Mar 29, 2001 - 04:23 PM

Energy Dept. Extends Repayment Deadline to Companies That Borrowed Government Crude The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday extended the repayment deadline for five companies that borrowed crude oil from the government reserve last September when the nation was faced with a tight heating oil supply. "Five of the nine companies that were awarded exchange contracts have requested later delivery dates for a total of 23.8 million barrels of oil and we have approved their requests," said DOE spokesman Drew Malcomb.

The DOE would not specifiy which companies had asked for the extensions, citing confidentiality agreements.

Under the terms of the extension, the five companies will deliver a total of 2.4 million additional barrels in interest payments. The new return dates are from December 2001 through January 2003.

Thirty million barrels were released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on Sept. 22. The total amount to be repaid is now 33.54 million barrels.

Four companies that borrowed 6.2 million barrels out of the 30 million barrels are scheduled to repay the oil as originally scheduled, between August and November of this year.

The companies awarded oil from the government's reserve were BP Oil Supply Co., Elf Trading Inc., Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Valero Marketing and Supply Co., Amerada Hess Corp., Vitol SA Inc., Equiva Trading Co. and Burhany Energy Enterprises Inc.

AP-ES-03-29-01 1623EST © Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001