The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) falls to the lowest level since 1987. Now SPR only has 453.1 million barrels in its inventory, after another significant fall last week that puts the emergency reserve at a minimum not seen since 1987, reports Reuters, citing the Department of Energy.
During the week ending on August 19, the SPR witnessed another drop of 8.1 million barrels, after small releases in the weeks preceding this.
In March, the Biden government passed the release of 1 million BPD from SPR for six months to reduce oil prices and potentially increase domestic production through contracts with companies to buy oil in the future at a fixed price. SPR versions are a response to the disruption of the world oil markets caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent Western sanctions that have led to the outbreak of oil and gas prices.
The last plan was to call for a total release of 180 million barrels of crude oil from SPR to fight the increase in oil prices that were inevitable in the middle of a tight market.
The highest release of crude oil from SPR will end this fall.
In addition to the lowest level of inventory in SPR since 1987, last Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that the inventory of crude oil (excluding SPR) has fallen by 7.1 million barrels.
For that week, the inventory of US crude oil, apart from those included in SPR, was only 425 million barrels, or 6% under five years average.
The biggest sale from SPR was announced on August 11, when the Energy Department said that nine companies will buy 20 million barrels.
According to the Institute of Energy Research, SPR is expected to shrink to the lowest level of 40 years at the end of October, with an inventory of 358 million barrels, compared to 621 million barrels a year ago.
