US strategic oil reserve falls below 300m barrel to 43-year low
NEW YORK: The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to as low as 298.7 million barrels for the week ending 7 Aug, its lowest level since January 1983, according to data issued by the US Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.
Reserves saw week-on-week declines for 20 consecutive weeks since the end of March, and the aggregate release of crude oil reserves totalled 116.7 million barrels during the period, the agency’s latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report said.
Reserves are expected to fall further to 243.4 million barrels if the US Department of Energy fully implements its plan to release additional barrels.
US President Donald Trump authorised the Department of Energy to release 172 million barrels from the stockpiles within roughly 120 days, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced in March.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, established in December 1975 following the Arab oil embargo, has a capacity of 727 million barrels. Statistics show that the United States held more than 726 million barrels of reserves from December 2009 to July 2011.
Still, the emergency petroleum stockpiles have shrunk materially in recent years following supply disruptions caused by the conflict in Ukraine in 2022.
By RSS/Xinhua
