SPR Levels Remain Low

Over the past week, multiple stories have appeared in the media with headline phrases like “The U.S. is refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserves.” However, this is misleading at best. To recap, the SPR is maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy, and its oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns at four sites along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. The size of the SPR (authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool in foreign policy. After…