US SPR slated for January sales
The US was expected to sell off some of its Strategic Petroleum Reserves this year to lower its holdings and early 2017 was slated. Apparently the DOE has announced that some 8m barrels will be sold this month with bids being accepted until Jan 17th.
Oil will be sold from three locations;
3m Bryan Mound
3m Big Hill
2m West Hackberry
The overall plan is to sell off reserves to help pay for the upkeep and renovation of SPR storage, a lot of which experts have said has come to the end of its shelf life.
While the news that the US is going to sell off some reserves is not news, it's possible that now there's some dates touted, the wider market might be thinking that more oil is coming to market, and thus we're seeing prices falling.