Exxon and Others Say U.S. Government Sold Toxic Crude Oil
- Energy Department paid $1 million to clean one oil cargo
- Exxon, Shell, Macquarie and Petrochina all complained to DOE
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
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Exxon Mobil Corp. is the latest company to raise concerns that a stockpile of U.S. government crude is tainted with poisonous gas.
The American energy giant said some of the oil it purchased last year from the Energy Department’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, contained "extremely high levels" of hydrogen sulfide, according to emails obtained by Bloomberg under the Freedom of Information Act. In some cases, the gas level was 250 times higher than government safety standards allow.