US Vitality Secretary Wright is saying that the US will add 40M barrels after the Iran battle is over.
Here is the total image:
Present stage: As of the week ending Could 29, 2026, the SPR recorded a launch of 8 million barrels, bringing the full right down to 357.1 million barrels — the bottom stage since January 2024.
Trump got here into workplace with the SPR at round 392 million barrels and promptly pledged to fill it again up. In his January 2025 inaugural tackle, Trump indicated his administration supposed to fill the SPR to capability, and a February 2025 DOE Secretarial Order listed “Refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve” as a department-level precedence.
For a lot of 2025, that refill truly occurred — the SPR steadily climbed to round 411–415 million barrels by early 2026. However then the door closed with the Iran Battle begin on February 28.
The U.S. is within the technique of releasing 172 million barrels from the SPR as a part of a coordinated effort with the Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) to launch 400 million barrels of crude oil and refined merchandise globally to deal with oil provide disruptions stemming from battle within the Center East
The reserve posted back-to-back document drawdowns in mid-Could, with 9.92 million barrels launched within the week ending Could 15 and eight.6 million the week earlier than — bringing the stockpile to 365.1 million barrels at that time. At 365M (now 357M), the reserve sits at roughly half of its all-time excessive of 726.6 million barrels.
Wanting additional again in time
The longer view tells a a lot richer story:
Trump’s first time period (2017–2021): The SPR began round 660 million barrels and slowly drifted down by way of congressionally mandated gross sales, ending at about 638M when Biden took over — a gradual, managed decline.
Biden period (2021–2025): The large story. Beginning in early 2022, the Biden administration launched an unprecedented quantity of oil — first in response to Russia’s Ukraine invasion, then as a broader power value administration software. The SPR plummeted from ~638M to a 40-year low of roughly 347M barrels by late 2022, shedding almost 300 million barrels in below two years. A gradual refill then introduced it again to ~392M by the point Biden left.
Trump’s second time period (2025–current): Got here in promising to refill to capability, and the SPR did tick as much as about 415M by early 2026. Then the Strait of Hormuz disaster hit — a coordinated IEA emergency launch has pushed it again right down to ~357M, erasing all of the refill progress after which some.
The large takeaway: the Biden drawdown of 2022 was traditionally huge by any measure, and whereas Trump’s refill made a dent, the brand new 2026 disaster means the SPR is now heading within the mistaken course once more.
The underside line: Trump promised to fill the SPR; it did rise modestly by way of 2025, however nonetheless to not ranges that had existed previously. With the value close to $60 earlier than the beginning of the battle, the chance was there, however missed. The Strait of Hormuz disaster on the finish of February triggered an emergency IEA-coordinated launch that has now greater than erased these positive aspects, placing the reserve properly under the place it was on Inauguration Day. Pres. Trump would like to fill the SPR up because it was one other marketing campaign promice andcriticism of the Biden administration who depleted reserves as a result of Russia/Ukraine struggle, however with AAA fuel value at $4.22 at present (down from $4.55 or so, it’s nonetheless too costly.
