US Energy Secretary vows to immediately refill US crude stockpile
In testimony before a House appropriations panel on May 7, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright vowed to immediately begin adding another 250 million bbl to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to comply with President Trump’s order to “fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top.”
Sec. Wright said he has issued a Secretarial Order "to refill the SPR, review SPR infrastructure, and develop appropriate plans to safeguard this important strategic asset."
Inventory levels at the stockpile dipped to a low of about 351,000 bbl in October 2023 following Congressionally mandated SPR sales and the Biden administration’s sale of 180-million barrels of SPR crude in March 2022 to combat market supply disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (OGJ Online, Mar. 31, 2022).
The Biden administration purchased 180,000 bbl to make up for its discretionary sale, but Pres. Trump and Sec. Wright hope to boost SPR crude to its 680-million-bbl operational capacity, up from the current 400 million bbl inventory.
Sec. Wright told the US House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development that the low stocks “weakened America’s ability to respond to new geopolitical oil market shocks,” and that the Department of Energy (DOE) needed to begin immediate purchases because “the time needed to refill the SPR is six times greater than the time required to do a drawdown.”
The estimated cost to fully refill the SPR is about $20 million and would take years to accomplish, Sec. Wright said earlier this year, noting that given the department’s other budget concerns, such a call for funding would not be made in one request.
Cathy Landry | Washington Correspondent
Cathy Landry has worked over 20 years as a journalist, including 17 years as an energy reporter with Platts News Service (now S&P Global) in Washington and London.
She has served as a wire-service reporter, general news and sports reporter for local newspapers and a feature writer for association and company publications.
Cathy has deep public policy experience, having worked 15 years in Washington energy circles.
She earned a master’s degree in government from The Johns Hopkins University and studied newspaper journalism and psychology at Syracuse University.
