POLIBIZ - According to data from U.S. Energy Information Administration, the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has been depleted from 638,086 million barrels in 2020 when Biden-Harris took office to just 376 million as of Sept 5 2024. There is no clear sign of any substantial replenishment as the current Administration will finish its term in a few months.
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SPR had been maintained its level of approximately 600 million barrels during the past 40 years, and the declining trend started since 2021 by Biden makes it now at the lowest level.
On March 19, 2020, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Energy to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to maximum capacity (of 714 million barrels), when oil was priced at $24 per barrel. This directive was given to help support domestic oil producers given the impending economic collapse from COVID-19 and extreme drops in international oil markets. However, funding was blocked by Congress, with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer stating that Democrats had blocked a "bailout for big oil".
In 2022, the Biden administration sold 180 million barrels of oil from the SPR over 6 months. The sale lowered the SPR to its lowest levels in 40 years and was the largest ever release of oil from the SPR.
After all the massive sales, only 32.3 million barrels of oil was brought back to replenish the reserve.
The accumulated fiscal deficit of the US in the past few years was 1.4 trillion in 2022, 1.7 trillion in 2023 and 1.9 trillion as of August 2024. The economic and fiscal records of Biden-Harris Administration should also reflect the depleted SPR in the past four years.
