Regular visitors to this space may notice that books appear as topics from time to time. Even in this manic digital age, a book has a lot going for it as an information conveyance device. High-resolution type is easy on the eyes, and random access with a thumb and a bookmark is as simple as it gets. Plus, a book is software that doesn’t require hardware.

But that’s not the point. It’s the content, of course, and this month a few trees have made a worthy sacrifice in the service of printing The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: US Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005, by Bruce Beaubouef, a colleague and editor of Pipeline and Gas Technology (PGT). Because PGT is a sister publication, impartiality is not a requirement, but even an impartial observer would surely agree that this is the definitive history of the United States’ one surviving response to the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74. You may still have unpleasant memories of price and supply controls, the Synthetic Fuels Corp., and the Windfall Profits Tax. Only the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) remains.

Created by the US government in 1975, the SPR is a federally owned, contractor-operated stockpile of roughly 700 million bbl of crude oil, short of its original goal of 1 billion bbl. This reserve is stored in salt dome caverns along the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast.

As the book points out, the SPR has become the nation’s principal means of protection against an oil supply disruption and a key part of the national security apparatus. Following its first major use during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, officials and policymakers have increasingly turned to the SPR to stave off shortages and mitigate rising energy prices. Today, the SPR is the world’s largest government-owned emergency oil stockpile, with a drawdown capacity of 4.3 million bbl per day — a figure slightly larger than Iran’s daily contribution to world oil supply. It enables the federal government to replace about 36% of US oil imports and add about 5.9% to the world’s daily oil supply for about 163 days.

The book also looks at the SPR drawdown policy, which has often been controversial. In the past, policymakers have debated about whether the stockpile should be used early in a crisis; or, in the event of one, held in reserve against the possibility of a larger disruption or shortage. This has become known as the “early use” vs. “rainy day” policy debate, and different presidents have followed different strategies. In general, this debate has largely followed the party divide, as Democrats have been more ready to use the reserve, and the Republicans have been slower to order a drawdown. For example, the Bush presidents have been criticized for being too slow to order a drawdown in the wake of significant oil supply disruptions (in 1990 and 2003), while Clinton received criticism for ordering drawdowns in 1996 and in 2000 when gasoline and heating oil prices increased, but no disruption had taken place.

There’s much more to it. Anyone with an interest in how the United States got to this point with regard to its petroleum reserves, import levels and the politics that have shaped US energy policy will benefit from this book. Great job, Bruce.

Comments