US considers swapping heavy Venezuelan crude oil for U.S. Medium Crude to fill emergency reserves, sources say

The U.S. Energy Department is exploring the possibility of exchanging heavy Venezuelan crude oil for U.S. Two sources told Reuters on Friday that medium-sour crude oil would be used to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The Trump administration wants to ship the Venezuelan crude?to refineries from the Louisiana Offshore Oil?Port. Two sources claim that companies will exchange Venezuelan crude for U.S. medium sour crude which can be 'directly' stored in SPR storage.

In the past, the government has used exchanges to acquire and release oil. In an exchange, the oil refiner will borrow a certain amount of?SPR oil due to unforeseen events, such as hurricanes or supply disruptions. They then replace it with an equal quantity of oil and a premium.

The Department of Energy did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Reporting by Arathy?Somasekhar, Jonathan Saul, Erin Banco, and Timothy Gardner, Washington D.C.

(source: Reuters)