Status of Strategic Petroleum Reserve Activities as of September 30, 1982

This is the second in a series of reports that GAO was requested to provide on the administration's progress in filling the Department of Energy's (DOE) Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and its compliance with applicable energy laws.

DOE reported that the SPR contained about 277.9 million barrels of oil as of September 30, 1982. During fiscal year (FY) 1982, about 78.6 million barrels were delivered to the SPR, for an average fill rate of 215,300 barrels per day, and contracts have been awarded for 8.21 million barrels of oil, or about 22,500 barrels per day, to be delivered in FY 1983. DOE has also signed an agreement for deliveries of Isthmus crude oil throughout FY 1983. DOE expects that, if the President's FY 1983 SPR budget request is enacted, the funding will allow about 80.3 million barrels of oil to be delivered and stored during FY 1983. The DOE purchasing agent was instructed to suspend spot market oil purchases on August 17, 1982, because oil deliveries already arranged are expected to be adequate to fill near-term available permanent storage capacity. DOE has used about two-thirds of the SPR funds available at the beginning of 1982 for oil deliveries through September 30, 1982, and for the new contract. DOE also has obligated some of the SPR funds for deliveries during FY 1983. About $1.1 billion remains to pay for deliveries in the last quarter of FY 1982 and for future oil purchases.