1. How much oil is in the SPR right now?
The latest SPR level is 285.0 million barrels, for the week ending Friday 11 September 2026 (EIA, released 16 September). The reserve has shrunk every week since early August, but the steps are getting smaller: 5.3 million barrels left in the week to 14 August, only 0.4 million in the week to 11 September (own calculation from the EIA series). A year earlier the SPR held 405.7 million barrels (EIA). Against the authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels (DOE), the caverns are 39.9% full (own calculation).
The table joins two EIA series: month-end values up to June 2026 (the latest monthly release, of 31 August, runs to June), then weekly values from August.
| Date | SPR (million barrels) | Series |
|---|---|---|
| December 2025 (month end) | 413.5 | EIA MCSSTUS1 |
| January 2026 (month end) | 415.2 | EIA MCSSTUS1 |
| February 2026 (month end) | 415.4 | EIA MCSSTUS1 |
| March 2026 (month end) | 414.8 | EIA MCSSTUS1 |
| April 2026 (month end) | 394.5 | EIA MCSSTUS1 |
| May 2026 (month end) | 355.4 | EIA MCSSTUS1 |
| June 2026 (month end) | 322.2 | EIA MCSSTUS1 |
| 7 Aug 2026 (week ending) | 298.7 | EIA WCSSTUS1 |
| 14 Aug 2026 (week ending) | 293.4 | EIA WCSSTUS1 |
| 21 Aug 2026 (week ending) | 289.7 | EIA WCSSTUS1 |
| 28 Aug 2026 (week ending) | 286.6 | EIA WCSSTUS1 |
| 4 Sep 2026 (week ending) | 285.4 | EIA WCSSTUS1 |
| 11 Sep 2026 (week ending) | 285.0 | EIA WCSSTUS1 |
A barrel count on its own says little about how long a stock would last; our glossary entry on days of supply explains why.
2. How big was the SPR, and what was it built for?
The SPR peaked at 726.6 million barrels on 27 December 2009; today it holds 39.2% of that peak (own calculation). Congress created the reserve with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, and the first oil arrived in 1977 (DOE). According to DOE's quick facts, it can release up to 4.4 million barrels a day, and oil reaches the market about 13 days after a presidential decision.
Its size depends on the yardstick. DOE counts the 411 million barrels held on 31 December 2025 as about 125 days of US crude oil net imports. Across all petroleum, though, the United States was a net exporter of 1.64 million barrels a day in 2023, according to the EIA. The EIA's own month-end figure for December 2025 is 413.5 million barrels, so keep DOE and EIA numbers apart.
2026 is not the first large draw: under a 180 million barrel programme, DOE delivered 180,266,185 barrels between March 2022 and January 2023, and the reserve ended 2022 at 372.1 million barrels (DOE annual report). The concept is explained in our Strategic Petroleum Reserve glossary entry.
3. How does the 2026 release work if the oil is only lent?
The US share of the IEA collective action, 172.2 million barrels of crude (IEA, 19 March), is structured as exchanges: companies borrow SPR oil and return it later with extra premium barrels (DOE). DOE announced the release on 11 March, expected delivery to take about 120 days and said it expects about 200 million barrels back within a year, at no cost to taxpayers.
| Date (2026) | Step, per DOE | Volume | Return terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Mar | first tender | 86 million barrels | premium barrels, on a schedule “designed to protect commercial markets” |
| 20 Mar | first award | 45.2 million out | 55 million back (21.7% more, own calculation) |
| 9 Apr | new tender (West Hackberry) | up to 30 million | premium barrels, back “by next year” |
| 10 Apr | second-phase award (Bryan Mound) | 8.5 million | premium barrels, back “by next year” |
| 30 Apr | status, new tender | about 80 million awarded by three earlier tenders; new tender up to 92.5 million | 24% premium |
| 11 May | awards | about 53.3 million; about 35 million delivered to date | about 28% premium (15.1 million barrels) |
| 10 Jun | status, new tender | over 133 million awarded; tender up to 40 million | 26% premium; tender outcome not confirmed by DOE |
Energy Secretary Wright put the average at 1.28 barrels back for every barrel released, Reuters reported on 9 July; the returns were expected to start later in 2026. DOE has published no month-by-month return schedule, and we found no DOE delivered-to-date figure after 11 May. How the whole IEA action was split is on IEA release 2026: who gave what.
4. What will the refill mean for 2027, and for US drivers?
Barrels flowing back into strategic reserves are extra crude demand: Kpler estimated that refilling strategic reserves, not only the SPR, adds 506,000 barrels a day in the fourth quarter of 2026, rising further next year (Reuters, 9 July). According to Reuters, Energy Aspects expects SPR restocking to lead to a higher price floor in 2027. For context only, not as our forecast: the EIA's September outlook has Brent at about $90 in the second half of 2026, $77 in the second quarter of 2027 and $67 in the second half of 2027, and it does not discuss SPR returns (STEO, 9 September). Our oil price forecast 2027 page compares outlooks.
At the pump, the SPR is one factor among many. AAA put the national average at $4.48 a gallon for gasoline ($3.18 a year earlier) and $6.53 for diesel on 22 September 2026. Diesel is the tighter market: US distillate stocks were 107.9 million barrels in the week to 11 September, the lowest September level since 1982 (EnergyNow, 22 September). The SPR holds crude only, so it cannot close a diesel gap directly, and whether releases lower prices at all is disputed (see Do releases lower prices?). For the Northeast heating season, see US diesel and heating oil prices.
5. How do you read the weekly SPR numbers?
For the current level, use the EIA weekly series: it comes out on Wednesdays at 10:30 Eastern time (14:30 UTC during US daylight saving time) and covers the week that ended the previous Friday; the next release, on 23 September 2026, covers the week to 18 September. Four things to keep in mind:
- Weekly vs monthly. Quote the weekly series (WCSSTUS1) for today's level and the month-end series (MCSSTUS1) for comparisons with earlier months.
- DOE vs EIA. DOE listed a current inventory of 294.1 million barrels as of 20 August; the EIA weekly figure for the week to 21 August was 289.7 million. Do not splice the two into one chart.
- Days vs barrels. DOE's 125 days refers to crude net imports at the end of 2025. We do not convert today's level into days, because the import base keeps moving.
- Returns vs purchases. Once exchange barrels come back, the level will rise; that mostly reflects repaid loans, not necessarily government purchases.
How to cite: Global Oil Shock (Jörg Dässler), “US SPR Level: 285.0 Million Barrels in September 2026”, as of 23 Sep 2026, https://globaloilshock.com/en/strategic-oil-reserves/us-spr-level/