The US Department of Energy announced that in February it intends to start buying crude oil to replenish its strategic reserves. It will be a very small amount for now, only 3 million barrels, but it is an important signal for the market. At the same time, however, the DoE indicated that due to the closure of the Keystone pipeline, it intends to make 2 million barrels available to refineries. Recall that this year the DoE sold 180 million barrels of reserves, which was the largest reduction in history.
OIL.WTI is trying to erase some of the recent losses. Early in the session price fell over 3%. Source: xStation5
