The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday announced it has awarded BP Products North America and Noble Americas contracts to deliver nearly 4.2 million barrels of crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to replenish oil it sold last year. The DOE will buy 2.2 million barrels of sweet crude oil from BP Products and 2 million barrels of crude from Noble Americas to replenish the country’s SPR to replace oil it sold in a test sale last March. The DOE astonished oil markets with that test sale of 5 million barrels, which some observers saw as a subtle message to Russia after its aggression in Ukraine. The DOE used the $239.2 million in funds it raised in last year’s sale for the new contracts. Deliveries are expected to be completed by July 31.