US refiners hedge on taking SPR crude loans

摘要

New York-There were signs Sep 7 refiner interest could be drying up for more emergency crude from the US stockpile.The Department of Energy awarded loans ast week of up to 12.6-mil bbl to several refiners in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the agency is conducting a separate sale of 30-mil bbl this week(ON 9/7).Both Marathon and BP,awarded loans of up to 1.5-mil bbl and 2-mil bbl,respectively,have said they may not take their full amounts.And the DOE said Sep 7 ExxonMobil,which was awarded loans of up to 6-mil bbl,had only taken 610,000 bbl so far and additional shipments were "not yet scheduled."