WASHINGTON: The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen below 300 million barrels, reaching its lowest level in more than four decades, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The reserve stood at 298.7 million barrels as of the week ending August 7, marking its lowest level since January 1983.
According to the EIA’s latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report, U.S. crude reserves have declined for 20 consecutive weeks since the end of March.
A total of 116.7 million barrels of crude oil was released from the reserve during the period.
The stockpile could fall further to around 243.4 million barrels if the U.S. Department of Energy fully implements its planned additional release.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced in March that President Donald Trump had authorised the Department of Energy to release 172 million barrels from the strategic stockpile over roughly 120 days.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was established in December 1975 following the Arab oil embargo and has a storage capacity of approximately 727 million barrels.
U.S. data show that the reserve held more than 726 million barrels between December 2009 and July 2011.
However, emergency stockpiles have declined significantly in recent years, particularly following supply disruptions linked to the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
The latest decline has brought the reserve to a level not seen since the early 1980s, raising renewed attention over the size of the U.S. emergency oil stockpile and its capacity to respond to future supply disruptions.
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