WASHINGTON The U.S. plans to buy 1.2 million barrels of oil to help replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after it sold off the largest amount ever last year, the Energy Department said on Monday.

The department said the planned purchase for the oil is at an average price of $77.57 a barrel from two companies after 18 bids were submitted.

The administration of President Joe Biden last year conducted the largest ever sale from the SPR of 180 million barrels, part of a strategy to stabilize soaring oil markets and combat high pump prices in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

(This story has been corrected to fix the Energy Department statement to say that the U.S. plans to buy 1.2 million barrels of oil for SPR, not has awarded contracts to buy the oil, in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Sandra Maler)