The United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is facing severe pressure as large-scale oil releases to address conflicts in the Middle East and Europe have overwhelmed its aging and urgently needed infrastructure. This week, SPR inventories fell to their lowest level since March 1983, following the extraction of 352 million barrels of crude over four years to ease supply disruptions caused by the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Federal auditors have found that the SPR's ability to respond to future emergencies is at risk. A May report cited Department of Energy officials stating that the reserve's network of pipelines, salt caverns, and storage tanks is being held together by "band-aids," with uncertainty about how much longer they can last. The Government Accountability Office warned in the report that "the SPR's capacity for withdrawal, distribution, and replenishment is currently limited and faces future risks due to long-term problems with aging infrastructure and large-scale construction projects aimed at addressing these issues."

Auditors noted that the SPR, established by Congress in 1975 after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, has infrastructure nearing the end of its service life, while the scale and frequency of inventory releases have increased. The Department of Energy is implementing a $1.4 billion repair plan but has had to scale back the project scope to stay within budget. In March, President Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels from the SPR after Iran cut off oil export routes through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering the largest supply disruption in history.

Last week, government inventories fell by 3.7 million barrels, bringing total stockpiles to approximately 308 million barrels. According to the Energy Information Administration, when Trump's release order is fully executed, the SPR will drop to about 243 million barrels. Department of Energy data shows the emergency reserve has an authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels. Federal auditors found that more than a quarter of SPR stockpiles are "unavailable for withdrawal due to construction shutdowns and salt cavern closures." According to a July analysis by Rapidan Energy, this means at least 103 million barrels in the SPR are currently unusable.

David Goldwyn, who served as the State Department's special envoy for international energy affairs under President Obama, stated that the remaining inventory is sufficient to handle another crisis. "I'm not concerned about the reserve's stability or our ability to release oil again," Goldwyn said. A Department of Energy spokesperson noted that federal law does not mandate a minimum operating level for the SPR. The spokesperson said, "The minimum stock required for safe operation of salt caverns is about 10% of capacity—roughly 70 million barrels."

Crude in the SPR is stored in 60 salt caverns thousands of feet underground at four main bases along the Gulf Coast. Water is pumped into the bottom of the caverns to push crude to the surface, and it is then pumped through wells into pipelines. This year's release operations come as stockpiles are slowly recovering from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. President Biden ordered the release of 180 million barrels to address the European war, the largest release in SPR history. Federal auditors said that massive release "served as an unplanned stress test of the SPR's operational capacity."

"Each release accelerates the aging of the wells themselves and some of the equipment," Goldwyn said. "It's like anything—the more you use it, the more you have to maintain it." Auditors noted that the Department of Energy executed Biden's release order "without major equipment failures or crude oil leaks," but described it as "operationally challenging." They stated that the release required "emergency repairs" due to pump or pipeline leaks. Energy officials told auditors that the previous releases "also highlighted the risks to the SPR's capacity if it were called upon to repeat a release of the same speed and scale as in 2022 in the near future."