Energy Security: Congress and DOE Need a Unified Plan to Align Priorities and Investments for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
What GAO Found The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) met increasingly frequent and large drawdown directives. Since 1985, the Department of Energy (DOE) has released more than 500 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR. More than half of the amount released through 2025 was for emergencies—such as wars—and nearly 70 percent of all releases occurred from 2014 through 2025. A 180-million-barrel emergency release in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine tested the SPR’s capabilities, as it was both the largest drawdown ever and occurred in the context of an extended backlog of deferred maintenance. In March 2026, DOE began a 172-million-barrel emergency release planned in response to the war in.
Reported by Maria LopezEnergy Security: Congress and DOE Need a Unified Plan to Align Priorities and Investments for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The item is dated Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:28:52 -0400.
TeamCog is carrying it as a audits report from GAO reports and testimonies RSS.
What GAO Found The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) met increasingly frequent and large drawdown directives.
Since 1985, the Department of Energy (DOE) has released more than 500 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR.
More than half of the amount released through 2025 was for emergencies—such as wars—and nearly 70 percent of all releases occurred from 2014 through 2025.
A 180-million-barrel emergency release in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine tested the SPR’s capabilities, as it was both the largest drawdown ever and occurred in the context of an extended backlog of deferred maintenance.
In March 2026, DOE began a 172-million-barrel emergency release planned in response to the war in…
Official Source
GAO reports and testimonies RSS. Accessed 2026-06-27T03:00:01.933Z.