| 1. Petroleum still undisturbed in the ground and potentially accessible with current or feasible drilling technology. The oil under Kuwait can be called its reserves.
2. Stores of petroleum or petroleum products for use in times of need. The U.S.,. for example, maintains a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, ostensibly 60 days supply of fuels such as gasoline, diesel fuel and heating oil for use in case of crisis. Crisis, recently, also seems to include prices going too high; the US government has in the past released stocks from the SPR in an effort to lower prices either through actual supply level changes and/or psychological influence. | 
