The Strategic Petroleum Reserve:
History, Perspectives, and Issues
http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/permalink/meta-crs-9965:1
Prior to the Energy Policy and Conservation Act Amendments of 1990, oil could not be withdrawn from the SPR without a severe energy supply interruption.
Apparently, I got under yer skin. Let me help you out, here. During the faux oil embargo of the 80s, my dad was an investigator for the Federal Trade Commission and was assigned to investigate the “oil embargo”. What he discovered was that it was a phony “shortage” and that Reagan fought back by authorizing oil from the SPR to be used to “offset” the alleged shortage.
I also remember that Bush I or Clinton decided that the oil that had been taken from the SPR had to be replenished. I don’t know why your information fails to mention this, but I remember it pretty well.