ENERGY

U.S. Restarts Oil Purchases for Strategic Stockpile: The United States has bought foreign oil for its Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the first time since Iraq invaded Kuwait Aug. 2, 1990, the Department of Energy announced. The department arranged to buy 1 million barrels of North Sea crude through the Defense Fuel Supply Center at $19.78 a barrel, plus freight. Industry sources say the oil, due for loading between late May and late June, is from Norway’s Oseberg field. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, created in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo, contains 568.5 million barrels stored in salt caverns along the Gulf Coast.