Slide 9 of 30
- The U.S. Government initiated the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in 1976.
- In 1977, the SPR fill rate began with imported crude oil. By 1994, the Reserve had reached its maximum storage of 592 million barrels.
- The SPR fill rate ended in 1994. As of 1997, the Reserve storage is at 563 million barrels of crude-about 63 days of net U.S. petroleum imports.
- The United States has held two public sales of crude oil from the Reserve in 1990/91 and 1996/97.
- The first public sale - 21 million barrels at the time of the Gulf war-was intended to stabilize the price of crude oil, which had risen to more than $33 per barrel. A second public sale of 28 million barrels occurred in 1996/97.
Source: Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 1997, DOE/EIA-0384(97). (Washington, DC, July 1998), Table 5.15.
