The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said Wednesday that it would release 5 million barrels of crude oil from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as part of a test drawdown.

"Due to the recent dramatic increase in domestic crude oil production, significant changes in the system have occurred," said the Energy Department spokesman Bill Gibbons. "In order to appropriately assess the system's capabilities in the event of a disruption, today the Department of Energy authorized a test drawdown and sale of up to 5 million barrels of sour crude oil."

Analysts said the timing of the announcement may send a signal to bring down oil prices and put pressure on Russia, several days ahead of a controversial referendum in Ukraine's Crimea region.

However, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that the move was "a test for operation reasons" and wasn't related to Russia. "This action was taken consistent with the requirements by law of the DOE to evaluate the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and its drawdown capacity," Carney said.

With a capacity of 727 million barrels of oil, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the largest stockpile of government- owned emergency crude oil in the world.

The last time the U.S. released oil from the reserve was in 2011 when the Energy Department sold 30 million barrels of oil, in response to crude oil shortages caused by turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Libya. Endite

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