What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, also called the SPR or strategic oil reserve? This reserve is an emergency supply of oil that the government has purchased, as an inventory to guarantee adequate oil during times when supply is disrupted. The strategic oil reserve holds more than seven hundred million barrels of crude oil, and is the largest emergency stockpile of crude oil in the world. Where does the federal government store all of these barrels though? The oil stocks which are part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve are stored along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, in salt caverns which are deep underground and are enormous in size. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act authorizes the President of the United States to withdraw crude oil from the inventory of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been used very rarely since the reserve was created. Only twice has oil been withdrawn from the reserve on the decision of the president due to an emergency. Oil was released and sold from the strategic oil reserve in 1991, when Operation Desert Storm was happening and oil supplies dropped. President George H.W. Bush released thirty four million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This worked, and oil prices dropped significantly and stayed stable through the rest of the operation and war in Kuwait. The only other time that oil has been withdrawn from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve based on an executive decision in response to an emergency was when Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the American. The hurricane damaged some of the offshore drilling rigs and the infrastructure of some oil supply plants. This included pipelines, refineries, terminals, and production facilities, many of which are located on the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven million barrels of oil were sold from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on the order of President George W. Bush, and this stabilized the market and caused gas and oil prices to lower.