Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
coast. So IEA members agreed to draw on their stocks to put some 2m b/d
on the market - not only of crude oil but also refined products.
The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve
As the world's biggest oil importer - roughly 12m barrels a day - the US
holds the biggest publicly-owned emergency stock of any IEA member. It
holds more then seven hundred million barrels in four underground salt
caverns along the Gulf coast (two in Louisiana and two in Texas) and has
voted legislation to bring this up to one billion barrels. In addition, US oil
companies hold an almost equally large amount as part of their commercial
stocks.
A technician at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve inspects a crude-oil transfer
pipe. These are in some ways America's most important pipelines: the fall-back
in a real crisis.
