How America Plans to Refill Its Emergency Oil Stockpile Using Venezuelan Crude

The Trump administration is exploring a workaround to America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve problem: swapping heavy Venezuelan crude for U.S. medium sour barrels that can actually go straight into SPR caverns. According to Reuters, the Department of Energy is considering moving Venezuelan heavy crude into commercial storage at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, while U.S. producers deliver medium sour crude into the SPR in exchange. It’s a crude-for-crude swap designed to solve a very practical issue that Washington rarely likes to admit…