WSJ: "McCain Says Oil Prices Too High to Buy for SPR"

The Wall Street Journal
"McCain Says Oil Prices Too High to Buy for SPR"

Here is the article

My response is below.


The United States produces around 8 million barrels [2006 data] of oil per day. As such, that makes the United States the third largest producer of oil in the world.
The SPR capacity is 727 million barrels.
Current holdings are 698.7 million barrels.
The amount required to bring the SPR to full capacity is 28.3 million barrels. This is just under 4% of capacity. The SPR is 96% full!
This 4% is about 3 days of imports. So if all US imports of oil were stopped the SPR would have 3 extra days of capacity.
Is it really in the best interest of the United States to buy the last 4% [28,300,000 barrels] at $110.47 [Bloomberg.com Nymex Crude Future 10:53am 4/10/08]?
Seems prudent to hold off on purchases until the price drops a bit.
Does this 4% gap/shortfall in holdings vs capacity represent a threat to the United States?
This does not appear to be an issue.
What do you think?