Status of Strategic Petroleum Reserve Activities

A request was made for an assessment of the Administration's activities to implement Title VIII of the Energy Security Act, which requires the President to: (1) resume filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) at an average rate of at least 100,000 barrels per day for fiscal year 1981 and succeeding years; and (2) amend, within 60 days of enactment, the Department of Energy's (DOE) crude oil entitlements program so that the Government, in effect, pays lower tier prices for SPR crude oil.

Since the effective date of the Act, the Administration has taken several steps to resume filling the SPR and to amend the entitlements program. The Economic Regulatory Administration (ERA) issued notice of a proposed amendment to the current mandatory petroleum allocation regulations which would authorize DOE to require certain refiners to provide oil for the SPR. The Defense Fuel Supply Center issued a solicitation for a competitive exchange of up to 100,000 barrels per day of Naval Petroleum Reserve (NPR) oil for an equal amount of oil delivered to the SPR. ERA issued the required amendment to the entitlements program effective August 29, 1980. DOE reached an agreement with a refining company to deliver up to 750,000 barrels of oil to the SPR in exchange for releasing the company from its current contract to buy NPR oil.