The Strategic Petroleum Reserve would have no doubt been tapped again, as the Administration implied in June, if prices had exceeded $80/bbl for a sustained period prior to the upcoming elections. Fortunately, for the consumer and the SPR, that has not been the case.
Prior to the 2022 midterm elections, oil prices reached as high as $122/bbl in June and remained above $90/bbl through July. The SPR was tapped hard with a massive reduction of 123 million bbls in the 5 months prior to the elections.
| June-Oct WTI range $/bbl | beginning of June SPR vol. (bbls) | end of Oct. SPR vol. (bbls) | net gain or (loss) | |
| midterm elections 11/8/2022 | 80-120 | 519,323 | 396,219 | (123,104) |
| general elections 11/5/2024 | 65-83 | 370,526 | 384,642 | 14,116 |
Despite the modest additions to the SPR in 2024, the reserve is only about one-half of capacity and 11% above the all-time low (7/7/2023).
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 