Nine companies rent 23 million barrels worth of space in U.S. emergency oil reserve: official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nine companies including Chevron , Exxon and Alon USA have agreed to rent space to store 23 million barrels of crude in the U.S. emergency oil reserve, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, as the Trump administration attempts to help energy firms deal with the crash in oil prices.

The Energy Department is renting space to companies in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, after the U.S. Congress declined to fund an initial order by President Donald Trump to purchase oil for the facility.

The other companies leasing space in the reserve are Atlantic Trading, Energy Transfer, Equinor Marketing & Trading (US) Inc, Mercuria Energy America, MVP Holdings, LLC and Vitol, Inc.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Sandra Maler)