Acccording to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the United States plans to refill its strategic oil reserve by the end of 2024 after the stockpiles reached historic lows last year. — AFP picHOUSTON, March 19 ― The United States plans to refill its strategic oil reserve by the end of 2024 after the stockpiles reached historic lows last year, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said yesterday.
Between September 2021 and July 2023, the United States released around 274 million barrels, dropping the SPR to its lowest level in 40 years. Washington established the reserve in the 1970s as an emergency stockpile after the 1973 energy crisis.The government began in June 2023 buying back oil to bolster the reserve. In the ensuing nine months, the SPR has been increased by about 14.7 million barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
“By the end of this year we will essentially be back to where we would have been absent the sales,” Granholm said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.Inventories will be boosted by another 140 million barrels that had originally been expected to be sold between 2023 and 2027 following the cancellation of congressionally mandated sales.