Is The Strategic Petroleum Reserve A Solution To The Crisis in Ukraine?

George Soros was recently quoted as suggesting that the US use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as a deterrent to Russian aggression in Ukraine.  I thought we could examine the validity of that premise. The SPR, an emergency supply of oil maintained by the United States, is currently near capacity at about 700 million barrels. In our new world driven by shale oil,  a supply disruption would require tapping SPR help for a much shorter period than was envisioned when the SPR’s capacity was designed. Oil represents more than half of all Russian budget revenues and 30% of Russia’s GDP.… [more]