According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on August 27 and included data for the week ending August 22, there were 404.2 million barrels of crude oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) on August 22.
The EIA’s report showed that crude oil in the SPR increased week on week and year on year. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 403.4 million barrels on August 15 and 377.9 million barrels on August 23, 2024, the report highlighted.
In its previous weekly petroleum status report, which was released on August 20 and included data for the week ending August 15, the EIA showed that crude oil in the SPR stood at 403.4 million barrels on August 15, 403.2 million barrels on August 8, and 377.2 million barrels on August 16, 2024.
In its latest short term energy outlook (STEO), which was released on August 12, the EIA projected that crude oil in the SPR will increase in 2025 and 2026.
The EIA forecast in this STEO that crude oil in the SPR will come in at 419.7 million barrels this year and 426.4 million barrels next year. In this STEO, the EIA highlighted that crude oil in the SPR came in at 393.6 million barrels in 2024.
In its August STEO, the EIA projected that crude oil in the SPR would come in at 409.7 million barrels in the third quarter of this year, 419.7 million barrels in the fourth quarter, and 426.4 million barrels across all four quarters of 2026.
The EIA forecast in its previous STEO, which was released in July, that crude oil in the SPR would come in at 423.5 million barrels this year and 430.2 million barrels next year. That STEO projected that crude oil in the SPR would come in at 413.5 million barrels in the third quarter of this year, 423.5 million barrels in the fourth quarter, and 430.2 million barrels across all four quarters of next year.
In his inaugural address, which was transcribed on the White House website on January 20, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “we will … fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top”.
On January 29, the Fitch Group sent Rigzone a BMI Q&A format research note. In that note, one of the questions BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, asked was ‘Will Trump Fill Strategic Petroleum Reserves ‘Right To The Top’?’.
Offering a response in the note, BMI analysts said, “oil storage levels will rise under Trump, but probably at a slower pace than his rhetoric would suggest”.
“There are logistical constraints to consider, with the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimating strategic reserves would take at least 19 months to replenish,” they added.
Rigzone previously asked the White House, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the API for comment on that BMI research note. None of the above responded to that Rigzone request for comment.
The SPR is described on the U.S. DOE website as the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil. The site highlights that it was established “primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program”.
“The federally owned oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns at four sites along the coastline of the Gulf of America,” the DOE site notes.
“The sheer size of the SPR (authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool in foreign policy,” the site adds.
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