US to release 172 million barrels of oil from strategic reserve to combat energy price hike

President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S. will release crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, its boldest attempt yet to bring down oil prices that have spiked since the U.S. launched its war against Iran.

“We’ll do that, and then we’ll fill it up,” Trump told Cincinnati news station Local 12 in an interview Wednesday afternoon. “I filled it up once, and I’ll fill it up again. But right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.”

Trump did not specify how much oil his administration would release or the timing of the move. It comes after the International Energy Agency announced earlier Wednesday it would coordinate the largest release of reserves in the body’s history, consisting of 400 million barrels of oil, from its 32 members, which include the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K. and France.

It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s announcement is a part of the IEA release or in addition to it. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said earlier Wednesday afternoon that Trump had yet to decide whether to join the international effort.

The Trump administration has initially ruled out tapping the reserve, a series of underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana. But Iranian attacks against oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have sent crude prices spiraling to four-year highs as vessels stop traversing the key waterway connecting Middle Eastern oil fields to the global market.

Still, relief might be limited. The SPR currently holds 415 million barrels, according to the Energy Department, making it less than 59 percent full. The Trump administration only added modest amounts of oil back into the reserve after the Biden administration tapped it to calm markets after Russia invaded Ukraine.

A part of the storage caverns also suffered damage as a result of those Biden-era drawdowns, which has challenged the effort to refill it.

The reserve is designed to be able to release up to 4.4 million barrels of oil per day within 13 days of a presidential decision, according to the Energy Department. But analysts have said the actual flow rate may be far lower — perhaps 2 million barrels a day — due to physical constraints.