By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 13 -- US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman reported June 10 that the planned fill of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) will be complete in August, when the SPR reaches 700 million bbl of oil.
US President George W. Bush directed the fill in November 2001, as a means to strengthen the nation's energy security in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US.
DOE has continuously added oil to the SPR except when deliveries were deferred due to an oil workers strike in Venezuela from December 2002 to April 2003 and when DOE made a series of small loans to refiners after supply was physically disrupted by Hurricane Ivan late in 2004.
SPR inventory stands at about 694 million bbl. Remaining deliveries under current contracts are planned for June, July, and August.