Book Description

This is the sixth in a series of status reports requested by members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the administration's activities to implement title VIII of the Energy Security Act. (See enc. II for the July 23, 1980, letter requesting these reviews.) Title VIII requires the President to resume filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) at an average rate of at least 100,000 barrels per day for fiscal year 1981 and succeeding years. Our most recent report on the status of SPR fill activities (EMD-81-85, May 4, 1981) noted that, since passage of the Energy Security Act, the Government had issued contracts for about 75 million barrels of oil to be delivered to the SPR during fiscal year 1981. This is equivalent to an average fill rate of about 205,000 barrels per day for the entire fiscal year. However, on April 24, 1981, the Department of Energy (DOE) postponed purchases of additional oil for the SPR for about 30 days because it hoped to take advantage of expected decreases in crude oil prices during the period.