WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd September, 2021) US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Thursday that she authorized the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to release 1.5 million barrels from its stockpile to help alleviate supply issues for crude oil in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
Granholm said she has authorized the SPR to conduct an exchange with ExxonMobil Baton Rouge, which is located in the US state of Louisiana where the hurricane struck, to resolve any logistical issues of moving crude oil within areas affected by the storm.
"The exchange involves a release of 1,500,000 barrels of crude oil to ExxonMobil," Granholm said in a statement.
Granholm explained the move was undertaken to ensure the Baton Rouge region has access to fuel as quickly as possible as the region continues its recovery.
Ida pummeled Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday before turning into a tropical storm. Prior to its landfall, some 95 percent of the crude and natural gas facilities on the Gulf of Mexico had been shuttered as a precaution.
About 80 percent of the oil production and 83 percent of the gas facilities remained shut mid-day Wednesday, the US Energy Department said. It also said that some 1.2 million power outages persisted in the United States as of 7:00 a.m. on Thursday in the aftermath of the storm.
