![]() Although expansion activity appears to have been set aside, the FY2010 budget enacted in the FY2010 Energy and Water Appropriations Act (P.L. ![]() A site in Richton, MS, has been evaluated as a possible location for an additional 160 million barrels of capacity. Congress approved $205 million for FY2009, including $31.5 million to continue expansion activities. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT) required expansion of the SPR to its authorized maximum of 1 billion barrels. The government has not purchased oil for the SPR since 1994. These activities have brought the SPR essentially to capacity. In May 2009, RIK fill was resumed at an average volume of 26,000 barrels per day, totaling over 6.1 million barrels to be delivered by January 2010. On January 2, 2009, the Bush Administration announced plans that included the purchase of nearly 10.7 million barrels for the SPR to replace oil that was sold after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. However, the sharp decline in crude oil prices since spiking to $147/barrel in the summer of 2008 brought about a resumption of fill of the SPR. 110-232) ordering DOE to suspend RIK fill for the balance of the calendar year unless the price of crude oil dropped below $75/barrel. In May 2008, Congress passed legislation (P.L. This language is a significant departure from existing authorities which predicate drawdown disruptions in supply, and discourages use of the SPR to address high prices, per se.īeginning in 2000, additions to the SPR were made with royalty-in-kind (RIK) oil acquired by the Department of Energy in lieu of cash royalties paid on production from federal offshore leases. ![]() 1462), reported in the Senate, would require that the SPR include 30 million barrels of refined product would transfer authority for a drawdown from the President to the Secretary of Energy and would amend the drawdown authority to permit drawdown and sale in the event of a “severe energy market supply interruption” that has caused, or is expected to cause, “a severe increase” in prices. ![]() However, the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009 (S. EPCA intended use of the SPR only to ameliorate discernible physical shortages of crude oil. The meaning of a “severe energy supply interruption” has been controversial. 101-383), to permit use of the SPR for short periods to resolve supply interruptions stemming from situations internal to the United States. EPCA authorized drawdown of the Reserve upon a finding by the President that there is a “severe energy supply interruption.” Congress enacted additional authority in 1990 (Energy Policy and Conservation Act Amendments of 1990, P.L. The SPR comprises five underground storage facilities, hollowed out from naturally occurring salt domes in Texas and Louisiana. ![]() In addition, a Northeast Heating Oil Reserve (NHOR) holds 2 million barrels of heating oil in above-ground storage. The capacity of the SPR is 727 million barrels, and by the end of 2009, was virtually filled to its capacity at 726 million barrels of crude oil. The program is managed by the Department of Energy (DOE). 94-163) to help prevent a repetition of the economic dislocation caused by the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo. Congress authorized the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA, P.L. ![]()
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