It is one of the largest emergency crude stockpiles in the world, with a total capacity of around 714 million barrels across four main facilities.

As of the start of June, however, there were just 349.2 million barrels of crude recorded in the SPR, nearly the lowest the reserves have been in 40 years.

The risk of falling too low

The SPR is undergoing its second-largest drawdown, initiated by the Trump administration, to curb surging gas prices and oil supply disruptions caused by the war in Iran.

By July, the Energy Department plans to have released 172 million barrels from the inventories since March. The draw is expected to send the SPR to its lowest level since it was created, hitting as low as 243 million barrels.

Industry executives have warned that the draw is pushing the SPR to dangerously low levels, as it requires roughly 20% of its full capacity to remain operational. 

“This should be very concerning to every American consumer,” American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers recently told CNN. “Because as those inventories go down and production isn’t increased, you’re going to start seeing a significant impact at the pump.”

Executives with major oil and gas developers, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, sounded the alarm over inventories worldwide approaching critically low levels, saying stockpiles inching closer to empty will put upward pressure on global and domestic prices.

At the end of May, Exxon Senior Vice President Neil Chapman predicted that international benchmark Brent Crude could hit $150 to $160 a barrel if inventories hit record lows.

Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), who has long called for Congress to prioritize refilling the SPR, also called the current levels concerning, given the risks of geopolitical shocks.

He defended the administration’s involvement in the war in the Middle East, saying that a nuclear-capable Iran would be able to blockade the Strait of Hormuz for an extended period of time and cause a global energy crisis even worse than what has been seen over the last several months.

Since the war in Iran started in February, traffic through the strait has been at an effective standstill, though the Trump administration recently claimed it has been able to facilitate the transport of millions of barrels of oil overnight. Before the conflict began, nearly 20 million barrels of crude oil and other products passed daily through the strait, equivalent to 20% of global oil demand.

Once the strait fully reopens and normal flows resume through the waterway, Pfluger said, the U.S. needs to refocus on refilling the SPR.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Pfluger told the Washington Examiner.

Emergency drawdowns 

Since the SPR was established, there have only been a handful of times that an administration has needed to draw on the reserves for emergency purposes. 

The first followed the coordinated attack by the U.S. and dozens of allies on Iraq over Saddam Hussein’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait, also known as Operation Desert Storm. At the time, the U.S. released 17.3 million barrels from its inventories.

Drawdowns also occurred in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina and in 2011 over supply disruptions in Libya, when 11 million barrels and 30.6 million barrels of crude were released, respectively.

The most controversial emergency release of crude came in 2022 during the Biden administration, which released around 180 million barrels of oil. This massive draw was meant to combat skyrocketing oil and gas prices associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Republicans heavily criticized former President Joe Biden over the move, claiming it was for political purposes ahead of the midterm elections rather than addressing domestic energy supply needs, particularly as the Biden administration moved to restrict fossil fuel production and development as part of its broader agenda to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy alternatives.

The SPR contained around 638 million barrels of oil at the start of the Biden administration, and was left with roughly 394 million barrels by the time Biden left office.

The Biden administration claimed that it fully replenished the 180 million barrels, but it only directly purchased around 59 million barrels of oil. In addition, it canceled the congressionally mandated sale of 140 million barrels.

Drained by politics 

There does not have to be an emergency to tap the domestic reserves. 

In fact, since 2015, Congress has authorized the sale of around 358.6 million barrels of crude between fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2031 to offset budget deficits.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, called these sales the “most damaging” for the SPR.

“Back when everything was peachy geopolitically, and oil prices were cheap, it’s like, ‘Well, why do we have this oil?” he said. “So, Congress and Trump agreed to start selling it off to reap the proceeds to balance the budget.”

During his first administration, Trump proposed selling off half the SPR as part of the administration’s 2018 budget.

“The difficulty about the SPR was just a decade ago, Trump wanted to get rid of it all,” De Haan continued. “He wanted to sell it, use it in the budget. Congress then started targeting this … we got complacent, and that was the biggest killer of the SPR.”

By April 2025, the Energy Department had sold around 119 million barrels from the inventories.

Some of these mandated sales have been canceled, including the sell-off of 140 million barrels under the Biden administration. Last year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act also repealed a provision from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that mandated the sale of 7 million barrels of crude between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027.

