Where Are the World's Biggest Strategic Petroleum Reserves?

With the capacity to hold up to 727 million barrels, the US comes up trumps as far as its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is concerned. Stashed underground in Louisiana and Texas, the reserve is the largest emergency supply on the planet. But despite its dominance, the US isn’t shy about selling off its ‘liquid’ assets. In early March the USA peddled 550,000 barrels of SPR to China, at a cool US$28.8 million.

China takes second place

This puts China in second place, with analysts estimating that the People’s Republic hit around 400 million barrels of capacity in mid-2016. It’s not quite it’s 511 million barrel target, which is likely what spurred the Chinese to snap up US crude.

Japan steps up as the world’s third largest SPR holder, with around 324 million barrels. But unlike its counterparts, it hasn’t been aggressive about selling or adding to its stockpile during the recent oil price crisis.   

South Korea and Spain bring up the rear

While South Korea is recognised as having the fourth largest SPR in the world, its complete capacity isn’t used exclusively for reserves. Of its 146 million barrels of oil, just 92.6 million are used for SPR. 26.6 million barrels are classed as foreign oil stored under various agreements, with a further 5.9 million barrels traded by Korea National Oil Corp and 800,000 barrels dedicated to other commercial uses.

Spain is a somewhat surprising contender, with a total SPR capacity of 120 million barrels. According to estimates, this is enough oil to sate domestic consumption for at least 90 days. Like Japan, it hasn’t attempted to drastically increase or decrease its SPR over the past 12 months.

Why is the USA selling up?

Of the top five, the USA has been the only SPR giant to vigorously sell off its reserves over the past year. While China, Japan, South Korea and Spain are all maintaining the status quo or actively increasing their crude stockpiles, the USA has been doing the opposite.

Why? Back in 2004 there were calls to expand the national SPR to 1 billion barrels. Though when the shale boom set in this quickly cooled off. Now, there have been recommendations from the US Department of Energy to slash SPR capacity to as low as 530 million barrels, which equates to a 60 day domestic supply. The advice is partly due to ageing SPR infrastructure, with upgrades estimated to cost around US$2 billion. As a result, Congress passed a temporary bill approving the sale of US$375 million worth of SPR crude, with major buyers including BP, Valero Marketing and Supply Co and PetroChina International.

Of course, the oil landscape is increasingly volatile. With environmental concerns at play, the current outlook could easily shift. For a closer look at the environmental responsibilities of SPR giants,  ‘Ecological and economical measurement of oil-in-water without compromising accuracy’ is a must read article. Blending the benefits of IR spectroscopy with safe, CFC-free solvent cyclohexane, it explores how revolutionary ERACHECK ECO technology is changing the face of hydrocarbon measurements in H2O.