Baton Rouge-based Aptim and joint venture partner BWX Technologies Inc. have been tapped by the U.S. Department of Energy to manage and operate the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as well as its associated facilities and systems in Louisiana and Texas, the companies announced Wednesday.
The joint venture, known as Strategic Storage Partners LLC, will assume management and operation of SPR on June 15 for a five-year period with an option for DOE to extend the $1.4 billion contract for an additional five years.
SPR is the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil and was established in the ‘70s to minimize disruptions of U.S. petroleum supplies through emergency stocks. Federally owned oil stocks are stored in underground salt caverns at four sites along the Gulf Coast—including one in the Capital Region.
