The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is an emergency stockpile of petroleum maintained by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). It is the largest publicly known emergency supply in the world; its underground tanks in Louisiana and Texas have capacity for 714 million barrels (113,500,000 m3). The United States started the petroleum reserve in 1975 to mitigate future supply disruptions as part of the international Agreement on an International Energy Program, after oil supplies were interrupted during the 1973–1974 oil embargo. The current inventory is displayed on the SPR's website. As of July 17, 2026, the inventory was 311.4 million barrels (49,510,000 m3). This equates to about 15 days' worth of oil at 2023 daily U.S. consumption levels of 20.275 million barrels per day (3,223,500 m3/d) or 37 days' worth of oil at 2024 daily U.S. import levels of 8.420 million barrels per day (1,338,700 m3/d). However, the maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 2.7 million barrels per day (430,000 m3/d), so it would take about 115 days to use the entire inventory. At recent market prices ($66 a barrel as of March 2025), the SPR holds over $9.5 billion in sweet crude and approximately $12.9 billion in sour crude (assuming a $15/barrel discount for sulfur content). In 2012, the total value of the crude in the SPR was approximately $43.5 billion, while the price paid for the oil was $20.1 billion (an average of $28.42 per barrel). Since 2015, Congress has mandated sales of oil from the reserve to fund federal spending. The U.S. Department of Energy has run at least seven sales since 2017, selling 132 million barrels, or about 18.2% of what had been in the reserve. According to legislation already in place, the amount of oil in the reserve could fall to 410 million barrels by 2028 while still meeting petroleum import coverage requirements. This will be a 40% reduction to the oil in the reservoir since 2010. On March 31, 2022, President Joe Biden announced that his administration would release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the reserve for the next 180 days, selling it at an average price of $96 per barrel. The 2022 release became the largest ever SPR sale and lowered the SPR to its lowest levels in 40 years. After oil prices declined during the second half of the year, in December the administration announced it would begin replenishing the SPR in early 2023, expecting to purchase oil at a lower price than it was sold at, a process that would take months or years to complete. The Biden administration continued to release reserves in 2023, selling off 45% of the SPR by September 2023. The Department of Energy unveiled plans to purchase oil at a price of $79 per barrel or less, but has since purchased oil at higher prices. As of April 2024, further purchases were cancelled because of rising oil prices. On March 11, 2026, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright released the following statement regarding the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR): "Earlier today, 32 member nations of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to President Trump's request to lower energy prices with a coordinated release of 400 million barrels of oil and refined products from their respective reserves. As part of this effort, President Trump authorized the Department of Energy to release 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, beginning next week. This will take approximately 120 days to deliver based on planned discharge rates." On June 15, 2026, the amount of oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve plunged to the lowest level since 1983 as the Trump administration continues to deploy emergency oil to minimize the damage from the war with Iran.
Facilities
The SPR management office is located in Elmwood, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The reserve is stored at four sites on the Gulf of Mexico, each located near a major center of petrochemical refining and processing. Each site contains a number of artificial caverns created in salt domes below the surface. Individual caverns within a site can be up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) below the surface. Average dimensions are 60 m (200 ft) wide and 600 m (2,000 ft) deep; capacity ranges from 6 to 37 million barrels (950,000 to 5,880,000 m3). Almost $4 billion was spent on the facilities. The decision to store in caverns was made to reduce costs. The Department of Energy claims that it is approximately ten times more cost effective to store oil below the surface, with the added advantages of no leaks and a constant natural churn of the oil due to a temperature gradient in the caverns. The caverns were created by drilling down and then dissolving the salt with water.
Existing Bryan Mound: Freeport, Texas. 20 caverns with a storage capacity of 184 million barrels (29,300,000 m3) with a drawdown capacity of 1.5 million barrels (240,000 m3) per day. Big Hill: Winnie, Texas. Has a capacity of 90 million barrels (14,000,000 m3) with a drawdown capacity of 0 million barrels (0 m3) per day due to a construction outage. West Hackberry: Lake Charles, Louisiana. Has a capacity of 88 million barrels (14,000,000 m3) with a drawdown capacity of 0.75 million barrels (119,000 m3) per day due to low inventory. Bayou Choctaw: Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Has a capacity of 51 million barrels (8,100,000 m3) with a maximum drawdown rate of 0.45 million barrels (72,000 m3) per day.
Retired Weeks Island: Iberia Parish, Louisiana (decommissioned 1999): Capacity of 72 million barrels (11,400,000 m3). This facility was a conventional room and pillar near-surface salt mine, formerly owned by Morton Salt. In 1993, a sinkhole formed on the site, allowing fresh water to intrude into the mine. Because of the mine's construction in salt deposits, fresh water would erode the ceiling, potentially causing the structure to fail. The mine was backfilled with salt-saturated brine. This process, which allowed for recovery of 98% of the petroleum stored in the facility, reduced the risk of further fresh water intrusion, and helped prevent the remaining oil from leaking into the aquifer that is located over the salt dome.
History
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