The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, located along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, currently holds about 415 million barrels of crude.
| Photo Credit:
RICHARD CARSON
The U.S. is
considering coordinating sales of oil from the U.S. Strategic
Petroleum Reserve with releases from other countries as prices
soar during the war on Iran, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said
on Monday.
Wright also said the U.S. has “some other options” on
allowing more sales of Russian oil held in tankers on the water
in Asia. Late last week, for instance, Washington issued a
30-day waiver allowing the sale of Russian crude currently
stranded at sea to continue to India.
“We are talking about coordinated releases from the SPR,”
Wright told reporters gathered at a natural gas plant in
Colorado. The U.S. SPR, located on the coasts of Texas and
Louisiana, holds 415 million barrels of oil, more than what the
entire world uses in four days.
Global and domestic oil futures settled on Monday at the
highest level since August 2022 as the war led by the U.S. and
Israel stranded tankers and shut in oil production in the Middle
East.
The International Energy Agency, the West’s energy watchdog,
on Monday called for a coordinated release of oil, and G7
countries agreed to closely monitor developments in the energy
markets. No release has yet been announced.
Fatih Birol, the IEA head, told G7 finance ministers on
Monday that his group’s members hold more than 1.2 billion
barrels of public emergency oil stocks and a further 600
million barrels of industry stocks are under government
obligation.
The U.S. was not considering imposing restrictions on
exports of U.S. energy as a way to control prices, Wright said.
Published on March 10, 2026
