Sunset behind Well head No.18 at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve storage site, Bayou Choctaw, Louisiana. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve programme was started to ensure that the USA was not vulnerable to shortage of oil during a national emergency. Six storage sites have been built, this one with a capacity of 50 million barrels of crude oil, linked by pipeline to commercial refineries. In an emergency, up to 450,000 barrels per day may be withdrawn. The Bayou Choctaw site occupies about 400 acres of land near the city of Baton Rouge.