America's Emergency Oil Bank Is Buried in Salt Caves. Here Is How Washington Plans to Make It Pay
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve holds its least oil since 1982 after this year's emergency release. But under the Trump Energy Department's exchange deals, oil companies must pay back more barrels than they borrowed. We argue that is the smartest way yet to run the nation's emergency stockpile.
By Clara Hughes
Altas World News Opinion Estimated read time: 7 minutes Key takeaways The Strategic Petroleum Reserve held about 283.8 million barrels on Sept. 25, 2026, its lowest level since October 1982, according to the Energy Information Administration [1]. On Sept. 29, the Energy Department offered up to 40 million more barrels in an exchange, the final part of America's 172-million-barrel share of a record 400-million-barrel international release. Bids are due Oct. 6 [2][3]. The department says its earlier exchange deals carry a "25 percent premium in returned barrels" [2]. In our view, lending oil in a crisis and getting more back is exactly how a reserve should work. A national treasure under the Gulf Coast Most Americans have heard of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Few know what it actually is. It is the world's largest government emergency oil supply, and it is stored in huge underground caverns in salt formations along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana. The Energy Department says the reserve has four storage sites and an authorized capacity of 714 million barrels [4]. The reserve is also well connected. As of March 2025, the Energy Department says, its four sites were linked by pipelines and terminals to 24 refineries on the Gulf Coast and six more in Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky [4]. That means emergency oil can reach the refineries that make gasoline and diesel quickly. Born from a crisis The reserve was a lesson learned the hard way. During the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, Americans waited in long gas lines as prices spiked. In response, President Gerald Ford signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act on Dec. 22, 1975, creating the reserve [5]. The first oil arrived on July 21, 1977, when about 412,000 barrels of Saudi light crude were delivered to the West Hackberry site in Louisiana [6]. Here is a twist few people know: the first barrels in America's emergency stockpile came from Saudi Arabia [6]. The ups and downs The reserve peaked at about 726.6 million ba…