WASHINGTON — The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at its lowest degree because the Eighties after tens of hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil had been drained from it in response to the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, a authorities watchdog discovered.
Moreover, the nation’s emergency vitality stockpile’s operational skill is in danger as a result of ageing infrastructure that hasn’t been changed, per the US Authorities Accountability Workplace.
The GAO report, which was publicly launched Friday, had raised a variety of pink flags concerning the reserve, which has been tapped repeatedly in current a long time as gasoline costs have soared and Congress mandated gross sales to pay for billions of {dollars} in wanted upkeep.
The reserve can retailer as much as about 680 million barrels of oil. However, as of early June, it held lower than 350 million barrels.
A minimum of 180 million barrels had been launched as a result of invasion of Ukraine and the obligatory gross sales.
And it might get even decrease.
Extra oil is being drained to ease home gasoline costs that spiked with the battle with Iran. In March 2026, the Division of Power introduced plans to launch an extra 172 million barrels after the move of worldwide oil was interrupted.
“The total timing and implications of this large-scale emergency launch aren’t but realized,” the GAO famous in a warning the state of affairs could possibly be extra dire than is thought.
Moreover, there isn’t any plan in place to interchange the reserves or a way to establish the place the oil and gasoline would come from to replenish the coffers.
Clay Seigle, a non-resident scholar with the CSIS Power Safety and Local weather Change Program, beforehand informed The Publish that the US had been “drastically ramping up oil exports” to bridge provide chain disruptions attributable to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Some international locations in Asia such because the Philippines had been among the many first recipients of the US oil reserves.
The Power Division, in its March announcement of the discharge, mentioned there was a plan to interchange the oil however provided no speedy particulars.
“The GAO report makes clear what we now have mentioned from day one: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a important nationwide safety asset that should be managed strategically—not politically,” a Division of Power spokesperson mentioned in a press release.
“Not like the earlier administration which drained the SPR and used the income to assist fund their Inexperienced New Rip-off agenda, the Trump administration exchanged the barrels for decrease price barrels that can be delivered again to the SPR. These exchanges will greater than exchange the 172-million-barrel launch.”
The rep added: “Because of President Trump’s management, this Administration is managing the SPR because the important nationwide safety asset it was designed to be, serving to stabilize oil markets, defend People from provide disruptions, and strengthen vitality safety at house and overseas.”
The GAO report additionally famous there’s a rising checklist of wanted upgrades and repairs to the precise storage services, that are in Louisiana and Texas, to maintain oil and gasoline from leaking and to make sure it may be accessed as wanted.
For instance, the overwhelming majority of its wells are far previous the common design lifetime of 20 to 30 years — with one of many latest being 38 years previous.
The Power Division is within the technique of finishing a $1.4 billion life extension mission on the SPR, however the repairs “aren’t preserving tempo with the ageing reserve’s wants, leading to a rising backlog and looming operational limitations,” the report discovered.
“Addressing these wants would price tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, but when left undone may undermine the reserve’s skill to soundly and reliably launch and obtain oil,” the GAO mentioned.
The present upkeep backlog would price roughly $230 million to handle, the Power Division projected in December 2025.
The Trump administration has aggressively expanded US oil and gasoline manufacturing, approving drilling initiatives within the Gulf of America, off the coast of California, and in Alaska’s Arctic Nationwide Wildlife Refuge.
However it’s unclear how a lot of those business initiatives would move again into the reserves, that are owned and operated by the US authorities.
One concern the report raised was how a lot was unknown about the way forward for the reserve — each in its capability to carry oil and its plan for replenishing the inventory pile.
The GAO really useful that Congress and the Power Division develop a unified long-term plan to reply a few of these questions and assist information their determination making.
There is no such thing as a plan to establish a “goal dimension” for the reserve and the way the ability can “meet altering US wants and obligations” relating to vitality, the watchdog company warns, including there was no technique to establish assets to refill the reserve.
