The United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve has dropped to 304.81 million barrels – the lowest level since March 1983 – after President Donald Trump ordered the release of crude to counter energy price spikes triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, following the war of aggression launched on February 28 by Washington and Israel against Iran.
At the current drawdown pace, the remaining stockpile ensures domestic supply for 43 days, according to figures from the Department of Energy and Bank of America Global Research.
The administration pledged to extract 172 million barrels over a 120‑day period. Out of that total, roughly 108.6 million barrels have already been injected into the market, with domestic production cut by the same committed proportion.
The massive release is designed to offset the interruption of commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz which has remained blocked after five months of military hostilities.
In response, Iran closed the maritime passage and opened talks with Oman to devise a joint framework on navigation agreements, while clarifying that the dialogue does not signal an immediate reopening of the strait.
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The gradual depletion of these inventories reduces Washington’s ability to respond to future energy shocks if the military confrontation drags on. Trump himself cautioned on June 17 about the risk of exhausting these resources rapidly under the current extraction rate, warning that reserves would run out in about four weeks.
In his latest remarks, the president accused major U.S. oil firms – including ExxonMobil and Chevron – of profiting from the wartime situation and demanded they lower retail pump prices for consumers.
As early as May, U.S. local media had reported that the Trump administration was draining the SPR at an accelerated clip compared to previous tenures, pushing inventories to their lowest since the early 1980s. Despite Trump’s past criticism of releases under Joe Biden – when the SPR fell to 347 million barrels in 2023 – the current conflict with Iran produced record withdrawals of 9.9 million barrels in a single seven‑day stretch in mid‑May, shrinking the reserve by 10% to 374 million barrels at that time.
A U.S. official said Washington expects Iran and Oman to reach a deal “soon” on the Strait of Hormuz and will lift its blockade of Iranian ports once an agreement restoring commercial shipping “without impediments” is announced, Reuters reported Friday.
The official said… https://t.co/CbJjqoXqMS
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The Strait of Hormuz blockade has cut off more than 1.2 billion barrels of transit, S&P Global Energy estimated. To ease the shortfall, roughly half of the oil released between April and May was directed to exports bound for Europe and Asia.
Kpler lead oil analyst Matt Smith warned that strategic reserves are finite and that the future need to replenish those barrels will ultimately push prices higher, adding that the United States is functioning as a supplier of last resort in global crude markets.
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