SPR -- Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Here are details I didn't know but am glad to find out...

* Average price paid for oil in the Reserve - $27.25 per barrel
* Maximum drawdown capability - 4.4 million barrels per day
* Time for oil to enter U.S. market - 13 days from Presidential decision
* Investment to date - More than $21 billion ($4 billion for facilities; $17 billion for crude oil)
* When did it first open? - On July 21, 1977, the first oil - approximately 412,000 barrels of Saudi Arabian light crude - was delivered to the SPR. Fill of the Nation's emergency oil reserve had begun.

And...

Stockpiling oil in artificially-created caverns deep within the rock-hard salt costs historically about $3.50 per barrel in capital costs. Storing oil in aboveground tanks, by comparison, can cost $15 to $18 per barrel - or at least five times the expense. Also, because the salt caverns are 2000-4000 feet below the surface, geologic pressures will seal any crack that develops in the salt formation, assuring that no crude oil leaks from the cavern.

Thanks to WILLisms blog for this info and links to the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Fuels website.
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[That's yet another place I gotta track. The Willism blog, I mean. Keeping up with government bureaucracy is out of the question.
Sigh. Keeping up with the blogosphere is sure a lot of work.]
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[And hey, I know I'm long-winded, but I put some thought into the Aftermath post. If you have time, check it out.]