The U.S. government has begun a large-scale release of its strategic oil reserves, with the first batch of crude expected to enter the market by the end of this week.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Friday that it has issued a tender to release 86 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). This release is part of a broader plan, announced last week, to allocate a total of 172 million barrels from the SPR.
The crude oil will be drawn from three storage sites located in Texas and Louisiana. According to the DOE's tender, participating companies are required to return the borrowed oil to the SPR, along with an additional premium. The DOE said that this approach will both replenish the SPR and help stabilize the oil market.
The move comes after the DOE announced on Wednesday that it would release 172 million barrels over the next 120 days to counter rising oil prices triggered by U.S. and Israeli military actions against Iran. The U.S. government also said it plans to replenish about 200 million barrels of strategic reserves within the next year to ensure national energy security.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the SPR held 415.4 million barrels as of March 6.
U.S. to release strategic oil reserves, first batch this week
A total of 297.665 million inter-regional passenger trips nationwide were recorded on Saturday, the second day of the five-day May Day holiday this year, transport authorities said on Sunday.
The figure represents a 1.7 percent increase from the same day last year and a 11.8 percent decline from Friday, the first day of the break.
Railway passenger trips rose 1.2 percent from a year ago to 19.781 million, 20.4 percent down the previous day and up 1.2 percent year on year.
A total of 273.86 million road trips were reported on the day, an increase of 1.8 percent year on year, and 11.2 percent less from the previous day.
Among them, commercial passenger trips reached 39.40 million, an increase of 14.9 percent year on year, while non-commercial passenger trips reached 234.46 million, roughly the same as the previous year.
The waterways handled 2.096 million trips, marking a 1.3 percent decline year on year.
The civil aviation passenger trips stood at 1.928 million, down 11 percent from the previous year.
China's postal sector collected 474 million parcels, up 6.3 percent from the previous day, and delivered 493 million parcels, down 4.6 percent from the previous day.
The May Day holiday, running from May 1 to 5, is typically one of the busiest travel periods of the year. During this time, millions of Chinese passengers hit the road to visit family or go traveling.
Holiday Day 2 sees 297.665 mln passenger trips
