As of June 20, 2024, the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) contained 370.91 million barrels of crude oil, which is a 5.47% increase from the previous year. The SPR's inventory is displayed on its website.
The SPR's total capacity is 727 million barrels and is located at four sites on the Gulf of Mexico. The SPR's maximum withdrawal rate is 4.4 million barrels per day, which means it could take about 79 days to use the entire inventory. However, at a rate of 1 million barrels per day, the SPR could continuously release oil into the market for almost a year and a half.
The SPR was created to help with domestic supply shortages. In the past, the SPR has been used to respond to disruptions caused by hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in 2017, the SPR exchanged 5.2 million barrels of oil to help Gulf Coast refineries after Hurricane Harvey caused many of the region's oil refining facilities to shut down
Past Sales of SPR:
FY 2022 Emergency Sales: 180 million barrels
FY 2022 Mandated Sales: 38 million barrels
FY 2021 Mandated Sales: 16.7 million barrels
FY 2020 Mandated Sales: 9.9 million barrels
FY 2019 SPR Modernization Sale: 4.2 million barrels
FY 2019 Mandated Sales: 15.2 million barrels
FY 2018 SPR Modernization Sale: 4.74 million barrels
FY 2018 Mandated Sales: 18.9 million barrels
FY 2017 Mandated Sales: 16.2 million barrels
FY 2017 SPR Modernization Sale: 6.28 million barrels