USA Strategic Petroleum Reserve is 56 Percent Empty
Weekly U.S. ending stocks of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) stood at 319.48 million barrels as of the week ending July 3, data on the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) website showed.
This fill-level represents a multi-decade low, according to the EIA data page, which outlined that the last time weekly U.S. ending stocks of crude oil in the SPR were lower was in the week ending April 29, 1983, when the reserve contained 317.45 million barrels.
According to the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on July 8 and included data for the week ending July 3, SPR levels were down 6.2 million barrels, or 1.9 percent, week on week and down 83.5 million barrels, or 20.7 percent, year on year.
If you take the latest SPR figures from the EIA’s data page, and consider them against the fact that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) website highlights that the SPR has an authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels, you can conclude that the SPR is currently around 44 percent full, or 56 percent empty - depending on how you want to look at it.
When Rigzone ran EIA SPR figures by Neil Crosby, Sparta Commodities’ Head of Research, Crosby pointed out that, “for the U.S. oil market, it is significant to have SPR levels this low”.
He added, however, that the SPR “has been doing its job to supply refineries in the Atlantic Basin” and noted that, “for now, that has staved off the worst for ‘commercial’ crude inventories”.
“Still, commercial stocks have declined and sent WTI vs Brent crude spreads rather narrow,” he told Rigzone.
“Recently, as a result, it has been less profitable to arb U.S. crude to global destinations as these barrels have naturally become more expensive. So ‘price’ is doing its job, meaning we are already seeing U.S. crude exports dropping, and that will eventually stop U.S. crude stocks from drawing so rapidly,” he said.
“For the rest of the world this is not great news as one of the key ‘solvers’ in this crisis, maximum U.S. exports, is now fading,” Crosby warned.
In a statement posted on the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) website on March 11, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright outlined that the DOE would be releasing 172 million barrels of oil from the SPR as part of a wider plan from the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels of oil and refined products.
A release posted on the IEA’s website on the same day stated that 32 member countries of the agency unanimously agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market “to address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East”.
In the DOE statement, Wright said, “President Trump promised to protect America’s energy security by managing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve responsibly and this action demonstrates his commitment to that promise”.
“The United States has arranged to more than replace these strategic reserves with approximately 200 million barrels within the next year - 20 percent more barrels than will be drawn down - and at no cost to the taxpayer,” he added.
In a statement posted on its website on May 11, the DOE announced contract awards for the exchange of approximately 53.3 million barrels of crude from the SPR’s Bayou Choctaw, Bryan Mound, Big Hill, and West Hackberry sites.
“Today’s announcement marks the next phase of DOE’s execution of the United States’ 172 million barrel contribution to the International Energy Agency’s collective action to stabilize global oil supplies,” this statement noted.
“This action builds on earlier exchange actions, which have already awarded approximately 80 million barrels from the Bayou Choctaw, Bryan Mound, and West Hackberry sites,” it added.
When Rigzone asked Crosby how long it will take to refill the SPR, Crosby said, “for the barrels released during this crisis, we are talking one to two years planned for the refill period, as per the swap agreements”.
In his inaugural address, which was transcribed on the White House website on January 20, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “we will … fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top”.
In a fact sheet posted on the DOE site back in January, the energy department said it had “begun the process of refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve … after it was recklessly depleted by the Biden administration with its 180 million barrel drawdown in 2022”.
“President Trump promised to protect America’s energy security by refilling and managing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve more responsibly,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a DOE statement posted on the department’s website on November 12, 2025.
“Awarding these contracts marks another step in the important process of refilling this national security asset,” he added.
“While this process won’t be complete overnight, these actions are an important step in strengthening our energy security,” he continued.
A White House fact sheet released on March 31, 2022, which highlighted that gas prices had increased by nearly a dollar per gallon, outlined that the U.S. President at the time, Joe Biden, would announce the largest release of oil reserves in history, putting one million additional barrels on the market per day on average, every day, for the next six months.
“This record release will provide a historic amount of supply to serve as bridge until the end of the year when domestic production ramps up,” that fact sheet stated.
The SPR is described on the DOE website as the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil. The site highlights that it was established “primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program”.
“The federally owned oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns at four sites along the coastline of the Gulf of America,” the DOE site notes.
“The sheer size of the SPR (authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool in foreign policy,” the site adds.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the
Rigzone Energy Network.
The Rigzone Energy Network is a new social experience created for you and all energy professionals to Speak Up about our industry, share knowledge, connect with peers and industry insiders and engage in a professional community that will empower your career in energy.