Strategic Petroleum Reserve Oil Stocks Declined Under Trump, Contrary to His Claim

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve was set up in the 1970s as an emergency source of oil in the event of unexpected supply disruptions. When Donald Trump took office as president in January 2017, the reserve held 695.1 million barrels of crude oil. The last full week before he left office in January 2021, it held 638.1 million barrels, or about 8% less.

But Trump falsely claimed that before his presidency, the reserve had been “mostly empty” for decades and that he had