U.S. Department of Energy said April 3 it awarded a contract of $1.4 billion to Strategic Storage Partners to manage and operate the four sites of the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Strategic Storage Partners is a joint venture of Aptim Federal Services of Baton Rouge, La., and BWX Technical Services Group of Lynchburg, Va. The five-year contract that begins June 15 includes an option for DOE to extend the contract for an additional five years.
DOE established the reserves in expansive salt caverns at two locations each in Texas and Louisiana to help protect the U.S. from significant petroleum supply disruptions. They are Big Hill in Jefferson County near Beaumont (capacity 170 million barrels), Bryan Mound in Brazoria County near Freeport (247 million barrels), West Hackberry in Cameron Parish near Lake Charles, La., (220 million barrels) and Bayou Choctaw in Iberville Parish near Baton Rouge (76 million barrels).