The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the country’s emergency oil stockpile built to shield the economy from supply shocks, has dropped to 340.3 million barrels. That’s the lowest level since August 1983, when Reagan was in office and the reserve was still being filled for the first time.
Here’s the thing: a reserve designed to hold 714 million barrels is now less than half full. And the drawdowns are accelerating.
The Iran conflict is draining the tank
The primary culprit behind the current depletion is the US-Iran conflict, which has prompted the Trump administration to authorize aggressive releases from the SPR. Roughly 50 million barrels have been pulled from the reserve since that conflict began, with recent weekly drawdowns averaging around 9 million barrels.
The total decline amounts to approximately 75 million barrels, an 18% drop in SPR crude stocks tied directly to the geopolitical crisis.
