The nation’s strategic petroleum reserve held 308 million barrels of crude oil as of July 24, according to Washington, D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center. The center said Thursday the current total is less than half of the SPR capacity of 714 million barrels and the lowest since 1983. The reduced inventory is a result of substantial SPR releases in response to the Russia-Ukraine war and the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. In 2022 the Biden administration ordered the release of 180 million barrels as the war disrupted Russian oil flows. And in 2026 the Trump administration in coordination with the International Energy Agency ordered the release of 172 million barrels following the closing of the Strait of Hormuz.
The SPR is held in caverns at four locations along the Gulf Coast – Bryan Mound and Big Hill in Texas and West Hackberry and Bayou Choctaw in Louisiana. Highest inventory for SPR was 726 million barrels in 2009.
In its report, the Bipartisan Policy Center added, “While oil prices have jumped since the start of the war, they did not reach the record highs that energy analysts predicted at the outset of the Iran conflict. Supplies from the U.S. SPR, IEA members, Chinese inventories and commercial stocks helped bridge the gap alongside reduced customer demand due to higher prices.”
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