Price Competitive Sale of Strategic Petroleum Reserve Petroleum; Standard Sales Provisions

On December 21, 1983, the Department of Energy (DOE) published in the Federal Register a final rule governing the price competitive sales of petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the event that the SPR is drawn down to respond to a severe energy supply interruption or to meet obligations of the United States under the Agreement on an International Energy Program. The final rule provided for the publication and periodic update in the Federal Register, as an appendix thereto, of Standard Sales Provisions (SSPs) containing or describing contract clauses, terms and conditions of sale, and performance and financial responsibility measures, which may be applicable to a particular sale of SPR petroleum. First published in interim final form on January 20, 1984, the SSPs have since been updated and issued for public comment several times, with draft revisions most recently published in the Federal Register on April 8, 1998 (63 FR 17260). As provided in the rule, DOE is now issuing those revised SSPs for use in an SPR drawdown.