Focus back on oil reserves

WASHINGTON – Mississippi soon will be on the front lines of the nation’s defense against a disruption of oil supplies that would cause an energy crisis.

Congress last month approved a massive spending bill that contained $25 million to plan and purchase land for an underground facility that would hold 160 million barrels of oil in 16 salt caverns in Richton.


The reserve, which would be the nation’s fifth, is about a decade and a billion dollars from completion. But it’s already caught up in a congressional debate over the future of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

In an emergency, oil from the Richton salt domes would flow through a pipeline to Pascagoula, be refined and shipped through that city’s port to consumers in the East Coast and the Northeast.

Hattiesburg American