DoD Has Enough Petroleum Products for Anti-Terror War

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DoD Has Enough Petroleum Products for Anti-Terror War
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

The Defense Energy Support Center, a DLA component with headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Va., buys fuel for defense department needs, Hampton explained. In fiscal 2005, DESC will buy about 128 million barrels of fuel -- 42 gallons make a barrel -- at a cost of $8.5 billion, she said. Jet fuel constitutes nearly 70 percent of DoD's petroleum product purchases, she added.

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Hampton said the U.S. military is using between 10 million and 11 million barrels of fuel each month to sustain operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Most of that fuel is dedicated to transportation needs to power military aircraft, ground vehicles and ships, she said.

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With an eye to the future, DESC has been "an active participant" in DoD's future fuels initiative, Pam Serino, chief of product technology and standardization, said. She noted DESC is the U.S. single largest purchaser of biodiesel, which is composed of 20 percent vegetable oil and 80 percent diesel fuel. The center also supplies E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, to the armed forces. Serino said DESC also coordinates with the military to obtain nonpetroleum-based energy-producing technologies such as solar and wind power.

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http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2005/20050811_2398.html