A Brief History
On December 22, 1975, President Gerald Ford ordered a national stockpile of oil, or petroleum if you prefer, be created in underground storage located in Texas and Louisiana. The stockpile would consist of as many as 714 million barrels of oil and would be there if a national crisis mandated its use.
Digging Deeper
During the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Arab and Muslim oil producing countries followed Saudi Arabia’s lead to embargo oil from nations aiding Israel, most notably the United States. International oil prices soared from an average of $3 per barrel to $12 per barrel by March of 1974 when the embargo was lifted.
Natural disasters and political disruptions such as wars and revolutions leave industrialized nations susceptible to economic disaster in the face of an oil shortage, something the Strategic Reserve is meant to mitigate. Today, there are 346 million barrels of oil in reserve, a number expected to decrease.
Question for students (and subscribers): Should the US replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Beaubouef, Bruce. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005. Texas A&M University Press, 2007.
US Government. 21st Century Complete Guide to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR): Crude Oil Analyses, Drawdown Plans, Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, Naval Elk Hill, Safety and Health. Progressive Management, 2005.
The featured image in this article, a map by the United States Department of Energy of Strategic Petroleum Reserves in the United States, is a work of a United States Department of Energy (or predecessor organization) employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
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