WASHINGTON - The U.S. Energy Department bought 3.2 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it said on Friday, as the Biden administration slowly replenishes it after sales last year pushed the reserve to the lowest since 1983.

The Biden administration will announce on July 7 another solicitation to buy an unspecified amount of oil for the reserve to be delivered in October and November, the department said.

The administration has bought 6 million barrels for the reserve this year after selling a record 180 million barrels to fight high oil prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. It hopes to buy at least 12 million in total this year for the reserve.

The SPR currently has about 348.6 million barrels in heavily guarded caverns at four sites on the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

The administration has said it would buy oil for the reserve at $72 per barrel or less. Benchmark U.S. crude futures settled on Friday up about 1.1% at $70.64 a barrel, but oil prices fell for the fourth straight quarter as investors worried that the sluggish global economy would squeeze fuel demand. The Energy Department announced the solicitation on June 9 for the purchase completed on Friday. It said the purchase price averaged $71.98 per barrel, lower than the average of about $95 per barrel it was sold for last year.

The companies selling more than $230 million in oil to the SPR this time were:

Atlantic Trading & Marketing – 500,000 barrels

Macquarie Commodities Trading US LLC – 1.5 million barrels

Shell Trading (US) Company – 600,000 barrels

Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals LP – 600,000 barrels.

The 3.2 million barrels of oil will be delivered to the Big Hill, Texas site in September.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pushed to create the SPR in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Cynthia Osterman)