Strategic Petroleum Reserve Holds Under 350 Million Barrels as of Early June

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve held less than 350 million barrels of oil as of early June 2026, nypost.com reported, citing a Government Accountability Office review released Friday. The reserve can store up to about 680 million barrels.

At least 180 million barrels were released due to the invasion of Ukraine and mandatory sales. In March 2026 the Department of Energy announced plans to release an additional 172 million barrels after global oil flows were interrupted by the war with Iran.

The GAO report stated that the vast majority of wells are past the average design life of 20 to 30 years, with one of the newest wells 38 years old.

Storage facilities are located in Louisiana and Texas. The Energy Department is completing a $1.4 billion life-extension project. The current maintenance backlog would cost approximately $230 million to address, according to an Energy Department projection from December 2025.

The GAO said addressing needed upgrades would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and that if left undone the repairs could undermine the reserve’s ability to safely release and receive oil. A Department of Energy spokesperson said the Trump administration exchanged barrels for lower-cost barrels that will be delivered back to the SPR to more than replace the 172-million-barrel release.

The same statement said there was a plan to replace the oil released in March 2026 but offered no immediate details.

The GAO recommended that Congress and the Energy Department develop a unified long-term plan for the reserve. The report noted there is no plan to identify a target size for the reserve and no method to identify resources to refill it. The Trump administration has approved drilling projects in the Gulf of America, off the coast of California, and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.