The U.S. strategic oil reserve, created to protect consumers against “economically threatening” disruptions in oil supplies, is now at its lowest level in 38 years.
That’s according to a review of weekly stock reports by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) held 416,389 barrels of crude oil as of Sept. 30, according to the EIA.
That’s down from 638,086 barrels in Jan 2020, when President Joe Biden took office from President Donald Trump, a decline of 35 percent.
No U.S. President has lowered the SPR by more than eight percent during their term in office.
The last time the SPR held so little crude oil was on June 22,1984, when it reported holding 408,730 barrels of oil.
President Ronald Reagan quadrupled the holdings of the SPR during his two terms, from 112,490 to 561,186 barrels by Jan. 1989.
The SPR would stay above 500,000 barrels until 2022, when President Joe Biden sold 221,700 barrels of crude.
The SPR grew slightly under President George H.W. Bush, to 575,247 barrels in Jan. 1993, and Bill Clinton cut it slightly, six percent, to 540,678.
President George W. Bush added to the SPR, growing it 30 percent to 702,063 barrels over his two terms.
President Barack Obama held the SPR at the same level, ending his term with 695,081 barrels (-1 percent).
One million barrels a day
Biden announced in March that he would release one million barrels of crude oil a day from the SPR for at least six months, in an effort to lower gasoline prices.
"High gasoline prices cause incumbents to lose elections. So, they try to tame gasoline prices even though it contradicts one of their key objectives of reducing carbon emissions," wrote Forbes columnist and chemical engineer Robert Rapier. "Presidents Clinton and Obama both (also) used the SPR to try to ease high gasoline prices around election time."
Presidents have directed "emergency" drawdowns three times in the SPR's history.
In 1991, at the beginning of Operation Desert Storm (33.75 million barrels), in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated oil production and distribution in the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf (30 million), and in 2011, in response to crude oil supply disruptions in Libya (60 million).
Biden's sales of 221,700 barrels so far has dwarfed those drawdowns.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created in 1975, as a response to the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Congress sought to protect the U.S. from another oil shock by stockpiling oil for “emergency” use.
The U.S. uses 20 million barrels per day, according to the EIA.
The oil is stored at four facilities, in underground salt domes along the Gulf Coast, some stretching one mile below the surface of the earth. They are located in Bryan Mound and Big Hill, Texas and in West Hackberry and Bayou Choctaw, Louisiana.
Maximum capacity is 727 million barrels
The amount of oil contained in the SPR is one-twentieth of the oil reserves thought to be in Alaska and one fiftieth the oil supply located on the U.S. outer continental shelf.
The program calls for the U.S. to store up to one billion barrels of petroleum.
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Which Presidents added -- or subtracted-- from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve
President Joe Biden has depleted the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve by 35 percent in just one year. How does that compare to other U.S. presidents?
| Administration | Start | End/Current | Change | % Change |
| Joe Biden (D) | 638,086 | 416,386 | -221,700 | -34.7% |
| Donald Trump (R) | 695,081 | 638,086 | -56,995 | -8.2% |
| Barack Obama (D) | 702,963 | 695,081 | -7,882 | -1.1% |
| George W. Bush (R) | 540,678 | 702,963 | 162,285 | 30.0% |
| Bill Clinton (D) | 575,247 | 540,678 | -34,569 | -6.0% |
| George H.W. Bush (R) | 561,186 | 575,247 | 14,061 | 2.5% |
| Ronald Reagan (R) | 112,490 | 561,186 | 290,731 | 398.9% |
Source: US EIA
