SPR REACHES CAPACITY TARGET

The Department of Energy has reached the national goal, set in 1978, of creating 750 million bbl of storage space for the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Currently 570 million bbl of oil are in storage at six SPR sites in Texas and Louisiana. Congress last year enacted a bill requiring DOE to expand the SPR to 1 billion bbl. DOE is studying four salt domes in Louisiana and four in Texas to determine the best candidates for the added storage. It expects to select sites in September 1992.

Sept. 16, 1991

2 min read

The Department of Energy has reached the national goal, set in 1978, of creating 750 million bbl of storage space for the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Currently 570 million bbl of oil are in storage at six SPR sites in Texas and Louisiana.

Congress last year enacted a bill requiring DOE to expand the SPR to 1 billion bbl. DOE is studying four salt domes in Louisiana and four in Texas to determine the best candidates for the added storage. It expects to select sites in September 1992.

DOE reached the 750 million bbl target with completion of the final storage caverns at the Big Hill site near Winnie, Tex. Development of the 14 cavern site began in October 1987. Big Hill now holds 16 million bbl of oil.

Each of the 11.5 million bbl caverns at Big Hill is 200 ft wide and about 200 ft tall.

DOE created the caverns by injecting water into salt domes to dissolve the salt. Creation of the Big Hill caverns required continuous pumping of water for nearly 2-1/2 years.

DOE recently enlarged a cavern at its Bayou Choctaw site near Baton Rouge to 17 million bbl from 11 million bbl, boosting capacity at that site to 72 million bbl. Bayou Choctaw currently holds 47 million bbl.