Six months after Iran war, America’s oil reserves drop to lowest levels since 1982
The U.S. has used 125.7 million barrels from its emergency stockpile since the start of the Iran war.
The U.S. has used 125.7 million barrels from its emergency stockpile since the start of the Iran war.
America’s oil reserves have hit their lowest level in more than four decades. The latest report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows there are 289.7 million barrels left as of the week ending Aug. 21.
This is below the 40-year low of 346.8 million barrels reached in 2023 when then-President Joe Biden ordered the release of 180 million barrels of crude oil to mitigate a shortfall in the production of oil caused by Russia's war in Ukraine.
What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an emergency stockpile of crude oil created by President Gerald Ford to protect the American economy from major oil shortages and support national security needs.
The federally owned oil stocks are stored in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana.
How much of the oil reserves have been used since the start of the war with Iran?
On March 11, President Donald Trump authorized the U.S. Department of Energy to release 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over 120 days.
The release was part of an international effort with the International Energy Agency and its 32 member nations to release 400 million barrels of oil and refined products to lower energy prices.
Before the war with Iran began on Feb. 28, the U.S. had 415.4 million barrels of crude oil in its emergency stockpile.
Six months after the war began, the country has used 125.7 million barrels from its strategic oil reserves.
The Iran war has triggered the largest oil supply disruption in recent history, due in large part to the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world's oil and liquid fuels pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has restricted shipping traffic through.
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