DOE TO DEGASIFY 200 MILLION BBL OF SPR CRUDE

The U.S. Department of Energy plans to pump out more than one third -200 million bbl-of the oil stored in its Strategic Petroleum Reserve and degasify. it. Natural gas has penetrated some of the salt dome storage caverns at Bayou Choctaw and West Hackberry in Louisiana and most of the caverns at Big Hill and Bryan Mound in Texas. During many years, gas in surrounding salt formations has slowly intruded in the storage caverns and dissolved in the crude. The oil was gas free when it was stored