The United States holds public stocks and places no separate compulsory stock obligations on industry.
The Energy Policy and Conservation Act provides for the establishment of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR), allowing for strategic reserves of up to 1 billion barrels. Under the Act, the US government has exclusive authority over the drawdown and distribution of oil from the SPR. However, it has no powers over industry stocks.
The SPR comprises four storage sites, two in Texas (Bryan Mound and Big Hill) and two in Louisiana (Bayou Choctaw and West Hackberry). In 2008, these facilities had a combined volumetric capacity of 727 mb. All of the public crude oil in the SPR is light (with API gravities greater than 30 degrees). Each of its facilities maintains two segregations for sweet and sour crude streams. In total, the SPR inventory is one-third sweet crude oil and two-thirds sour crude oil.
In November 2001, the US administration set a goal of filling the SPR to a volume of 700 mb, which was completed in August 2005. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed the Secretary of Energy to acquire oil as expeditiously as practicable to fill the SPR to its authorised capacity of 1 billion barrels. In response, the SPR office has developed plans for a new site with a capacity of 160 mb in salt domes at Richton (Mississippi). It has also developed plans for expanding two existing sites (Big Hill and Bayou Choctaw) by a combined amount of 113 mb.
The US also holds a 2-million barrel supply of emergency fuel oil for homes and businesses in the northeastern United States. Established in 2000, the Heating Oil Reserve is an "emergency buffer" that can supplement commercial fuel supplies should the heavily oil-dependent region be hit by a severe heating oil supply disruption.
The heating oil reserves are held in the following locations (at the specified volumes): Amerada Hess in Woodbridge, New Jersey (1 mb); Magellan Midstream Partners in New Haven, Connecticut (0.5 mb); Motiva Enterprises in New Haven, Connecticut (0.25 mb); and Motiva Enterprises in Providence, Rhode Island (0.25 mb).
The United States does not have any bilateral stockholding agreements with other countries, and does not use tickets.
