Strategic Petroleum Reserve: Preliminary Observations on the Emergency Oil Stockpile

Over 4 decades ago, Congress authorized the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)—the world’s largest government-owned stockpile of emergency oil—to release oil to the market during supply disruptions and protect the U.S. economy from damage. The SPR is managed by the Department of Energy (DOE). According to DOE’s strategic plan, the SPR benefits the nation by providing an insurance policy against actual and potential interruptions in U.S. petroleum supplies caused by international turmoil and hurricanes, among other things. The SPR also helps the United States meet its obligations, including to holding reserves of oil or refined petroleum products equaling 90 days of net petroleum imports, as one of 29 members of the International Energy Agency (IEA)—an international energy forum established to help members respond to major oil supply disruptions. The SPR held almost 674 million barrels of oil at the end of September 2017. This testimony by Frank Rusco, Director, Natural Resources and Environment, primarily focuses on preliminary observations from ongoing work on (1) DOE’s use of the SPR in response to domestic petroleum supply disruptions, (2) the extent to which the SPR is able to respond to domestic petroleum supply disruptions, and (3) how other IEA members structure their strategic reserves and extent to which DOE has examined these structures. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed past work from August 2006 through September 2014 and DOE and IEA documentation. GAO also interviewed DOE and IEA officials, as part of GAO’s ongoing work. GAO is not making recommendations but will consider making them, as appropriate, as it finalizes its work.

• Record URL:
  http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/688104.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/688103.pdf
• Corporate Authors:

  U.S. Government Accountability Office

  441 G Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20548
• Authors:
  • Rusco, Frank
• Publication Date: 2017-11-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 26p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Disaster preparedness; Petroleum; Service disruption; Stockpiling; Strategic planning
• Identifier Terms: International Energy Agency; Strategic Petroleum Reserve; U.S. Department of Energy
• Subject Areas: Energy; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01650850
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: GAO-18-209T
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 15 2017 11:34AM