WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government Wednesday announced that it has issued the second of several solicitations planned to purchase up to 4 million barrels of crude oil for the country's crude oil reserve.

    The first solicitation, issued March 16, 2007, resulted in no awards because the Office of Fossil Energy determined that the bids were too high and not a reasonable value for taxpayers.

    This series of solicitations for the purchase of crude oil are planned to replace the 11 million barrels of oil sold after Hurricane Katrina.

    The Strategic Petroleum Reserve will use the proceeds from the emergency sale for the direct purchases, said a statement released by the department of energy.

    The solicitation requests offers for up to 4 million barrels in the following quantities: 2 million barrels of sweet crude to be delivered to the West Hackberry, Louisiana site, and/or 2 million barrels of sour crude to the delivered to the Bryan Mound, Texas site.

    Bids are due by May 1, 2007, and an announcement on contract awards will be made within one week. The delivery period for the crude oil is June 1-30, 2007.

    The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has a capacity of 727 million barrels and currently holds 689 million barrels in inventory. Contract awards made as a result of this solicitation will be the first direct purchase of crude oil for the Reserve since 1994. ¡¡