ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. was competitively awarded a 20-year lease of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s St. James Marine Terminal and Bayou Choctaw 36 in pipeline.

The new lease will be effective Jan. 1, 2020. The pipeline company will make monthly lease payments, be responsible for operations and maintenance of the facility and provide use of the facility in support of government emergency oil drawdowns.

Part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's network of facilities. Source: DOEThe St. James Facility is a crude oil marine terminal 45 miles west of New Orleans and 30 miles southeast of Baton Rouge. The facility includes two marine docks on the Mississippi River and six storage tanks with a combined storage capacity of 2 million barrels.

The lease also includes the Bayou Choctaw 36 in pipeline — currently known as the Redstick 36 in pipeline — which operates as a crude oil common carrier.

DOE operated the St. James Facility from 1980 to 1997. In January 1997, the agency leased the St. James Facility to Shell Pipeline Co. LP for a term that originally expired in December 2017. In May 2017, the lease was modified to extend the term to Dec. 31, 2019.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is among the world's largest supplies of emergency crude oil. The federally owned oil stocks are stored in underground salt caverns along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.

Decisions to withdraw crude oil are made by the president under authorities of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The reserve has a storage capacity of 713.5 million barrels.