Emergency oil reserve nears 1980s lows as Iran war strains

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to 365.1 million barrels in the week ending May 22 as the country rapidly drew down supplies amid global energy market turmoil tied to the war with Iran. Analysts warn the reserve is days from reaching levels last seen

For the third week in a row. the number has kept shrinking—and this time it is moving toward a baseline last seen before most Americans remember. In the week ending May 22. the Strategic Petroleum Reserve held 365.1 million barrels of oil. according to the latest report from the Energy Information Administration.

That is down from 374.2 million barrels the week before. and down by more than 50 million barrels since the conflict began on February 28. The drawdown has already pushed the SPR to its lowest level since April 2024. At the current pace. GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan predicts the reserve is days away from reaching levels last touched in August 1983. when it was still in the initial “fill-up” stage.

The speed of the depletion is colliding with a long-running political argument over how the emergency stockpile should be used. President Donald Trump has previously criticized former President Joe Biden for “recklessly” draining the SPR during the 2022 energy crisis. During his 2025 inauguration, Trump pledged to bring America’s emergency reserves “right to the top.”.

The Department of Energy did not immediately respond. Newsweek has contacted the Department of Energy via email for comment.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve. authorized in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. was built after the 1973 Oil Crisis unleashed shortages and price spikes and heightened fears about the country’s vulnerability to global energy shocks. The reserve sits in underground facilities along the Gulf Coasts of Texas and Louisiana. The Department of Energy has described it as an “emergency response tool. ” one used in the past to increase available crude on the market and put downward pressure on prices during “significant disruptions in oil supplies that threaten the U.S. economy.”.

Over the decades, releases have come at moments of national and global disruption. Supplies were released during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. They were also released after Hurricane Katrina damaged response facilities in the Gulf in 2005. and after supply disruptions tied to the Libyan civil war. More recently, the SPR was used to address the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That 2022 drawdown, at around 180 million barrels, remains the largest single drawdown in the reserve’s 50-year history.

Trump and Republican lawmakers pushed back on that 2022 action. Trump called it a “futile attempt to reduce oil and gasoline prices” and continued to criticize Biden for draining U.S. emergency stocks.

In late 2022. when Trump launched his 2024 presidential campaign. he said. “The strategic national reserves. which I filled up. have been virtually drained in order to keep gasoline prices lower. just prior to the election.” He later argued that before the Iran war. the administration had successfully “refilling and repairing” the SPR after Biden “recklessly drained and damaged it for political purposes.”.

Now the debate has shifted from the politics of who drained the SPR to the practical problem of what happens when the next crisis arrives. Since the war began on February 28, the U.S. has again relied on the reserve as part of an effort to slow the rise of global oil and domestic gas prices.

In March. the Trump administration announced it would release about 172 million barrels from the SPR over 120 days as part of a global push to “lower energy prices.” That move is happening alongside coordinated releases from other International Energy Agency member nations. which have collectively pledged to release 400 million barrels from their emergency reserves.

The structure of the current release is complicated. The Department of Energy says it has been set up as an exchange—meaning more than the original volume drawn down must be “returned to the SPR at a later date.”

Bob McNally. president of the Rapidan Energy Group consulting firm and a former White House energy adviser. told Newsweek that the coordinated release is taking place against a backdrop of years of depletion. He said the SPR was “irresponsibly depleted for many years prior to the Hormuz crisis” and that refilling it “will also take many years and require congressional appropriations.”.

McNally added that when the returned oil is made, it could put “upward pressure” on prices, though he said the U.S. could mitigate the impact by doing so slowly.

Thomas Kloza, an oil market analyst, said the drawdown may bring “lots of criticism” and could become a “political liability” for Trump. But he also said it has been “a key factor in keeping crude oil price appreciation suppressed.”

Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said last month that the coordinated global release—including the U.S. and other countries—helped prevent crude from reaching $150 per barrel, as some had feared. Still, Lipow said the U.S. was “well on the way” toward the “minimum operating level” of 240 million barrels. Kloza similarly warned that once the SPR falls below 300 million barrels. it could create problems with “the integrity of the oil stored. ” among other issues.

Taken together. the numbers show the reserve being used faster than it can be forgotten—and they leave unanswered questions about endurance and timing. The emergency stockpile that was meant to buffer sudden shocks is now moving toward an all-time-low neighborhood. at a moment when political arguments over past drawdowns are colliding with the immediate pressure to keep prices from spiking again.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve SPR Energy Information Administration EIA Iran war emergency oil reserve Patrick De Haan GasBuddy Donald Trump Joe Biden Department of Energy global energy prices International Energy Agency