How Much Crude Oil is in the USA Strategic Petroleum Reserve? How Long To Replenish?

 The USA Strategic Oil reserve is an imporatant safeguard to buffer the effects of any event that could cause problems to the general supply and price of the main products such as diesel or gasoline. So, how's it looking?

Well, apparently..."ok".  Well, we've been in better shape. Below is the latest chart I have as of September 2025 and my check of the guy's comment is below this chart.

We are well into September, but the chart includes only up to and including June.

But we can still study the data to assist us in our conclusion.

The steep drawdown was due to Biden's decision that many claim - and possibly rightly so - to try to keep oil prices down up to the runup of the election. As we know, it was an exercise in futility since he was taken off the ticket and swapped out for Harris. Regardless of where oil prices were or, would have been, would never have saved Harris. 

From the article on RigZone website:

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on August 27 and included data for the week ending August 22, there were 404.2 million barrels of crude oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) on August 22.

That looks to line up with the chart. Then later, the article says:

On January 29, the Fitch Group sent Rigzone a BMI Q&A format research note. In that note, one of the questions BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, asked was ‘Will Trump Fill Strategic Petroleum Reserves ‘Right To The Top’?’.

Offering a response in the note, BMI analysts said, “oil storage levels will rise under Trump, but probably at a slower pace than his rhetoric would suggest”.

“There are logistical constraints to consider, with the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimating strategic reserves would take at least 19 months to replenish,” they added.

So, is he right?  That article was posted at the end of August, so his estimate/prediction is still pretty fresh. The best thing to do is to expand the chart and then extrapolate from there based on the present rate of refilling.  We'll also compare it to the fastest rate of filling.

So, at the present filling rate this puts us to 2035 which is for sure "at least 19 months" but that's at a grindingly slow-as-molasses filling rate. I could have gotten it closer to "the gnat's eye" by crunching the data, but being the lazy engineer that I am, eyeballing the slopes is far easier and faster. But we can see with our own eyes that rate of filling has varied all over the place over the decades.  

What I did was eyeball the slope of the curve from 2023-ish to the previous max and extroplated accordingly (that's the solid red line).  

Now we can look at the fastest filling rate by looking for the steepest part of the curve which was post 1980 (see red dotted oval on left).  If you take that line and extrapolate it out (the dot-dash green line), then we get just over 2.5 years - which is again for sure "at least 19 months".  So we can see the guy was "hedging his bets" not having any better way of phrasing it.

But what do you believe? Them? or your lyin' eyes? We have to ask the question: It may be probable, but is it even possible to reach the fastest filling rate we maintained back in ~1982? Have they replaced the equipment?  Is the equipment even their to potentially reach a meaningful filling rate to get it done relatively quickly? 

For sure, the pumps, piping and instrumentation,and other equipment to EMPTY the reserves are still in place. That's already been proven, thanks to Biden - or whoever it was that really gave the orders - who knows...

My Brush with the Vice-President

It was midnight. 

I think it was in June - perhaps July - maybe August- perhaps later.  I'm not really sure since it was maybe almost 10 years ago. I was sitting outside on the fenced-in porch of our apartment in Meridian, MS.  We were lucky that our apartment faced a woodsy area, so I had an ample amount of privacy as I sat.  The temperatures were very nice and comfortable - perhaps a little warmer than it would normally be.  I wasn't from around there so I didn't know what was normal and what was not. I was here in Mississippi on perhaps my 90th project, this time in a new gasification plant, assisting the plant personnel operating it.

It was about midnight.  I was relaxing there, sipping a nice gin and tonic, when some people, very quietly (it was very late, you know) moved into the empty apartment across from us in the same building.

And that was when the weird stuff started to happen.

A few days later, I had the distinct impresssion I was being watched. Could it have been my imagination?  Of course, it could have.  But...the feeling would not go away. Like I mentioned, there was nothing but a woodsy area our porch faced. 

I took my digital camera, scanning the area to see if any infrared spots would show up on the photos.  Apparently, many digital cameras are able to "see" in the infrared spectum.

Nothing.

But....I just couldn't shake it. 

My wife was out of town during this time - up visiting her folks in Ohio.  I even mentioned to her that I had this feeling of being watched, but never saw anything. It got so bad, I kept my pistol near at hand.

Several weeks or months past and nothing at all happened.  The feeling of being watched didn't completely go away.  Perhaps my "spidey senses" got numbed from the constant tingling. 

"Well, I know why you felt you were being watched," my wife declared one day. "I was out checking the mail and the apartment manager saw me told me that the new vice-president was coming soon."

Well, that...SORT of explained it.

She continued "You know who our new neighbors are?  It's Pence's son and his wife."