Refilling is a costly endeavor 

The OBBBA, signed last summer, also provided an additional $389 million for the SPR, $171 million of which is intended to be used to refill the inventories.

But that is just a fraction of what De Haan estimates it will take to refill the SPR to its full capacity. If domestic oil prices were to fall around $60 a barrel, he said, this could add up to around $18 billion to fill the SPR to the top.

And while oil prices have steadily dropped in the years since, with a brief peak around $90 a barrel in fall 2023, prices have not fallen to levels needed to rapidly refill the reserves.

Even last year, when West Texas Intermediate fell to the low $60s and and even high $50s at one point, wasn’t far enough for some analysts.

“We weren’t really anticipating there to be a refill unless we saw significant, kind of softness in prices at the beginning of the year, probably below $50 a barrel, but for an extended period of time that would need to occur,” Sean Vale, an energy market analyst with Rystad Energy, told the Washington Examiner.

Analysts say that these market conditions, combined with previously mandated sales and a lack of geopolitical risks, have motivated Congress to provide more funds to refill the reserves.

Just as the sale of reserves was used to balance past budgets, De Haan said, additional funds to buy oil would need to come in a similar proposal.

“That is why Congress probably has not acted on refilling it,” he said, adding that most politicians are focused on securing other provisions for their own districts and agendas in budget proposals.

“I don’t know if there’s a whole lot of champions for the SPR,” he said.

Taking a new approach

Often, when barrels are taken from the SPR and sold back to the market, the onus is put on the government to eventually buy more crude and refill the reserves.

However, that is not the only option.

Under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, enacted in 1975, the Energy Department has the authority to exchange oil from the SPR for the purpose of acquiring additional stocks at no cost to the taxpayer. This allows the government to negotiate deals with companies to draw a certain number of barrels with the intention that the company would return that same amount and a bit more.

This authority has been leveraged several times over the years, including in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. At the time, the Energy Department delivered 9.8 million barrels to domestic refineries and, over the next two years, about 10.3 billion barrels of crude were returned.

To guarantee a recovery of the most recent draws, the Trump administration decided to utilize this strategy. Of the entire 172 million barrels set to be released, at least 133 million barrels will be repaired with premiums of up to 24%.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said earlier in June that the companies receiving the crude oil will add 40 million barrels back into the stockpiles.

“Companies which are really desperate for crude oil, who need that volume to run through refiners or trade, are willing to take that premium in the hopes of fulfilling demand for now and hedging risk in the future,” Vale said. “And then they’ll have the onus of returning those barrels. So, I would say the administration seems to have already adjusted and learned from the lows they’ve seen before.”

A similar deal is expected to be struck with the remaining 40 million barrels expected to be released. 

When the administration first announced its plans to draw on the SPR, Wright said the agency was arranging to replace the reserves with around 200 million barrels within the next year, around 20% more than what will be released. 

If the administration is able to secure around 200 million barrels, that would level inventories at around 443 million barrels — roughly 28 million barrels more than what was recorded in January.

A call to Congress 

It will not just be up to the administration to refill the reserves, crude market analysts say, pointing out that adding 300 million more barrels to the inventories will cost billions of dollars, depending on market prices.

“Congress has often squandered the opportunity,” De Haan said. “Especially when Trump wanted to fill it up during COVID, when oil was only $20. They just don’t act fast enough.”

De Haan said the industry could benefit from legislation that would establish a “self-funded mechanism” ordering the administration to buy additional crude for the SPR when prices dip below a certain level, and thereby sell if it hits above a separate threshold.

There is support on the Hill for such legislation, particularly from Pfluger’s office.

US IS ESCORTING 20 TANKERS A NIGHT THROUGH STRAIT OF HORMUZ, BURGUM SAYS

During an interview with the Washington Examiner, the Texas Republican said he hoped to see coordinated policy focused on setting a certain price “trigger point” that would mandate action related to drawing on or filling the inventories.

“The political will has to be there, and then you need the secretaries and the administration to help direct that traffic,” Pfluger said. “But you know, the power of the purse comes from Congress. … We definitely want to make sure that they have the right resources and that the timing is also correct, so you don’t get too low.”