Strategic Petroleum Reserve: Department of Energy Working Against Constraints to Replenish Supply

The US Department of Energy is taking advantage of low oil prices and filling the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) “as much as we can” according to US Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk, who spoke with Bloomberg News on Monday.

The SPR is at its lowest level since the 1980s, currently holding around 350 million barrels. Physical constraints and maintenance at the network of artificial underground caverns created in salt domes along the US Gulf Coast have been limiting the amount the Energy Department can purchase to about 3 million barrels a month.

Mr. Turk said, “We hope we can bring more capacity online at these price levels to buy as much as we can to refill. We will buy back as much as we possibly can, but there are some physical constraints.”

The SPR, which is maintained by the Department of Energy and can hold more than 700 million barrels, was constructed in 1975 to mitigate energy supply disruptions. It is the largest publicly known emergency supply in the world.