Energy Department to loan out million of barrels of oil from reserves to help bring down oil prices

The Trump administration announced Monday it would loan out 53.3 million barrels of oil from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to energy companies – an attempt to bring down skyrocketing oil prices as a result of the U.S. war with Iran. 

In March, the U.S. agreed to release 172 million barrels from the SPR as part of an internationally coordinated release of 400 million barrels in a similar attempt to lower the high oil prices that have been passed along to consumers in the forms of high gas prices and home heating costs. 

Nine companies, including Exxon and Marathon Petroleum Company borrowed 58% of the 92.5 million barrels of the 92.5 million barrels the Department of Energy had offered to loan out of the nation's stockpiles, Reuters reported. 

Oil exchanges, as they are called, allow the DOE to loan out oil to companies who later pay back to the oil with extra barrels, which functions like interest on a loan. 

Of the 172 million barrels of oil slated for release from the SPR, the DOE had previously loaned out 80 million barrels. The U.S. petroleum stockpiles are stored in 62 salt caverns located at four sites on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. These caverns are 200 feet wide and over 2,500 feet deep in the ground.

As of May 1, the SPR held 392,700,000 barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.