I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1914 
To provide for the sale of light grade petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum 
Reserve and its replacement with heavy grade petroleum. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 13, 2011 
Mr. CUELLAR introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To provide for the sale of light grade petroleum from the 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve and its replacement with 
heavy grade petroleum. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Gas Price Stabilization 
Act of 2011’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act— 
(1) the term ‘‘light grade petroleum’’ means 
crude oil with an API gravity of 30 degrees or high-
er; 
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(2) the term ‘‘heavy grade petroleum’’ means 
crude oil with an API gravity of 26 degrees or lower; 
and 
(3) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of Energy. 
SEC. 3. SALE AND REPLACEMENT OF OIL FROM THE STRA-
TEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE. 
(a) INITIAL
PETROLEUM
SALE
AND
REPLACE-
MENT.—Notwithstanding section 161 of the Energy Policy 
and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6241), the Secretary 
shall publish a plan not later than 15 days after the date 
of enactment of this Act to— 
(1) sell, in the amounts and on the schedule de-
scribed in subsection (b), light grade petroleum from 
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and acquire an 
equivalent volume of heavy grade petroleum; 
(2) deposit the cash proceeds from sales under 
paragraph (1) into the SPR Petroleum Account es-
tablished under section 167 of the Energy Policy 
and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6247); and 
(3) from the cash proceeds deposited pursuant 
to paragraph (2), withdraw the amount necessary to 
pay for the direct administrative and operational 
costs of the sale and acquisition. 
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(b) AMOUNTS AND SCHEDULE.—The sale and acqui-
sition described in subsection (a) shall require the offer 
for sale of a total quantity of 70,000,000 barrels of light 
grade petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. 
The sale shall commence, whether or not a plan has been 
published under subsection (a), not later than 30 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act and be completed 
no more than six months after the date of enactment of 
this Act, with at least 20,000,000 barrels to be offered 
for sale within the first 60 days after the date of enact-
ment of this Act. In no event shall the Secretary sell bar-
rels of oil under subsection (a) that would result in a Stra-
tegic Petroleum Reserve that contains fewer than 90 per-
cent of the total amount of barrels in the Strategic Petro-
leum Reserve as of the date of enactment of this Act. 
Heavy grade petroleum, to replace the quantities of light 
grade petroleum sold under this section, shall be obtained 
through acquisitions which— 
(1) shall commence no sooner than 6 months 
after the date of enactment of this Act; 
(2) shall be completed, at the discretion of the 
Secretary, not later than 5 years after the date of 
enactment of this Act; 
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(3) shall be carried out in a manner so as to 
maximize the monetary value to the Federal Govern-
ment; and 
(4) shall be acquired using the receipts from 
the sale of light petroleum authorized under this sec-
tion. 
(c) DEFERRALS.—The Secretary is encouraged to, 
when economically beneficial and practical, grant requests 
to defer scheduled deliveries of petroleum to the Reserve 
under subsection (a) if the deferral will result in a pre-
mium paid in additional barrels of oil which will reduce 
the cost of oil acquisition and increase the volume of oil 
delivered to the Reserve or yield additional cash bonuses. 
Æ 
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