{
  "id": "RL31972",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL31972",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 101651,
      "date": "2003-06-23",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-08T14:42:53.828544",
      "title": "Private Crude Oil Stocks and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Debate",
      "summary": "Periodically, since the inception of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in 1975, debate has\noccurred concerning its optimal size. In the 108th Congress, the House has passed energy legislation\n( H.R. 6 ) which would require the SPR to be filled to its current capacity of\napproximately 700 million barrels and would authorize funds to further expand the capacity of the\nreserve to 1 billion barrels.\n  Analysis of the SPR issue has been carried out in a benefit/cost framework in which benefits,\nthe avoided cost to the national economy of a supply disruption, are set against the real resource\ncosts associated with investing in the SPR. The role of the privately held stock of crude oil has been\nlargely static in these analyses. The data show, however, that private stock behavior has been\nchanging. Industry holds less crude oil, and has less capacity to hold crude oil, than a decade ago.\nThese changes reflect a decade long strategy of reducing operating costs to remain competitive.\nHowever, oil markets face greater exposure to supply disruption today because our dependence on\nimported crude oil has risen substantially since 1992. The effectiveness of the SPR in providing\nsecurity from crude oil supply disruptions may be primarily a function of its size, but may also be\ndependent on the underlying stocks of crude oil held by the private sector.\n  The International Energy Agency (IEA) has studied the behavior of crude oil stocks in the U.S.\nsince 1989. It finds that our total stocks, measured as days of net imports that can be replaced by\nstock draw-down, have been declining. This trend results from the interaction of increasing import\ndependency, the essentially constant size of the SPR over the period, and the declining size of\nprivately held stocks. The IEA concludes that with no change in any of these factors, the U.S. will\nno longer be able to replace ninety days of net imports from domestic stocks in 2006. \n  Because the IEA focuses on total reserves, its analysis may overstate the ability of U.S. stocks\nto mitigate oil supply disruptions. This is because not all privately held oil stocks can be drawn upon\nwithout disrupting the functioning of the system itself. Once these lower operational inventory levels\nare considered, the thinness of privately held stocks is apparent. As a result, the ability of privately\nheld stocks to provide a buffer to supply disruptions is reduced.\n  This report will be updated as events warrant.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Energy Policy"
  ]
}