WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the U.S. would contribute “a little bit” to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) plan to release a record 400 million barrels of oil in various countries’ reserves to try to control prices that have jumped due to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Trump did not say how much oil the U.S. would contribute, saying only “right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down” in an interview with local TV in Ohio.
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) currently holds 415.4 million barrels, most of which is high sulfur, or sour crude, that U.S. refineries are geared to process. The crude is held underground in hollowed-out salt caverns on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Capacity is about 714 million barrels.
Here is how U.S. presidents have tapped the SPR before in times of war:
RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE
In March 2022, the month after Russia invaded Ukraine, Trump’s predecessor former President Joe Biden ordered the release of 180 million barrels over six months – the largest sale ever from the emergency stash. Biden, and later Trump, slowly bought some oil to replenish the reserve, but little has been returned as Congress needs to provide more money to do so.
ATTACK ON SAUDI ARABIA
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia in 2019, prompting the shutdown of more than half the crude output in the world’s largest exporter. Trump, then in his first term as president, said his administration stood ready to tap the SPR if needed. Ultimately that did not happen, as oil output recovered quickly from Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq plant and Khurais field.
LIBYA CIVIL WAR
In June 2011, former President Barack Obama ordered the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the reserve to offset disruptions to global markets from civil war in oil producer Libya. That sale was coordinated with the Paris-based IEA, resulting in an additional 30-million-barrel release from other member countries.
OPERATION DESERT STORM
In 1990-1991, after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, former President George H.W. Bush sold about 21 million barrels in two phases. In October 1990, the U.S. ordered a 3.9-million-barrel test sale. In January 1991, after U.S. and allied warplanes began attacks against Baghdad and other military targets in OPEC-member Iraq as part of Operation Desert Storm, Bush ordered the sale of 34 million barrels, of which 17.3 million barrels were sold.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)
