Trump admin refilling strategic oil reserve as fast as possible after Biden drained it so fast machinery broke

Energy Secretary Chris Wright revealed on Tuesday that the Trump administration is working to refill America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve after the Biden administration made a historic drawdown from the reserves to combat rising gas prices.

"We are refilling the reserve now and we will continue to refill the reserve the whole time I’m in office," Wright said. "You know, that was just such an irresponsible action to drain that reserve so quickly for electoral reasons. And the fact it was drained so fast, it did some damage in the facilities."

He added, "Right now, we can only fill two of the four major salt caverns we have. So we are doing repair work on the other two, we’re slowly filling the other two, and I’m trying to get some funds through Congress, that’ll give us a longer-term runway to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at the fastest rate we can."

In March, Wright estimated that it would take years and $20 billion to refill the reserve to maximum capacity, per Reuters. Under the Biden administration, nearly 300 million barrels were sold from the reserve, including a 2022 sale of 180 million barrels, which pushed the reserve to the lowest level in 40 years.

Overall, the reserve has the capacity to store around 727 million barrels. As of March, there were around 395 million barrels. Biden’s largest sale of barrels from the reserve came in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as the US was experiencing the highest-ever prices of gasoline. The highest national average recorded by the American Automobile Association was seen on June 14, 2022, in which a gallon of gasoline cost $5.016.

The Biden administration purchased its last batch of oil for the reserve in November, with deliveries being scheduled through May of this year.