While the US is the biggest oil guzzling nation on the planet (nothing to be proud of), we are not the only one with a Strategic Petroleum Reserve (click here) even though ours is the biggest at about 700 million barrels. The US politicians who voted to block the continued filling of our reserve did little to nothing to reduce oil prices - which is typical for a crowd that has no clue about developing an effective energy policy. They have no control over China and Russia and India and many other countries to force them to stop filling their reserves (thankfully). In case any US politician is listening (doubt it)….OIL IS A GLOBAL PRODUCT. So just like the repeated questioning of 5 oil companies, our Congress shows it has a very limited understanding of the global oil situation. In January of 2007, I wrote about my concern for the rationale of President Bush’s plan to double the SPR not because I thought it would dramatically increase prices, but rather - I feared that it would signal either a desire to go to war with Iran or a gluttonous increase in future US oil consumption. Obviously, the gradual filling of the US SPR has a minimal impact on global oil prices. However, it is unclear how much stockpiling is actually going on around the planet. Regardless of the transparency and accuracy of the global SPR reporting, I think it is important to recognize that some of the countries that are some of the biggest energy consumers and the ones growing the fastest, have just started to fill their SPRs. To catch up to the IEA recommendation of 90 days of supply, their filling of reserves is mathematically different than the gradual increase in established reserves (like the US).