Jul 26, 2026
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Add us on GoogleAmerica’s oil stockpile is shrinking fast.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is currently at about 311.4 million barrels, a level it hasn’t seen since 1983. That’s an over 100 million barrel decline from March when the EIA recorded roughly 415 million barrels.
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The most immediate reason for this drop was President Donald Trump’s decision to release 172 million barrels to stabilize energy prices as the Iran war continues.
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But some argue Congress is more to blame for putting the SPR in such a weakened state.
In the not-too-distant past, there was a moment when Congress could have bought millions of barrels at bargain prices — and President Trump wanted to do just that.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) to capitalize on low oil prices and shore up the SPR with 77 million barrels. At that time, the price of oil was trading between $20 and $30 a barrel, which makes the proposed $3 billion purchase a steal compared with today’s prices in the $90-$100 range.
In hindsight, this decision looks like a no-brainer. But not all lawmakers — particularly Democrats — saw it that way. For instance, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was openly opposed to the $3 billion purchase, calling it a “bailout for big oil,” according to CNBC.
Without enough bipartisan support for the $3 billion purchase, the DOE didn’t follow through on Trump’s directive when the COVID-19 relief package passed. If they did, America would have closer to 388 million barrels at this time.
MoneyWise reached out to Sen. Chuck Schumer for comment, but we didn’t hear back by the time of publication.
Does Biden bear some of the blame?
Even though there was a big drop in the SPR this year, it had a much steeper decline between 2021 and 2023. At the start of 2021, there were about 638 million barrels in the SPR, but that kept falling to a local low of about 350 million barrels in the middle of 2023.
Former President Joe Biden authorized selling up to 260 million barrels during this period for a similar purpose: to keep gas prices low during a time of geopolitical tension (this time, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine).
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Interestingly, headlines from that period pointed out how the SPR was at 1980s levels. Politico reported on Republicans who harshly criticized Biden’s move, such as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said, “Our Strategic Petroleum Reserve is down to nothing.”
To be fair, when President Biden left office, he brought the total reserve back up a bit thanks to the purchase of 59 million barrels.
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Is the SPR enough to slash oil prices?
Although the SPR seems like a rational idea to preserve energy independence, there’s a long-standing debate over whether it’s little more than a political prop.
For instance, back in 2015, The Heritage Foundation made the case that the SPR was “unnecessary,” arguing “American presidents…have used the reserve more effectively for party politics than as an efficient response to global supply shocks.”
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Authors at this conservative think tank suggested, “private inventories and reserves are abundant, and open markets will respond more efficiently to supply shocks than federally controlled government stockpiles.”
In 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury looked more closely into just how much the SPR releases impact gas prices. Interestingly, they found that President Biden’s release of millions of barrels “lowered the price of gasoline by 17 cents to 42 cents per gallon.”
Even though SPR releases seem to have an impact, don’t get your hopes up for a big decrease at the pump. The SPR is the most direct lever presidents have at their disposal, but it doesn’t do away with the complex geopolitical issues influencing crude oil’s price.
Plus, in a true doomsday scenario, America would probably burn through this reserve in about a month. At its maximum, the SPR can hold 727 million barrels, and the EIA estimates the U.S. uses 20 million barrels of petroleum every day. So, if America had 727 million on tap, that’s roughly enough to survive for about 36 days.
Of course, it’s better to have that cushion than not, but it shows that the SPR’s biggest benefit is that it can buy America a bit of time.
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Eric Esposito is a freelance contributor on MoneyWise who loves making financial topics accessible and understandable to readers. In addition to MoneyWise, Eric’s work can be found in publications such as WallStreetZen and CoinDesk.
