Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, DC, Aug. 9 -- Six companies bought 97,265 b/d of royalty-in-kind (RIK) oil from the Gulf of Mexico in an unrestricted sale, the US Minerals Management Service reported.
Chevron Products Co., ExxonMobil Oil Corp., Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc., Sempra Energy Trading Co., Shell Trading Co., and Plains Marketing Co. received the 6-month contracts, with delivery scheduled to begin Oct. 1.
MMS said the sale included RIK oil previously exchanged to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to its 700 million bbl capacity. The service completed its last exchanges under the administration's SPR fill initiative in July, freeing a portion of the RIK oil for the unrestricted sale.
The sale also included oil from unrestricted lands off Louisiana, which joined MMS through a memorandum of understanding in a joint federal-state partnership, the federal agency said.
While 98,585 b/d of oil were offered in the sale, bids on a small portion were not accepted after MMS determined that it could achieve a better return by taking the royalties in value (as cash payments), it said.
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