Strategic Petroleum Reserve (United States)
- This article refers to the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve. For other countries see global strategic petroleum reserves
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The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is an emergency fuel storage of oil maintained 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 m 3 ).
The current inventory is displayed on the SPR's website . As of December 21, 2012, the inventory was 694.9 million barrels (110,480,000 m 3 ). This equates to 36 days of oil at current daily US consumption levels of 19.5 million barrels per day (3,100,000 m 3 /d). [ 1 ] At recent market prices ($102 a barrel as of February 2012 [ 2 ] ) the SPR holds over $26.7 billion in sweet crude and approximately $37.7 billion in sour crude (assuming a $15/barrel discount for sulfur content). The total value of the crude in the SPR is approximately $64.5 billion. The price paid for the oil is $20.1 billion (an average of $28.42 per barrel). [ 3 ]
Purchases of crude oil resumed in January 2009 using revenues available from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina emergency sale. The DOE purchased 10,700,000 barrels (1,700,000 m 3 ) at a cost of $553 million. [ 4 ]
The United States started the petroleum reserve in 1975 after oil supplies were cut off during the 1973-74 oil embargo , to mitigate future temporary supply disruptions. According to the World Factbook , [ 5 ] the United States imports a net 12 million barrels (1,900,000 m 3 ) of oil a day (MMbd), so the SPR holds about a 58-day supply. However, the maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 4.4 million barrels (700,000 m 3 ) per day, so it would take over 160 days to utilize the entire inventory.
