Report to Congress on the feasibility of establishing a heating oil component to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Volume 1

In the Autumn of 1996, consumers and Members of Congress from the Northeast expressed concern about high prices for heating oil and historically low levels of inventories. Some Members of Congress advocated building a Federal inventory of heating oil as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Regional reserves are authorized as part of the SPR for import dependent regions by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. In response, the Department of Energy (DOE) proposed a series of studies related to heating fuels, including a study of the desirability, feasibility, and cost of creating a Federal reserve containing distillate fuel. This report documents that study