The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to the lowest level in more than 40 years, according to the Department of Energy, thanks to Trump’s war with Iran.
The oil industry has warned that global reserves of oil are rapidly depleting with the supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, and inventories are expected to continue to fall as it will take weeks or months for traffic to normalize, assuming a deal is formally recognized and signed on Friday.
The SPR stood at 340.3 million barrels as of June 12, the lowest level since the summer of 1983, according to data released Monday by the Department of Energy. The reserve fell nearly 9 million barrels week over week.
In early March the Trump administration released 172 million barrels from the reserve as part of a coordinated global effort of 400 million barrels by members of the International Energy Agency, the largest such intervention in the organization’s history.
“The U.S. is the supplier of last resort,” said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Kpler. “Everybody’s coming to the U.S. to pull barrels out of it because there’s not the availability elsewhere.”
Trump criticized President Biden for releasing oil reserves after Russia invaded Ukraine, when the reserves hit a low of around 346 million barrels in 2023.