FACTBOX: Oil releases from U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve

(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy said on Thursday it will release crude from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve if Tropical Storm Gustav causes severe supply disruption.

The SPR, the world's largest emergency oil stockpile, was created by the Congress after the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo. As of August 22, it holds 707.2 million barrels of crude oil in 62 underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coastline.

Only the president has the authority to release oil from the stockpile. In July, lawmakers pushed the White House to tap the SPR and release 70 million barrels, or 10 percent of its stockpile, into the market to help ease high gas prices.

Heavy opposition stopped a House bill in favor of the oil sale as Republicans protested that the reserve was meant to offset major oil supply disruptions and not to rein in soaring crude prices.

The U.S. government has released oil supplies from the SPR on many occasions to offset supply disruptions.

The following lists oil sales and loans made by the U.S. government from the SPR :

OIL SALES:

* 1985 Test Sale - 1.1 million barrels.

* 1990-91 Desert Shield/Storm sale - 21 million barrels. (4 million in August 1990 test sale; 17 million in January 1991 presidentially-ordered drawdown).

* 1996-97 Total nonemergency sales - 28.1 million barrels. (5.1 million in Weeks Island sale to pay for decommissioning of storage site and transfer of its oil; 12.8 million to reduce the federal budget deficit; 10.2 million to offset fiscal year 1997 appropriations).

* 2005 Hurricane Katrina sale - 11 million barrels.

OIL LOANS:

* April/May 1996 - Loaned 900,000 barrels of SPR crude to ARCO to resolve company's pipeline blockage problem.

* August 1998 - Exchanged 11 million barrels of lower quality Maya crude in SPR with PEMEX for 8.5 million of higher quality crude (more suitable for U.S. refineries)

* June 2000 - Loaned 500,000 barrels each to CITGO and Conoco, due to blockage of the ship channel that allowed incoming crude oil shipments to those refineries.

* July/August 2000 - Exchanged 2.8 million barrels of crude oil for first-year tank storage and stocks for 2 million barrel Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.

* September/October 2000 - Loaned 30 million barrels in response to concern over low heating oil levels in Northeast.

* October 2002 - Loaned 296,000 barrels to Shell Pipeline Co to secure Capline storage tanks in advance of Hurricane Lili.

* September/November 2004 - Loaned 5.4 million barrels of sweet crude due to disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico caused by Hurricane Ivan.

* September/October 2005- Loaned 9.8 million barrels of sweet and sour crude due to disruptions in Gulf of Mexico production and damage to terminals, pipelines and refineries caused by Hurricane Katrina.

* January 2006 - Loaned 767,000 barrels of sour crude to Total Petrochemicals USA due to closure of the Sabine Neches ship channel to deep-draft vessels after a barge accident in the channel.

* June 2006 - Loaned 750,000 barrels of sour crude to ConocoPhillips and Citgo due to the closure for several days of the Calcasieu Ship Channel to maritime traffic.

(Compiled by Jasmin Melvin and Tom Doggett; Editing by David Gregorio)