U.S. Seeks Ways to Barter Surplus Food for Oil for Strategic Reserve

The government has agreed to seek ways of trading surplus U.S. farm commodities for crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Agriculture Secretary Richard E. Lyng said Thursday.

Lyng said a formal agreement has been worked out between the agriculture and energy departments as “a necessary first step toward implementing the barter provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985.”

The law directs the Agriculture Department to establish and carry out a pilot barter program for the acquisition of strategic or other materials in exchange for surplus grain and other products owned by the department’s Commodity Credit Corp.

“We have reviewed the goals for acquiring strategic and other materials for the national stockpile or other reserves and have determined that acquiring crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the most feasible option to fulfill the legislative requirement for barter” under the law, Lyng said.

The departments “reviewed and identified a group of countries that produce crude oil that meets the specifications” of the U.S. strategic stockpile in Louisiana and which are currently experiencing food and currency shortages, he said.

But department officials refused to identify the countries.