The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has dropped to its lowest level since 1982, Department of Energy data this week showed, revealing the continued drawdown of emergency oil as the nation weathers a global energy shortage.
The reserve shrank by more than 3 million barrels of oil over the week ending on Aug. 28, the DOE said, leaving the stockpile at 286.6 million barrels or about 40% of overall capacity.
The largest global oil supply disruption on record has catapulted U.S. gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, rekindled inflation and helped set the stage for November’s midterm elections.
Crude is thick and they usually rely on gravity head to force it back out of the tank into pumping systems. When the level gets too low the flowrate out of the tanks drops rapidly, this is also why they talk about the “limit of efficient extraction”. This also applies to the SPR, which will hit its functional limit of efficient extraction… Oh, very conveniently right after the election.