US Strategic Petroleum Reserve Chart

It is an emergency crude oil stockpile owned by the US government and held in underground salt caverns on the Gulf Coast. It was established after the 1973–74 oil embargo so the country could withstand a severe interruption to supply.

EIA API v2 series PET.WCSSTUS1.W — US ending stocks of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, converted from thousand to million barrels. It is published in the same Wednesday release as the commercial inventory figures.

Because the SPR has no seasonal cycle to compare against. It is drawn down and refilled by government decision, so averaging the last five years would fold an exceptional policy drawdown into a supposed “normal” band and produce a benchmark that describes nothing real. Level, weekly change, year-on-year change, and distance from the observed peak are used instead.

They are separate and are reported separately. Commercial stocks are owned by refiners and traders and respond to market conditions; SPR barrels are sovereign and respond to policy. StorageCurve excludes the SPR from the commercial curve and from every seasonal calculation on the crude pages.

The series shows a large decline from its 2020 peak following the emergency sales authorised in 2022, alongside congressionally mandated sales. This page reports the observed level and the distance from that peak; it does not attribute movements to specific policy decisions or forecast the refill path.

There is no confirmed full-refill date here. Refill can include purchases and returns of exchanged oil plus premium barrels. The dated DOE program announcement is shown separately from observed stocks; it does not establish when the reserve reaches full capacity.

A release adds physical supply, which all else equal loosens the balance. Whether that shows up in price depends on the size of the release relative to global demand, and on production, demand, and positioning at the time. The WTI and Brent lines on this chart are shown for context, not as evidence of causation.

The chart compares stocks with the observed peak since 2019. The refill section separately compares stocks with 713.5 million barrels of nominal authorized capacity, while disclosing lower effective capacity.

Subtract the latest weekly SPR stock level from 713.5 million barrels, with a floor of zero. This nominal-capacity gap is separate from the distance to the peak in the chart.

GAO report GAO-26-106918 reports 713.5 million barrels of authorized capacity and approximately 680 million barrels of effective storage. The refill scenario uses authorized capacity as its full target.

No. Effective storage can be lower because of cavern conditions and operational constraints. The nominal target should not be read as currently available space or guaranteed fill capability.

The entire physical gap in million barrels is multiplied by the latest weekly WTI spot price and divided by 1,000 for billions of dollars. This assumes every missing barrel is purchased. Exchange returns can reduce purchases; this is not a net government spending estimate.

WTI is the US crude spot benchmark already supplied by this page. It is an illustrative purchase-price assumption; actual government purchases can involve other grades, locations and contract prices.

The estimate covers oil purchases only. Transport, operations, financing, infrastructure work and any effect of purchases on market prices are excluded.

The scenario divides the missing volume by exactly 365 days to calculate a constant average net addition. It does not assume that an actual purchase or injection program exists.

It is net additions to stocks. If releases continue during the refill period, gross deliveries would have to exceed this rate to reach the same target.

The one-year daily net refill rate is divided by the latest historical EIA STEO world petroleum and other liquids production value available by the SPR observation date, then multiplied by 100.

No. The denominator is petroleum and other liquids production, a broader measure that includes liquids beyond crude. The linked global production page distinguishes total liquids from crude oil.

SPR stocks and WTI prices are weekly, while global production is monthly and reported with a lag. Each input date is displayed; the calculation does not pretend these observations are simultaneous.

Exchange borrowers owe oil back plus premium barrels. Returns count toward physical refill and can reduce government purchases. Purchase need equals the physical gap plus future releases minus future exchange returns, floored at zero, with all flows measured after the stock date and within the scenario period.

No. DOE reported a 172-million-barrel release commitment and more than 216 million barrels secured for return, including 44 million premium barrels, on October 29, 2026. These program totals include delivery commitments and are not a reconciled outstanding balance at the weekly stock date. They are shown as dated context and are not automatically deducted from the physical gap.

Yes. It recalculates from the published data whenever the page loads after a source refresh. The capacity reference remains a documented fixed assumption, and the scenario is not a forecast of purchases, oil prices or completion dates.