indian processors are turning to more expensive substitutes for the remainder of the year.

"Demand from China has been really high. They were willing to book cargoes in advance and to pay firmer prices compared to Indian refiners," said a source involved in selling Russian crude.

Analytics firm Kpler projects that Russian crude reaching India will slide to roughly 1.75 million barrels per day in September, the weakest showing since April. Trade figures already recorded a 16.5 per cent fall between July and August, when arrivals settled near 2.1 million bpd. Even so, Russia held its position as India's top supplier, ahead of the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Novorossiysk shipments cut in half

The broader pool of Russian exports has narrowed, with the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk hit hardest. Loadings there have roughly halved after repeated drone attacks forced shipments to a stop.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve, US oil loan, Russia-Ukraine war, Indian refiners Russian oil, Novorossiysk drone attacks, Kpler oil data, IEA oil release, China oil competition

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