In January 2025, the newly elected President Donald Trump declared a “national energy emergency” during his
inaugural address. His proposed remedy included a pledge to refill the country’s emergency petroleum reserves.
“We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world,” Trump said.
The president didn’t set a deadline for himself to do so—but in retrospect, an expedient one might have been useful. A little over a year after his declaration, the U.S. is heavily involved in a conflict in the Middle East that has left a hole in globally traded petroleum supply and caused U.S. gas prices to jump. And the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a supply buffer designed to mitigate price shocks by stockpiling emergency stores of crude oil, remains nowhere near full.
The reserve currently holds 416 million barrels of crude oil, out of a maximum capacity of 714 million barrels—around 58%, according to the Department of Energy’s latest
inventory report from Feb. 18. Since Trump began his second term, the reserve’s volume has only risen by around 5%.
The Department of Energy did not immediately reply to
Fortune’s requests for comment. When reached for comment, the White House directed
Fortune to a
joint statement released Monday by finance ministers in G7 countries—the U.S., Canada, Germany, Italy, France, the U.K., and Japan. In the statement, ministers wrote they would respond with coordinated action to escalating consequences from the war in Iran, including, if necessary, a “stockpile release.”
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But the reality remains America’s emergency reserves remain much lower than they would ideally be during a supply crunch. The strategic reserve was near full capacity for most of the past two decades, until former President Joe Biden authorized
a nearly 50% drawdown starting in 2022, as the war in Ukraine and sanctions locked most Russian petroleum out of the global market and caused U.S. gasoline prices to skyrocket.
In total, Biden sold off nearly 300 million barrels of oil from the reserve during his term. The 2022 release left the reserve with around 350 million barrels of oil at its lowest point, the emptiest it had been since the early 1980s. Trump criticized his predecessor for his management of the reserve, claiming in 2023 the drawdown had been authorized primarily to
score political points ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
If the war in Iran goes on much longer and gasoline prices remain elevated, Trump might have no choice but to follow in Biden’s footsteps. The White House is reportedly discussing the possibility of a release, according to
Politico, citing an unnamed person familiar with talks as saying a release was “on the table.” The White House might also succumb to political pressure to do so as midterms loom. On Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) publicly called on Trump to authorize a release in a
post on
X.
Allies might also push the U.S. into making the call. On Monday, finance ministers from G7 countries gathered to discuss a possible
coordinated release of oil reserves to anticipate further disruptions.
