Nation's Emergency Oil Stockpile Now Ready for Another 25 Years

Refurbishment Program Completed Ahead of Schedule, Under Costs

Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announced today that the Energy Department has completed a 7-year, $328 million refurbishment effort that has given the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation's emergency crude oil stockpile, another 25 years of useful life. The modernization effort was completed ahead of schedule and nearly $42 million below its original cost estimate.

"Today we can say that the United States not only has the largest reserve of emergency crude oil but also the most modern," Richardson said. "We have upgraded pumps, streamlined oil handling equipment, and automated many of the control systems. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is now ready to continue as this country's first line of defense against oil disruptions for at least the next quarter century."

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was established in 1975 following the first major oil crisis. Built as a complex of deep oil storage caverns along the Gulf of Mexico coast, the Reserve had an initial design life of 20 years. In 1993, when much of the surface equipment began to approach the end of its projected lifetime, the Energy Department began a systematic effort to upgrade each of the four oil storage sites, two each in Louisiana and Texas.

As a result of the refurbishment effort, annual operating costs of the Reserve will be reduced by $12-15 million per year over the next 25 years, primarily because less equipment and fewer personnel will be needed to maintain and operate the Reserve. For example, engineers were able to reduce the number of pumps needed to move crude oil by almost 40 percent, eliminating 60 large high-horsepower pumping units. More than 900 of the Reserve's1800 valves were also eliminated. Many other components have been standardized and automated, making maintenance and inventory control more efficient and lower cost.

The life extension effort involved 26 major subcontractors, including six construction firms and 20 equipment suppliers. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Project Management Office in New Orleans and the Reserve's management and operating contractor, DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations, oversaw the effort. Design work was done by Walk-Haydel and Associates, a New Orleans-based engineering firm.

The Reserve currently holds nearly 570 million barrels of crude oil and has the storage capacity for another 130 million barrels.

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For more information, contact:
JoAnn Rochon, DOE SPR Project Management Office, (504) 734-4731
or
Cindi Nelson, DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations, (504) 734-4586