U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today thanked the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA) for quickly prioritizing her request to publish timely data on U.S. oil storage capacity.

In response to Murkowski’s March 31 letter to Administrator Linda Capuano, EIA today began publishing a weekly estimate of U.S. oil storage capacity utilization as part of its Weekly Petroleum Status Report release.

“The timely collection and analysis of data related to petroleum storage will help the U.S. energy industry better assess market conditions, and provide a measure of certainty during these unprecedented times,” Murkowski said. “Such information will also aid DOE as it opens the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for temporary storage of up to 30 million barrels of domestic oil. I thank Administrator Capuano and her team for taking swift action on my request.” 

Murkowski yesterday announced she will cosponsor bipartisan, bicameral legislation to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with crude oil produced in the United States. In recent weeks, she has also signed four other letters as she works to protect American jobs in the domestic energy industry, urging:

• Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to calm the markets;
• Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to investigate Saudi-Russian oil dumping;
• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to take a more aggressive stance against the price war; and
• Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin to make loans available to energy companies.