US to formally OK new site in Miss. for oil reserve

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman will travel to Mississippi this week to officially approve a new site for the country's emergency oil stockpile, the Energy Department said on Monday.

The department in December selected a group of salt domes in the southeastern Mississippi town of Richton to hold about 160 million barrels of oil as part of the government's plan to expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which aims to protect the country from supply disruptions.

Bodman will sign the documents on Wednesday officially approving the site. Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi will join him in the ceremony.

The oil reserve currently has a storage capacity of about 727 million barrels, but Congress directed the department to boost the stockpile's size to 1 billion barrels.
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