Defense Fuel Supply Center Procedures for Purchasing Strategic Petroleum Reserve Oil

摘要

As one of a series of reviews on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, GAO examined the procedures that the Defense Fuel Supply Center used to acquire about 130 million barrels of crude oil for the Reserve from February 1981 to May 1983. GAO found that the purchasing procedures generally assured that purchase prices were fair and reasonable and resulted in the lowest overall cost to the government. GAO found, however, that the Defense Fuel Supply Center could have paid about $1.9 million less during the period evaluated, and still acquired oil of acceptable quality, if it had been more flexible in its purchase practices by allowing exceptions to its pricing criteria.