WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday it had approved an exchange of 13.4 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to seven companies.

The companies are Shell Trading US, 4.2 million barrels; Trafigura Trading LLC, a unit of Farringford NV, 3 million barrels; Phillips 66, 2.3 million barrels; Macquarie Commodities Trading, 2 million barrels; Chevron USA , 0.885 million barrels; Exxon Mobil, 0.515 million barrels; and BP Products North America, 0.5 million barrels. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Leslie Adler)