![America's Oil Reserve: Lowest Since 1982](https://cdn.slatesource.com/2/9/e/29e21aa0-3aac-4600-a14d-ef6b60a844f6.webp) # America's Oil Reserve: Lowest Since 1982 - [Made in Slatesource](https://slatesource.com/@steph/america-s-oil-reserve-lowest-since-1982) - By [Steph](https://slatesource.com/@steph) - Created on Sep 22, 2026 ## 285 million barrels. That is what is left in the US Strategic Petroleum \\ Reserve, as of the week ending September 11, 2026. A year ago there were 405 million barrels. At the reserve's all-time peak in April 2011 there were 726.5 million. The tank is now 39.9% full, its lowest level since November 1982, and it is still being drained. The reserve was created in 1975, after the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 left filling stations dark from Maine to California. Congress authorised underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas to hold up to 714 million barrels, enough to cover roughly 35 days of US imports at peak fill. The idea was simple: when a geopolitical shock chokes off supply, the president opens the tap and the market stabilises. It has worked twice. It has now been opened a third time. ![](https://cdn.slatesource.com/2/9/e/29e21aa0-3aac-4600-a14d-ef6b60a844f6.webp) ## Carol M. Highsmith, CC0. Refinery storage tanks along Houston. Two emergency releases have cut the reserve almost in half since 2021. The Biden administration released 180 million barrels between 2022 and 2023 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the largest single SPR release in history at the time. The reserve partly recovered, climbing back to 415 million barrels by February 2026. Then on March 11, 2026, President Trump authorised a 172-million-barrel release, the US share of a 400-million-barrel collective action by 32 IEA member countries, triggered by Iran's partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Combined, those two drawdowns removed 352 million barrels. [EIA: Weekly Petroleum Status Report, week ending September 11 2026](https://ir.eia.gov/wpsr/wpsrsummary.pdf?utm_source=slatesource) Current SPR level (Sep 11 2026) 285.0 million barrels All-time peak (April 2011) 726.5 million barrels Lowest level since November 1982 Authorized capacity 714 million barrels Percent full 39.9% Biden release 2022 to 2023 180 million barrels (Ukraine) Trump release March 2026 172 million barrels (Iran) Level one year ago 405.2 million barrels Withdrawal capability (designed) 4.4 million barrels/day Withdrawal capability (actual 2026) 2.7 million barrels/day Cost to fully refill at $82/bbl approx. $20 billion ## The infrastructure is failing as the tank empties. Before the 2022 release, a GAO audit warned that the SPR's pipes, pumps, and caverns had received inadequate maintenance for years. The 2022 drawdown became, in the GAO's own words, "an unplanned stress test of the reserve's operational capabilities." Withdrawal rates that should have reached 4.4 million barrels per day maxed out at 2.7 million because of broken pipes, failing pumps, and collapsing cavern walls. By December 2025, more than a quarter of the remaining inventory was classified as not available for drawdown due to outages. ## The GAO's May 2026 report found three compounding problems: mission demand had \\ surged beyond anything modelled in the reserve's founding legislation, infrastructure investment had not kept pace, and DOE's long-term strategic plan had not been updated since 2016. A draft was circulating but remained incomplete. The GAO made four recommendations. Congress and DOE both concurred. The infrastructure work has not been funded. [GAO: Energy Security report on Strategic Petroleum Reserve priorities, May 2026](https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-26-106918/index.html?utm_source=slatesource) > We're releasing oil now, and for each barrel we're releasing, we're going to get at least 1.2 barrels of oil back into the reserve. We'll leave it fuller than when we started. ## The refill plan: it is structured as a loan that will not be repaid until 2028. The 172-million-barrel release was not a sale. Companies that received SPR crude must return the original volume plus a premium of up to 24%, meaning roughly 40 million additional barrels. Repayment will not begin until late 2026 and will not be complete until late 2028. A full replenishment to near 714 million barrels would require buying about 430 million barrels on the open market, roughly $20 billion at current prices. Congress provided $171 million in the last appropriations cycle. ## Venezuela will not fill the gap quickly. Trump announced on August 30 that Venezuelan crude would accelerate the refill, following a new oil agreement with Caracas. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has proposed a swap: US companies source heavy Venezuelan crude for Gulf Coast refineries and return equivalent light barrels to the SPR. Analysts have been direct about the timeline: the Venezuela deal is a decade-long supply project. At current depletion rates the reserve will bottom out near 243 million barrels before loan repayments begin, inside the range where salt-cavern hydraulics start to degrade. The buffer against the next oil shock is thinner than at any point in four decades.