The Department of Energy (DOE) is planning to purchase 1 million barrels of oil to help restock the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after the Biden administration drained the reserve and once passed on replenishing it due to high prices, the agency announced Tuesday.
The DOE announced Tuesday that it is seeking to take advantage of lower oil prices by planning December and January deliveries using funds allocated for the SPR under the Working Families Tax Cut. Though former President Joe Biden moved to restock the reserve near the end of his term, his administration saw the SPR fall to its lowest level since 1983, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
“After the previous administration recklessly drained the SPR for political purposes, President Trump promised to refill and manage this national security asset more responsibly,” DOE Secretary Christopher Wright said in a statement Tuesday. “Thanks to the President and Congress, we are able to begin the process of refilling the SPR. While this process won’t be complete overnight, these actions are an important step in strengthening our energy security and reversing the costly and irresponsible energy policies of the last administration.”
Several energy policy experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Biden drained the reserve to dangerously low levels and later passed on refilling it in April 2024, when oil prices were about $85 per barrel, well above the administration’s stated target price of $79 per barrel. Notably, Biden tapped into the SPR ahead of the 2022 midterm elections as surging gas prices created a major political challenge for Biden and his fellow Democrats.
“It was a colossal mistake to use the strategic petroleum reserve as a strategic political reserve to try to buy Biden some goodwill during the midterms,” President of the American Energy Alliance Tom Pyle told the DCNF previously, after the Biden administration neglected to refill the reserve in April 2024. “It is unconscionable that the administration would use a hedge against these sorts of unpredictable geopolitical events to win a few seats in a midterm election. … [the decision] puts us in a precarious position, because we do not know how things in the Middle East might escalate given this shocking and unprecedented event.”
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The SPR sat at 402 million barrels in June 2025, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). SPR levels now exceed their 2023 and 2024 totals but remain well below the 638 million barrels recorded at the end of 2020, according to EIA.
President Donald Trump expressed interest in refilling the SPR during his first term, though Senate Democrats including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sharply criticized Trump for moving to do so.
Oil and gas prices climbed under Biden, with gas shooting up to record highs in June 2022 and the national average per-gallon price exceeding $5. The White House has recently touted that gas prices hit a four-year low under Trump, citing GasBuddy figures.
Notably, America produced a record amount of oil in June, according to EIA data. Several energy sector experts that spoke with the DCNF previously said that Trump deserves some credit for his pro-oil and drilling agenda, though the record levels are a testament to the resiliency of the oil and gas industry.
The DOE referred the DCNF to its press release.
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