Strategic Petroleum Reserve (United States)
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is an emergency fuel storage of petroleum maintained underground in Louisiana and Texas by the United States Department of Energy. It is the largest emergency supply in the world, with the capacity to hold up to 727 million barrels (115,600,000 m3). The United States started the petroleum reserve in 1975 after oil supplies were interrupted during the 1973–1974 oil embargo, to mitigate future temporary supply disruptions.
The current inventory is displayed on the SPR's website. As of September 2, 2016[update], the inventory was 695.1 million barrels (110,510,000 m3). This equates to about 38 days of oil at 2013 daily US consumption levels of 18.49 million barrels per day (2,940,000 m3/d) or 71 days of oil at 2013 daily US import levels of 9.859 million barrels per day (1,567,500 m3/d). However, the maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 4.4 million barrels per day (700,000 m3/d), so it would take over 158 days to use the entire inventory. At recent market prices ($69 a barrel as of December 2014), the SPR holds over $18.0 billion in sweet crude and approximately $25.5 billion in sour crude (assuming a $15/barrel discount for sulfur content). The total value of the crude in the SPR is approximately $43.5 billion. The price paid for the oil is $20.1 billion (an average of $28.42 per barrel).
Purchases of crude oil resumed in January 2009 using revenues available from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina emergency sale. The DOE purchased 10.7 million barrels (1,700,000 m3) at a cost of $553 million.
The SPR management office is located in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The reserve is stored at four sites on the Gulf of Mexico, each located near a major center of petrochemical refining and processing. Each site contains a number of artificial caverns created in salt domes below the surface.
...
Wikipedia