Oil Reserve

This report discusses the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which was authorized to help prevent a repetition of the economic dislocation caused by the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo. The Government Accountability Office recently observed that the proportion of crude oil grades in the SPR has been growing less compatible with the heavier grades of crude oil that U.S. refineries have been upgrading to handle. This finding has raised questions about the SPR's effectiveness during a long-term oil disruption involving heavy oil.

Contents: (1) History of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR): Establishment of the SPR; (2) The Drawdown Authorities: Proposals in the 111th Congress to Amend the Authorities; (3) Acquisition of Crude Oil for the SPR: Resumption of Fill (2009); Royalty-in-Kind Acquisition; (4) When Should the SPR Be Used?: The Debate Over the Years; Use of the SPR in the Persian Gulf War (1990); Hurricanes and Changes in the Market Dynamics (2005-2008); The Call for an SPR Drawdown: Summer 2008; (5) Establishment of a Regional Home Heating Oil Reserve.

Omolade Adunbi investigates the myths behind competing claims to oil wealth in Nigeria's Niger Delta. Looking at ownership of natural resources, oil extraction practices, government control over oil resources, and discourse about oil, Adunbi shows how symbolic claims have created an "oil citizenship." He explores the ways NGOs, militant groups, and community organizers invoke an ancestral promise to defend land disputes, justify disruptive actions, or organize against oil corporations. Policies to control the abundant resources have increased contestations over wealth, transformed the relationship of people to their environment, and produced unique forms of power, governance, and belonging.