Strategic Petroleum Reserve
5th June 2025
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is a reserve inventory of crude oil intended for use in the event of war or extreme emergencies. Oil is stored in 62 salt caverns at four sites along the Gulf of Mexico and holds a total of 714 million barrels of crude oil. In the event of war, the reserve could be used not only for direct military oil needs but also to supply defense industries. To give an idea of the practical impact of the SPR, as of Jan 2022, the SPR represented around 1450 days of total U.S. petroleum net imports at the usage rates at that time.
As an emergency supply, the importance of maintaining the supply at full capacity is self-evident. Unfortunately, President Biden drew down the storage levels for political gain in violation of the intent of the reserve.
As they do.