Oil stockpile a drop in the bucket

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As part of their plan to tame record oil prices, lawmakers are urging the President to stop putting oil in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But some analysts say that won’t do much to lower gas prices.

… Currently, about 70,000 barrels a day are pumped into the reserve from oil the government takes in lieu of royalty payments from firms operating in the Gulf.

That represents about 0.3 percent of the nation’s 20 million barrel-a-day oil habit. The Bush administration wants to fill the reserve to its full capacity of 727 million barrels and has proposed expanding the reserve to hold 1.5 billion barrels – enough oil to cover oil imports for about 150 days. Oil in the reserve currently stands at just over 700 million barrels.

CNN