With oil prices rising, the U.S. government has decided to tap
into its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help make sure that
people who use oil to heat their homes will have plenty and that
the price will not be too high. President Clinton authorized the
Department of Energy, which manages the reserve, to release up
to 30 million barrels of oil in a swap with oil companies. The
companies will take the oil in fall 2000 but will have to return
the oil by fall 2001. The government hopes that the companies
will use the oil to keep supplies adequate this winter. The
Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the United States' emergency oil
stockpile, and it is the largest emergency petroleum supply in
the world. The reserve stores about 570 million barrels of crude
oil in underground salt caverns at four sites along the Gulf of
Mexico. A barrel contains 42 gallons or 159 liters of oil. To
create the caverns, workers drill into a salt dome and then put
water into the hole to dissolve the salt. Each cavern is about
2,000 feet de