WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today highlighted a new Department of Energy (DOE) report on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The report details DOE’s test sales between March and July of roughly 5 million barrels of sour crude oil from SPR storage sites in Louisiana and Texas.

“This report demonstrates once again that the North American energy renaissance currently underway necessitates a reexamination of policies established decades ago,” Murkowski said. “While there should always be a legitimate reason for tapping our strategic oil stockpiles, ensuring the infrastructure works when needed is a worthy endeavor. I encourage DOE to follow through on the lessons it’s learned from this sale.”

The Secretary of Energy is authorized by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to conduct test sales to evaluate its ability to transport SPR oil around the country in an emergency.

Nearly all of the oil sold in the test sale between March 31 and May 16 was delivered by pipeline (92.4 percent), with barges delivering the remainder (7.6 percent). None of the oil was delivered by tanker vessels. DOE pointed to changing market dynamics as the reason for the test sale.

“The substantial increase in both Canadian and U.S. domestic production has had a significant impact on both the magnitude and spatial disposition of crude oil supply over the past decade,” the DOE report stated. “With the development of tight oil resources in the U.S., there is much more diversity in the location and makeup of crude oil production. Canada has become the main source of U.S crude oil imports as they are experiencing a similar expansion of their crude production capabilities.”

The DOE report, part of an ongoing review, identified a number of lessons learned from the test sale, including that the ongoing North American energy boom has resulted in changes to some of the infrastructure the SPR relies on for its own distribution capabilities.

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