§6234. Strategic Petroleum Reserve

(a) Establishment

(1) A Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the storage of up to 1 billion barrels of petroleum products shall be created pursuant to this part. By the end of the 3–year period which begins on December 22, 1975, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (or the Early Storage Reserve authorized by section 6235 of this title, if no Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan has become effective pursuant to the provisions of section 6239(a) of this title) shall contain not less than 150 million barrels of petroleum products.

(2) Beginning on October 24, 1992, the President shall take actions to enlarge the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1,000,000,000 barrels as rapidly as possible. Such actions may include-

(A) petroleum acquisition, transportation, and injection activities at the highest practicable fill rate achievable, subject to the availability of appropriated funds;

(B) contracting for petroleum product not owned by the United States as specified in part C of this subchapter;

(C) contracting for petroleum product for storage in facilities not owned by the United States, except that no such product may be stored in such facilities unless petroleum product stored in facilities owned by the United States on the date such product is delivered for storage is at least 750,000,000 barrels;

(D) carrying out the activities described in section 6240(h) of this title;

(E) the transferring of oil from the Naval Petroleum Reserve; and

(F) other activities specified in this subchapter.

(b) Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan

The Secretary, not later than December 15, 1976, shall prepare and transmit to the Congress, in accordance with section 6421 of this title, a Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan. Such Plan shall comply with the provisions of this section and shall detail the Secretary's proposals for designing, constructing, and filling the storage and related facilities of the Reserve.

(c) Levels of crude oil to be stored

(1) To the maximum extent practicable and except to the extent that any change in the storage schedule is justified pursuant to subsection (e)(6) of this section, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan shall provide that:

(A) within 7 years after December 22, 1975, the volume of crude oil stored in the Reserve shall equal the total volume of crude oil which was imported into the United States during the base period specified in paragraph (2);

(B) within 18 months after December 22, 1975, the volume of crude oil stored in the Reserve shall equal not less than 10 percent of the goal specified in subparagraph (A);

(C) within 3 years after December 22, 1975, the volume of crude oil stored in the Reserve shall equal not less than 25 percent of the goal specified in subparagraph (A); and

(D) within 5 years after December 22, 1975, the volume of crude oil stored in the Reserve shall equal not less than 65 percent of the goal specified in subparagraph (A).

Volumes of crude oil initially stored in the Early Storage Reserve and volumes of crude oil stored in the Industrial Petroleum Reserve, and the Regional Petroleum Reserve shall be credited toward attainment of the storage goals specified in this subsection.

(2) The base period shall be the period of the 3 consecutive months, during the 24–month period preceding December 22, 1975, in which average monthly import levels were the highest.

(d) Plan objectives

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan shall be designed to assure, to the maximum extent practicable, that the Reserve will minimize the impact of any interruption or reduction in imports of refined petroleum products and residual fuel oil in any region which the Secretary determines is, or is likely to become, dependent upon such imports for a substantial portion of the total energy requirements of such region. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan shall be designed to assure, to the maximum extent practicable, that each noncontiguous area of the United States which does not have overland access to domestic crude oil production has its component of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve within its respective territory.

(e) Plan provisions

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan shall include:

(1) a comprehensive environmental assessment;

(2) a description of the type and proposed location of each storage facility (other than storage facilities of the Industrial Petroleum Reserve) proposed to be included in the Reserve;

(3) a statement as to the proximity of each such storage facility to related facilities;

(4) an estimate of the volumes and types of petroleum products proposed to be stored in each such storage facility;

(5) a projection as to the aggregate size of the Reserve, including a statement as to the most economically-efficient storage levels for each such storage facility;

(6) a justification for any changes, with respect to volumes or dates, proposed in the storage schedule specified in subsection (c) of this section, and a program schedule for overall development and completion of the Reserve (taking into account all relevant factors, including cost effectiveness, the need to construct related facilities, and the ability to obtain sufficient quantities of petroleum products to fill the storage facilities to the proposed storage levels);

(7) an estimate of the direct cost of the Reserve, including-

(A) the cost of storage facilities;

(B) the cost of the petroleum products to be stored;

(C) the cost of related facilities; and

(D) management and operation costs;

(8) an evaluation of the impact of developing the Reserve, taking into account-

(A) the availability and the price of supplies and equipment and the effect, if any, upon domestic production of acquiring such supplies and equipment for the Reserve;

(B) any fluctuations in world, and domestic, market prices for petroleum products which may result from the acquisition of substantial quantities of petroleum products for the Reserve;

(C) the extent to which such acquisition may support otherwise declining market prices for such products; and

(D) the extent to which such acquisition will affect competition in the petroleum industry;

(9) an identification of the ownership of each storage and related facility proposed to be included in the Reserve (other than storage and related facilities of the Industrial Petroleum Reserve);

(10) an identification of the ownership of the petroleum products to be stored in the Reserve in any case where such products are not owned by the United States;

(11) a statement of the manner in which the provisions of this part relating to the establishment of the Industrial Petroleum Reserve and the Regional Petroleum Reserve will be implemented; and

(12) a Distribution Plan setting forth the method of drawdown and distribution of the Reserve.

( Pub. L. 94–163, title I, §154, Dec. 22, 1975, 89 Stat. 882 ; Pub. L. 95–619, title VI, §691(b)(2), Nov. 9, 1978, 92 Stat. 3288 ; Pub. L. 102–486, title XIV, §1402, Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 2994 .)

Amendments

1992-Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–486 designated existing provisions as par. (1) and added par. (2).

1978-Subsecs. (b), (d). Pub. L. 95–619 substituted "Secretary" and "Secretary's" for "Administrator" and "Administrator's", respectively, meaning Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration, wherever appearing.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve Drawdown Plan

Pub. L. 97–229, §4(c), Aug. 3, 1982, 96 Stat. 252 , provided that: "On or before December 1, 1982, the President shall transmit to the Congress a drawdown plan for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve consistent with the requirements of section 154 of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act [this section]. Such plan shall be transmitted to the Congress as an amendment to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan. Such amendment shall take effect on the date it is transmitted to the Congress and shall not be subject to section 159(e) of such Act [section 6239(e) of this title] relating to Congressional review. Subsequent amendments to such plan shall be in accordance with subsections (d) and (e) of such section 159."

Section Referred to in Other Sections

This section is referred to in sections 6235, 6238, 6239, 6246, 6249 of this title; title 15 section 714b.