The amount of crude stored for emergency use in the US has fallen to a 35-year low after the Joe Biden administration decided to supply crude oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to address the country’s fuel shortage. This has been revealed in the data received from the US Department of Energy.
According to the latest data released by the Department of Energy on stored oil, the amount of crude oil in the SPR has decreased by 5 million barrels during this week till May 13, from which it has now fallen to 538 million barrels.
It shows that US crude reserves for emergency use are at their lowest level since 1987.
It is noteworthy that during this week till May 13, out of 5 million barrels extracted from reserves, some 3.9 million barrels were low level crude oil while the rest 11 lakh barrels were high level crude oil. Low grade crude oil is a medium grade oil which has high sulfur content and is more viscous than high grade crude oil. Low-level crude oil is generally required for the operation of trucks, buses and trains as well as jets. On the other hand, high level crude oil has very less sulfur content. It is mainly used to make gasoline, also known as gasoline outside the US.
The sanctions imposed by most Western countries on Moscow due to Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine have resulted in a sharp reduction in crude oil exports. In addition, the closure of several refineries during the coronavirus pandemic has also reduced US refining capacity, adding to the problem. To cope with this fuel shortage, the Biden administration continued to release oil from the SPR in several phases from November.
To help meet the crude oil demand of domestic refiners during the month of February to April, the administration extracted an average of 3 million barrels of oil from SPR every week. The Biden administration’s biggest release from the SPR will be this month, when it will release a total of 180 million barrels—or one million barrels of crude per day—over a 180-day period from reserves.