December 5, 2006

The Department of Energy's Use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (Reserve) met its energy security mission during the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Despite being in the path of the hurricanes' destruction, the Reserve fulfilled immediate requests for emergency oil from refineries suffering from storm-induced supply shortages. Within four days of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, oil was on its way to requesting refineries. The Reserve's total response was almost 21 million barrels of crude oil being made available to refiners through loans and sales.