Rethinking the role of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
The United States' Strategic Petroleum Reserve hit a four-decade low in mid-2023-at 347 million barrels, or less than half the reserve's capacity-and today stands at 410 million barrels or 57% of the SPR's 714 million barrel authorized capacity. This pool of presidentially controlled crude oil is a strategic asset, but also an internationally agreed-upon reserve squirreled away in case of emergency. At current prices, it would cost the Trump administration more than $18 billion to refill the SPR completely to the brim.
However, America's strategic requirements for the SPR have greatly evolved since its establishment in the 1970s. The reserve's modern-day purpose-and potential-is muddied. Without a clear vision from the White House and the Department of Energy, it's all but guaranteed that the SPR won't be used to its fullest potential. The reserve holds the potential to be a unique and strategic tool if used bidirectionally-as both seller and buyer of last resort-rather than viewed as a battery, where the main value is in the ability to simply extract energy when needed.
The Dispatch reviews the SPR's historic context and considers whether it should continue to serve its original purpose a half-century on from the reserve's initial conception.
Historical impetus.
The SPR was born out of the oil price shocks of the 1970s. In other words, the U.S. SPR, from its founding, was meant to buffer against economic harm caused by oil market shortages and price spikes-and, contrary to the frequent tone of debate around the SPR, the reserve is not meant primarily to buttress military preparedness.
In 1974, member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the club of high-income countries including the United States, signed the Agreement on an International Energy Program (IEP) in the wake of a 1973 Arab oil embargo on the U.S. and a handful of other buyers. The IEP, which today includes 32 nations worldwide, requires that participating countries "hold stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of their net oil imports."
While the IEP did allow some flexibility in what could be counted toward those reserves, the U.S. took the most direct path: the creation of a giant, presidentially controlled reserve of crude owned outright and operated by the DOE. The reserve today consists of roughly 60 underground salt caverns spread across four sites, two in Texas and two in Louisiana.
An even bigger threat to the future of the reserve comes from Congress treating the SPR like a piggy bank from which to help pay for other spending priorities. Over the past decade, Congress has passed multiple laws that collectively mandated the sale of 358.6 million barrels of crude from the SPR. This type of mandated sale is market blind, selling equally into tight or loose markets.
The Biden administration negotiated a cancellation of 140 million barrels in mandated sales in exchange for $10.4 billion in proceeds (roughly $74 per barrel) from the 2022 emergency sale. Some $2 billion from the process was also sent as a more generic "deficit offset." The DOE used the remaining funds to repurchase 59 million barrels through the end of 2024 at a lower price than the barrels sold in 2022 ($76 vs. $95 per barrel). This implies a simple "profit" of roughly $1.1 billion off the "trade" and more than triple the cost-savings if we factor in the canceled mandated sales. However, another takeaway is that the SPR releases provided utility to an exceptionally tight 2022 oil market.
In conclusion.
The SPR's stature has been notably boosted since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with energy security rising to the top of the policy agenda. The hydrocarbon markets are increasingly tugged back and forth by capricious OPEC policy, U.S. sanctions, and the broader proliferation of geopolitical risks to both the supply and transit of these commodities. Far from the 2018 push for dramatically reducing the size of the SPR, Trump now says he wants to fill the stockpile to its maximum capacity.
At current prices, it would cost more than $18 billion to refill the SPR completely to the brim. All of the funds from the 2022 sale have been 1) used to repurchase crude, 2) returned to Congress in exchange for the cancellation of mandated sales, or 3) used in ongoing maintenance of the reserve. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act initially envisioned $1.3 billion in funding for SPR crude acquisitions, but that funding was subsequently cut to $171 million in the version of the law passed by the Senate.
Even if the funds were made available, however, the optimal course isn't to buy the barrels today but rather to wait for a weaker oil market (i.e., when barrels are cheaper and the buying itself helps stabilize the market).
The U.S. is now the world's largest petroleum producer. Using the reserve to its fullest potential will require policymakers to grapple with the country's newfound energy-dominant reality and determine how to best leverage this unique asset into the future.
This story was produced by The Dispatch and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
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This story was originally published November 21, 2025 at 5:30 AM.