Well, that DID explain it. We found out the soon-to-be-vice-president's son had been attending the nearby Meridian Naval Air Station for training and was graduating.  So, mother and father were coming to help support and celebrate his graduation. They would also stay for Thanksgiving.

And then the security started showing up... 

...and they were NICE. One person would guard the son's apartment door.  Everytime I showed up he would profusely apologize for being in the way.  Being in the way? I never felt so safe in all my life!

Shortly after that, more black SUVs showed up as they surveyed the area. One day, several security persons were sort of hanging around our dumpster so I told my wife I had to go throw the trash out so I could meet them. We pretty much just shared cordial greetings.  I didn't get any cold looks. They probably already knew who I was and had my rapsheet (that was most likely blank unless it included the dozen or so speeding/parking tickets I had). 

The worst part of all this was they had the apartment management "fix" a light that had at one time illuminated the entire back part of our apartment. To my utter dismay, I no longer had the darkness to relax in while sitting outside on my porch.  Just that damn bright light. 

They had one of the guards knock down some old cobwebs and swept up the place - not that any of it was really needed - all the while apologizing for being in the way.

"They came and searched our apartment", my wife informed me.

"Really? Why?" I asked.

"They had a bomb-sniffing dog. The goverment guy was with the local police. I told them we had a pistol in the apartment. "

"Ooo.  How well did that go over?"

"The government guy looked at the police guy and the police guy said 'everyone in Meridian has a gun'.  The government guy shrugged and that was it."

Now....interestingly, I told this story to a lawyer who immediately told me we could have denied entry since they didn't have a warrant nor did they even have probable cause. Yeah, I guess we could have. 

Meeting Pence - (not me)

We then received some communication that a large portion of the parking lot around our building was going to be roped off and no parking was allowed in that area.  Later the "black SUVs" would show up and park there.

Then while I was at work, the presumptive vice president showed up to spend Thanksgiving with his son and wife. I got home and my wife had the news. She'd had a nice chat with the Senator/VP Pence and his wife.

"I was taking our dog out for a walk and ran into Pence and his wife." 

Whoa! She MET them.

She said they were very nice.  They admired Finn, our little mix-breed dog. Mrs. Pence urged my wife to intrude on their son to dog-sit Finn if we needed to go on vacation.  Now, I really liked that. We had planned a vacation to Las Vegas so, this would be perfect.  

They stayed for a few days.  Now the interesting thing was, all the while they were visiting, amongst the several black SUVs there was always one with the motor running continuously. I took this to mean it was always on-the-ready in case of a medical emergency and they had to race the VP to the hospital.

I don't recall how long the Pences stayed with their son.  One day after a long night of working at the gasification plant I fell asleep on the couch.  My wife roused me, "if you want to meet the vice-president you better wake up now . He's right behind you outside."

Sure enough he was there and getting set up with the local constabulary for photos. Right outside our porch. 

Well, I wasn't really very presentable, but the setup couldn't have been more apropos. So, I grabbed my phone and took a photo through the sliding glass door.  

The second part of the story.

Since we had finally booked our trip to Las Vegas, it was time to ask the Pence neighbors if they could watch our dog while we were away. Now, up to this time we had never met them no seen them. I wanted my wife to ask them. She wanted me to ask them. I wasn't even sure what to say. I finally figured we would live or die with whatever came out of my mouth.  Since our door was maybe 5 feet from theirs, it wasn't as if I had even 3 seconds to come up with something clever.

I knocked.  They came to the door.  We introduced ourselves.  I told them we were going on vacation soon and wondered if they would watch our dog, Finn, feed him and take him out for a walk or two each day.  To which they replied they would.  Whew! 

The third part of the story

Well, one good turn deserves another.  Some time later they asked us to watch and feed their cat. My wife handled that.  I told her she should have taken photos of herself in their apartment and posted them on Facebook - "Hey look, everybody! I'm in President Pence's sons apartment feeding their cat! Look at this place!"  

For some reason she didn't see the humor at all in my suggestion. 

The zereothpart of the story - the Homeland Security Agents

I should add just a litte more background to the story.  The apartment the young Pences lived in was previously lived in by two Homeland Security personnel.  They were extremely nice just like the security people later. 

Now, this area of Mississippi is very prone to tornadoes. And the siren went off on several occasions scaring the crap out of us.  One day, one of the Homeland Security guys visited us and said "In case things get bad with another tornado, there's a culvert on the other side of the lake.  It will hold maybe 60 people or more." I don't recall the exact number of people he said it could hold, but it was a lot.

Later, while walking our dog I went around the man-made pond to check on what he said.  And sure enough he was right.   

I was amazed.  And I couldn't help but wonder what made him decide to check on this.  What protocol do they have in place that would include providing for the safety of the local peoples from a local disaster? Perhaps this apartment was one of many in the area that were checked since he was the son of a sitting senator who might be VP? 

Who knows....