US Sen Bingaman will not support SPR expansion to 1.5 bil barrels

Washington (Platts)--23Mar2007

US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman
on Friday said he did not support President Bush's goal of expanding the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1.5 billion barrels and that he did not expect
legislation this year.

Bingaman, who as chairman holds substantial sway over the legislative
agenda on energy, said he did not believe there was a need to expand SPR
beyond the 1 billion gallons contemplated in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
President Bush sent a draft legislative proposal to Congress this week that
would expand the reserve to 1.5 billion barrels.

"I've just have doubts as to whether or not it needs to be at the top of
the list of things that need to be done," Bingaman said. "I think when you
look at the history of our use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it's not
clear to me that there is a likelihood that we would ever have to access a
Strategic Petroleum Reserve twice the size as the one we currently have."

The SPR currently holds 689 million barrels of crude oil, and has the
capacity to hold 727 million barrels.