Here’s where to find what level the strategic petroleum reserve is sitting at.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, aka the SPR, is an emergency supply of petroleum maintained by the US Department of Energy.
First established in 1975, the reserves, located in underground tanks in Louisiana and Texas, hold about 714 million barrels of oil representing upwards of $52.8 Billion (as of this blog post.)
According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2021 the United States used, on average, 19.89 million barrels of petroleum a day.
Some simple math tell us the SPR holds enough petroleum to “run” the United States for a little over a month.
With Russia’s incursion and occupation of Ukraine, those countries siding with Ukraine, United States included, have banned importation of Russian oil.
With President Biden tapping into our nation’s strategic petroleum reserves to ease gas prices at the pump (and to some extent, win votes and bolster approval ratings) there’s been a renewed interest in just how much oil is left in our SPR.
Here’s what our current SPR level is and how to find historical data going back to 1983.
What’s the current SPR level?
The US Department of Energy is quite transparent, updating its Strategic Petroleum Reserve Inventory once a week and publishing the numbers on the DOE’s website via spr.doe.gov/dir/dir/html.
As of December 2, 2022, the SPR is at 387 million bbls or 54% capacity.
Where to find historical SPR data?
Historical data showing the SPR’s level is maintained by the U.S. Energy Information Administration at eia.gov (click here for the exact link) with weekly readings going all the way back to 1983.
We haven’t seen SPR levels this low since March of 1984.
Here’s a screenshot of the SPR’s level through December 2022.
As Russia’s occupation of Ukraine goes on, our nation’s SPR and its ability to provide a buffer for prices at the pump will be put to the test into 2023.
We may see SPR levels dip to its lowest levels yet.
714,000,000 goal for oil in SPR. 327,000,000 needed. 327 million bbls / 28 = 11,678,571 oz of gold. 11,678,571 / 2000 = 5,839 tons of gold needed to purchase. That’s if Putin decides 1 barrel equals 1 gram of gold.
One thing to note, back in 1974, there was an agreement with the IEA, International Energy Agency, whereas 43% of the SPR in the United States is reserved for exporting OUT of the United States. Too bad you didn’t look up FACTS.
Also, in 2021 and 2022, we were going through a crisis because OPEC+ had purposely lowered oil production from April ’20 to April ’22 by about 10 Million barrels per day collectively. Plenty of articles discussing this. Also, the gas companies lost hundreds of billions of dollars in 2020, and to recoup their losses and to do stock buybacks, they’ve been gouging everyone at the pump, while STILL producing LESS oil, until April ’22 and then they again lowered by 2 Million barrels a couple months later. Also, please note that Oil Companies are also trying to increase their profits by slowing down or even stopping oil exploration to obtain new drill permits. There’s also currently about 9,000 Open Drill permits not being used by the oil companies.. So, this oil “crisis” is created by the oil industry.