What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)?
The SPR is a federally-owned stockpile of crude oil maintained as a hedge against disruptions in the oil market. Congress mandated its creation in 1975 in response to the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. The reserve is located in salt caverns along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Currently, the SPR contains close to 700 million barrels of oil, or enough for between one and two months at current consumption rates. However, Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized expansion of the reserve to its full capacity, 1 billion barrels of oil, and the Department of Energy initiated the proceedings necessary to select additional sites earlier this year. In the event of an energy emergency, the President is authorized to withdraw crude oil and sell it in a competitive bidding process. This has happened twice since the construction of the facility, once during the Gulf War in 1991 and again in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In addition, the Secretary of Energy announced that oil from the SPR would be
