President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his administration will tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in an effort to stabilize oil prices that have surged since the start of the U.S.-Israeli military operation in Iran.
Oil markets have been volatile since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, with crude prices briefly climbing close to $120 per barrel earlier this week amid fears that the conflict could disrupt global supply. By Wednesday evening, prices had eased somewhat but remained elevated. Brent crude stood at $93.05 per barrel in after-hours trading, about 1.16% higher than its opening price of $91.98, according to Google Finance.
Speaking to WKRC-TV in Cincinnati during a visit to pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific, Trump said the administration would temporarily release oil from the nation’s emergency stockpile to help bring down prices.
“Well, we’ll do that and then we’ll fill it up,” Trump said. “I filled it up once and I’ll fill it up again, but right now we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.”
The move would mirror actions taken by previous administrations during periods of supply disruption or sharply rising fuel costs.
Earlier Wednesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that its member countries would collectively release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves, the largest coordinated stockpile release in the organization’s history. The effort is intended to ease global supply concerns following the escalation of fighting in Iran.
The planned release would more than double the IEA’s previous record drawdown, when member countries placed 182 million barrels on the market in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a global energy shock.
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve — the world’s largest emergency oil stockpile — has also been used repeatedly in recent years to offset price spikes. Former President Joe Biden released nearly 300 million barrels during his administration, including about 180 million barrels over six months in 2022 as the Ukraine war drove fuel prices sharply higher.
Those releases reduced the reserve to roughly 350 million barrels, its lowest level since 1983, after Trump ended his first term with the SPR holding about 638 million barrels.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, oil prices briefly collapsed amid a global economic slowdown. Trump at the time directed the Energy Department to purchase 77 million barrels to refill the reserve “to the top,” but Congress — then controlled by Democrats — blocked funding for the purchase.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the new release will begin next week and will take roughly 120 days to deliver to the market.
Although Trump declared a “national energy emergency” early in 2025 and pledged to replenish the reserve, progress has been slow due to limited congressional funding. The SPR currently holds about 416 million barrels, according to data cited by Fortune.
Trump said he expects oil prices to fall as additional supply reaches the market.
“Oil prices will be coming down,” he told reporters during the visit. “That’s just a matter of war, that happens … you can almost predict it.”
“I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought and it’s going to come down more than anybody understands,” Trump added.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, created after the 1973 oil embargo, is intended to provide emergency supply during major disruptions in global oil markets. Analysts say coordinated releases from the SPR and allied reserves can help calm markets in the short term, though long-term price trends often depend on the duration of geopolitical conflicts and the broader balance between global oil supply and demand.
