This week, a Curious Louisiana reader’s attention has turned subterranean. “Are oil reserves really stored in south Louisiana salt domes?” they ask. Since October 1977, emergency crude oil has been stored at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in four sites along the Gulf Coast. Known as the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil, the reserves were created in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis with the overall aim of helping in the event of future oil supply disruptions.