The US Department of Energy said it had loaned 8.48 million ‌barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to four oil companies, the second allotment under the Trump administration's effort to curb fuel prices that have surged during the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The companies that have been awarded SPR loans are Gunvor USA, Phillips 66 Company, Trafigura Trading and Macquarie Commodities Trading, the DOE said, reorted (Reuters. ⁠

The US had offered on April 1 to loan up to 10 million barrels in the second batch.

Ultimately, the US aims to lend 172 million barrels from the SPR for delivery throughout this year and into 2027.

It is part of a wider agreement with 32 countries in the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels.

The release of crude from emergency reserves is meant to control oil prices that have surged during the war, which the IEA said has led to the biggest oil disruption in history.

In the first batch ‌from ⁠the US SPR, energy companies last month only took 45.2 million barrels, or about 52 per cent of what the DOE offered.

The DOE offered a third batch of 30 million barrels of sweet, or low-sulfur, crude from the SPR's West Hackberry site in Louisiana. The SPR is held underground in four ⁠locations off the coasts of that state and Texas. Bids for that batch are due on Monday (April 13).

Oil from the SPR is being released in loans that companies will return with extra barrels as a ⁠premium, a system the DOE says will help stabilise markets "at no cost to American taxpayers."

The SPR currently holds about 413.3 million barrels, or more than what the entire world ⁠uses in four days. 

That is the lowest level since the mid-1980s, but since then the US has become the world's top oil producer.