(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) The US Energy Department is testing its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in light of the impact the shale boom has had on U.S.
Petroleum infrastructure. The situation in Ukraine is not mentioned in the DoE's statemen
The test will include the "drawdown and sale of up to 5 million barrels of sour crude oil," said Department of Energy spokesman Bill Gibbon
The department's decision for a "test drawdown" of the huge reserve is being done to test new regional pipeline systems in Texas and Louisiana, and has been under discussion "for many months", the department sai
Gibbons said it is required to undertake the test by law, though the last time a test release took place was in 199
Since then, however, there have been other releases undertaken in reaction to events: in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina damaged parts of the crucial oil industry infrastructure along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, and in 2011 to counter global supply disruptions from the Libyan revolutio
The test is a response to the sharp rise in US domestic crude production since 2011, said Gibbon
"Significant changes in the system have occurred -- including pipeline expansion, construction of new infrastructure, reversed flow of existing pipelines and increased use of domestic crude oil terminals." He said the test is to "assess the system's capabilities in the event of a disruptio
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