Washington (Platts)--2Aug2011/502 pm EDT/2102 GMT

US Customs and Border Protection has cleared 21 foreign-flagged oil tankers to pick up crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

One other buyer of stockpiled oil awaits a waiver to the Jones Act, a maritime law that prohibits foreign vessels from shipping cargo between US ports. Bidders in the SPR auction need the clearance because they said no available US-flagged tankers are large enough to carry lots of 500,000 barrels or more.

Customs spokeswoman Joanne Ferreira declined to name the companies that have applied, as did the Department of Energy.

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Fourteen successful bidders in the SPR auction opted to pick up a total of 25 million barrels by ship, or about 82% of the 30.64 million barrels put up for sale. Each could submit multiple waiver requests, as they have to clear each tanker they plan to use.

Another 5.5 million barrels will flow into pipelines, and the remaining 150,000 barrels will leave the storage salt caverns by barge.

Of the crude destined for tankers, according to DOE, 4 million barrels will be picked up by Vitol, 3.05 million barrels by Valero Energy, 3 million barrels by Shell, 2.1 million barrels by ConocoPhillips, 2.08 million barrels by Plains Marketing, 2 million barrels by Hess, 2 million barrels by Marathon Petroleum, 1.5 million barrels by JP Morgan, 1.4 million barrels by Sunoco, 1.2 million barrels by Tesoro, 1.1 million barrels by Trafigura, 580,000 barrels by ExxonMobil, 500,000 barrels by Murphy Oil, and 500,000 barrels by BP.

The third-ever presidentially directed SPR release is part of a coordinated move by the International Energy Agency to tap global reserves to make up for shortfalls in Libyan supplies caused by the civil war in the North African country. The US contributed about half of IEA's release of 60 million barrels.

--Meghan Gordon, meghan_gordon@platts.com