The United States is increasingly vulnerable to a sharp oil price shock as the ongoing conflict with Iran drives up global energy prices, with analysts warning that the country’s depleted Strategic Petroleum
Reserve (SPR) limits Washington’s ability to stabilise the market, according to a Financial Times (FT) report.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, established in 1974 following the Arab oil embargo, currently holds far less oil than its capacity after large withdrawals in recent years and the failure to replenish it despite earlier promises.
According to the report, the reserve currently contains about 415 million barrels of oil, equivalent to roughly 20 days of total US consumption, significantly below its 714 million-barrel capacity.
The stockpile was heavily drawn down after former US President Joe Biden authorised the release of 180 million barrels beginning in 2021 to help contain surging fuel prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, current US President Donald Trump has not followed through on a pledge made during his inauguration speech last year to “refill our reserves right up to the top again”, the report claimed.
Energy analysts told the publication that the failure to replenish the reserve when oil prices were lower has left the US with fewer tools to respond to the current surge in prices.
“The problem now is that if we see a prolonged period of supply constrictions,” Hugh Daigle, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, was quoted as saying.
He said the administration had missed an opportunity last year to refill the reserve when crude prices were cheaper.
Any disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which about one-fifth of global oil supply passes, would make replenishing the SPR even more difficult, he added.
“That’ll lead to higher prices, which would make it financially more difficult to refill the reserve,” Daigle was quoted as saying.
The US Department of Energy estimates it would cost more than $20 billion to refill the reserve completely, according to the report.
POLITICAL BLAME AND POLICY DEBATE
The issue has sparked a political debate in Washington over responsibility for the weakened reserve.
Democratic Congressman Sean Casten criticised the Trump administration for failing to rebuild the stockpile before the current geopolitical crisis.
“It is not at all surprising that someone who failed to consider the political dynamics in Iran, Iran’s ability to strike our allies and bases in the region or the regional destabilisation that follows the collapse of the Iranian government would also fail to refill our nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve prior to the price spikes which have predictably followed,” Casten told the FT.
Oil prices have already climbed significantly amid the conflict.
According to the report, US oil prices have risen 16 per cent since Trump launched attacks on Iran last weekend, while petrol prices have increased 9 per cent to $3.25 per gallon, the highest level since April.
The report also noted that the Trump administration told the FT it would not tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to control the price surge.
Instead, officials are working on alternative measures, including providing US Navy escorts and insurance for tankers threatened by Iran in the Gulf.
Bloomberg has also reported that the administration may consider trading oil futures to stabilise prices, though details remain limited.
Experts told the publication that the administration could still resort to using the reserve if price spikes persist.
IRAN VOWS INTENSIFIED STRIKES
Meanwhile, tensions in the region continue to escalate.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its aerospace forces launched the 21st wave of Operation True Promise, using swarms of suicide drones and advanced Khayber missiles with cluster warheads aimed at bypassing Israeli air defence systems.
The coordinated assault was reportedly codenamed “Ya Mu’izz al-Mu’minin.”
Lieutenant Colonel Ibrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said Israel had attempted to hide military facilities among civilian infrastructure, but Iranian forces would continue to locate and strike them.
“The cowardly military forces and facilities of the Zionist regime have hidden in civilian and public layers,” Zolfaghari said.
“But the detection and striking of the aggressors will continue, and in the coming days, the trend of attacks will become more intense and widespread.”
Iranian officials have also said their air defence systems intercepted several advanced aircraft and drones during the ongoing conflict.
Speaking in New Delhi on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said that Tehran had “no option” but to mount a “heroic nationalist defence” against what he described as an American and Israeli invasion.
