Strategic Petroleum Reserve Oil Supply And Construction Problems

Contents: (1) History of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR): Establishment of the SPR; (2) The Drawdown Authorities: Proposals in the 111th Congress to Amend the Authorities; (3) Acquisition of Crude Oil for the SPR: Resumption of Fill (2009); Royalty-in-Kind Acquisition; (4) When Should the SPR Be Used?: The Debate Over the Years; Use of the SPR in the Persian Gulf War (1990); Hurricanes and Changes in the Market Dynamics (2005-2008); The Call for an SPR Drawdown: Summer 2008; (5) Establishment of a Regional Home Heating Oil Reserve.

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) plan for selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to analyze: (1) the plan's potential effects on world oil prices; (2) the issues affecting who would get SPR oil under this plan; and (3) how the plan compares with alternative sales mechanisms. GAO found that the plan's market approach would probably limit oil price increases in a severe supply disruption and allow broad participation in the sale. However, there were potential problems identified with oil distribution under the plan. DOE, in taking a market approach to the distribution, plans to award SPR sales contracts to the highest bidders who would be considered eligible buyers. This would allow any foreign country to buy the oil and does not limit the amount that a single buyer could purchase at a given sale. GAO also examined alternative sales methods of interest to Congress, including: (1) the continuous sale of options to buy SPR oil in advance of an oil emergency; and (2) allocation of SPR oil at government-set prices. Most industry representatives opposed the sale of SPR options because of their concerns about the length of time during which options could be exercised and who should be eligible to buy the options. GAO found that uncompetitive allocation of SPR oil would entail administrative difficulties that would undermine its intended benefits since it would be difficult to develop criteria for fair distribution.

The possibility of storing refined petroleum products as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has been contemplated since the SPR was created in 1975. The SPR, which currently holds about 700 million barrels of crude oil, was created to help insulate the U.S. economy from oil supply disruptions. However, the SPR does not contain refined products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, or jet fuel. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed the Dept. of Energy to increase the SPR's capacity from 727 million barrels to 1 billion barrels. This testimony discusses (1) some of the arguments for and against including refined products in the SPR; and (2) lessons learned from the management of the existing crude oil SPR that may be applicable to refined products. Illus.