Excellent link, thanks. I’m guessing the April and October of 1996 would be the ones.
It’s interesting to contrast the releases under Dubya that seemed logical which resulted in money being made and no releases so far under Obama even during the BP blowout...
There was basically no interruption of oil flow, so I am very glad he didn't release any.
I'll be back with the 1996 info I find. Most people don't realize how many times we have already used the SPR.
In late April 1996, the ARCO Pipe Line Company incurred an operational emergency when its 20-inch pipeline from the Texas Gulf Coast to Cushing, Oklahoma, became blocked by a waxy crude, interrupting its oil deliveries to the midcontinent. On May 3, 1996, under an emergency crude oil lease exchange agreement with the Seaway Pipeline Company, the Energy Department agreed to supply up to one million barrels of crude oil to enable the start up of its Freeport-to-Cushing pipeline to continue the flow of oil to the midcontinent refineries, avoiding any refinery shutdown. Under the terms of the agreement, ARCO would pay the Government a fee, plus a future price differential for leasing the oil, and would replace the oil with an equivalent grade of crude within six months. Under this lease, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve delivered a total of 900,416 barrels of crude oil to the Seaway Pipeline System. All the oil was returned by November 25, 1996.
http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/spr/spr-drawdown.html
1996 Weeks Island Sale. The first sale was requested by the Administration to pay for the unexpected decommissioning of the Weeks Island Strategic Petroleum Reserve storage site. A fracture in the overburden above the converted salt mine - the only site in the Reserve that used a former mine to store crude oil - threatened the site’s geologic integrity and its 73 million barrels of crude oil. On October 5, 1994, the Energy Department had announced that it would begin transferring the oil to other sites to reduce the threat of its catastrophic release into the environment. The cost of the transfer and subsequent site decommissioning was estimated to be $100 million. To pay for the effort, the Department proposed to sell up to seven million barrels of the Weeks Island inventory. Congress approved the sale in the Balanced Budget Downpayment Act, enacted January 26, 1996.
On January 29, 1996, the Defense Fuel Supply Center, acting as the Energy Department’s sales agent, issued a solicitation to industry for competitive offers to purchase Weeks Island oil. Subsequently, on a two-week cycle, beginning February 20 and ending March 21, offers were received, negotiations conducted, and contracts awarded to those offerors bidding prices consistent with the oil’s market value. Six contracts were awarded to four oil firms for 5.1 million barrels. Deliveries were made between March 4 and April 21, 1996. Payments to the U.S. Treasury totaled $97.1 million, or $18.95 per barrel.
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1996-97 Sales to Reduce the Federal Budget Deficit. The second sale of Weeks Island crude oil was directed by Congress in the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996, enacted April 26, 1996. It required the sale of $227 million worth of oil during fiscal year 1996 to reduce the federal budget deficit. This sale was performed in the same manner as the first. From May 22 through August 5, 1996, the Defense Fuel Supply Center awarded twenty-four contracts to nine oil companies. Deliveries of 12.8 million barrels were made from May 26 through September 17, 1996. This sale yielded $227.6 million in revenue for the U.S. Treasury, or $17.81 per barrel.
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I’ll keep searching. I should be able to find the bids.