It has been about six months since we last wrote about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
When President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring a “national energy emergency,”’ he directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to prioritize refilling the SPR to its full capacity, which is approximately 714 million barrels.
At the time, the reserve held around 394 million barrels-about 55% of capacity-after historic drawdowns during the Biden administration. As a reminder, in April 2024, the Biden administration refused to purchase oil to refill its reserves.
