The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is being replenished. SPR played a salient, albeit somewhat controversial, role in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Department of Energy released close to 220 million bbls from emergency stocks; the sale of 38 million Congress-mandated barrels was dwarfed by the 180 million bbls that was made available over a six6-month period in 2022. Strategic crude oil inventories declined from around 580 million bbls in March 2022 to 347 million bbls by July last year. The declared objective of the SPR, which was created after the 1973 energy crisis, is to ensure ... (full story)