Trump Drains Emergency Oil Reserve Faster Than Biden as Iran War Squeezes Supply
The Trump administration is depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at a record pace, with stockpiles approaching 1980s lows. The US has become the supplier of last resort, exporting roughly half its emergency crude to Asia and Europe.
The drawdown
President Trump is releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) at a pace that now surpasses the record set by the Biden administration before the 2022 midterms — the very drawdown Trump had criticized as politically motivated.
Scale of the crisis
The amount of crude remaining in the reserve is approaching levels not seen since the early 1980s, when the US economy was far less energy-intensive. Oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma — the main US storage hub — are also nearing operationally low levels.
Global spillover
The US has become a supplier of last resort to global markets disrupted by the Iran war. Approximately half of all SPR releases are being exported to Asia and Europe, which face their own acute supply shortfalls from the closure of key Gulf shipping lanes.
The political reversal
Trump blasted Biden in 2022 for releasing SPR oil "just prior to the election." The White House now frames its own releases as a necessary response to a genuine national security emergency rather than electoral calculation.
What comes next
Energy analysts warn that at the current pace of drawdown, the SPR will reach a level that triggers mandatory purchase programs and could limit the government's ability to respond to future supply shocks.
Timeline
SPR levels approach lowest since early 1980s; ~50% of releases exported to Asia/Europe.