The US government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve hit a symbolic milestone last week, surpassing Biden-era lows and reaching the lowest levels since it began being filled in the early 1980s.
New data released on Monday by the US Department of Energy showed that another 8.9 million barrels of oil were withdrawn from the reserve during the week ending on June 12. The energy backstop ended the week with 340.3 million barrels, down from 349.2 million one week prior.
The reserve is now more depleted than it was in July 2023, when it hit 346.8 million barrels, as then-President Biden struggled to counter the energy shock triggered by the start of the war in Ukraine.
To find a lower level than last week’s reading, one has to go back almost 40 years to July 29, 1983, when the reserve stood at 339.9 million barrels as it was first being built up by the Reagan administration.
As Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, put it Monday, “No matter where you stand politically, it’s a remarkable statistic.”
Read more: What’s the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and can it help lower gas prices?
A Strategic Petroleum Reserve storage facility is seen in 2022 in Freeport, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) · Brandon Bell via Getty Images
Reserve levels this year have been falling since March, when the Trump administration announced plans to join a worldwide release of oil reserves and sell a total of 172 million barrels to try to steady global markets.
The reserve stood at about 415 million barrels at the time of the announcement, suggesting current releases are only about a third finished, but Trump’s team previously signaled that it might cease withdrawals if the Iran war ended.
With the announcement Sunday of a 60-day peace deal, the pace of oil selling could abate, but the Trump administration hasn’t announced any change in plans so far.
Both Iran and the US have confirmed that this weekend’s deal includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz with no shipping tolls for 60 days, though energy analysts warn that the path to energy price stabilization could be slow.
Trump’s planned total releases, if fully implemented, would cut the US energy reserve by over 40%, although the Trump administration has also promised to refill the stock quickly once the war ends.
All told, Biden oversaw a much sharper drawdown of the reserve during his term than Trump has overseen so far. Biden was inaugurated in 2021 when the reserve stood at about 638 million barrels and left office in 2025 with around 394 million barrels in stock.
The reserve was first established in response to the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo. The latest reading means the energy backstop is now less than half the total authorized storage capacity of roughly 714 million barrels.