U.S. Emergency Oil Reserve Hits Lowest Levels Since 1983: Why it Matters

Dow Jones00:00

In underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana, the U.S. government stores hundreds of millions of barrels worth of oil in case of energy shocks. Those reserves are now at their lowest levels in decades.

In May, President Trump said the U.S. would release up to 172 million barrels worth of that oil to help tamp down prices during one of the world's worst energy disruptions. The war with Iran hinges in large part on control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world's oil transited before the conflict.

Watch the video above to learn more about how we got here and the debate over what's next for the U.S.'s strategic oil reserves.

Write to Rachel Rogers at rachel.rogers@wsj.com and David Uberti at david.uberti@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2026 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT)

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The war with Iran hinges in large part on control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world's oil transited before the conflict. \n</p>\n<p>\n  Watch the video above to learn more about how we got here and the debate over what's next for the U.S.'s strategic oil reserves. \n</p>\n<p>\n  Write to Rachel Rogers at rachel.rogers@wsj.com and David Uberti at david.uberti@wsj.com \n</p>\n<pre style=\"white-space: pre\">\n \n</pre>\n<p>\n  (END) Dow Jones Newswires\n</p>\n<p>\n  July 18, 2026 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT)\n</p>\n<p>\n  Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones &amp; Company, Inc.\n</p>\n</font>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"ERX","symbol_name":"二倍做多能源ETF-Direxion","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://dowjonesnews.com/newdjn/logon.aspx?AL=N","article_id":"2652322692","we_media_id":"106","thumbnails":[],"rights":null,"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2652322692","pubTimestamp":1784390400,"columns":[],"sourceInfo":null,"weMediaInfo":{"media_name":"Dow Jones","introduction":"Dow Jones publishes the world’s most trusted business news and financial information in a variety of media.","home_visible":0,"id":"106","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99"},"summary":"In underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana, the U.S. government stores hundreds of millions of barrels worth of oil in case of energy shocks. 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Those reserves are now at their lowest levels in decades. \n\n\n  In May, President Trump said the U.S. would release up to 172 million barrels worth of that oil to help tamp down prices during one of the world's worst energy disruptions. The war with Iran hinges in large part on control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world's oil transited before the conflict. \n\n\n  Watch the video above to learn more about how we got here and the debate over what's next for the U.S.'s strategic oil reserves. \n\n\n  Write to Rachel Rogers at rachel.rogers@wsj.com and David Uberti at david.uberti@wsj.com \n\n\n \n\n\n  (END) Dow Jones Newswires\n\n\n  July 18, 2026 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT)\n\n\n  Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":true,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"0","news_tag":"merge","news_rank":0,"isVideo":false,"video":null,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":true,"need_login_tip":false,"code":"91000000","status":"200"},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"isLaohu8Offline":false,"tenantId":"TBGLOBAL","deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.46.0","shortVersion":"4.46.0","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2652322692","isCrawlerRequest":true}