Dow Jones| Nasdaq | US Stock Market Today | Live: US stocks trade lower as Iran war escalation sends oil prices up
Six months into the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Washington may find it harder to calm jittery oil markets after U.S. presidents drained the aging Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the last five years.
The SPR, which Washington created after the oil crises of the 1970s, holds crude in a series of 60 underground salt caverns along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. After years of releases by former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, the reserve is at its lowest level since 1982, holding just 289.7 million barrels.
The level will drop to about 243 million if Trump releases a final batch of 39 million barrels from a March agreement with the International Energy Agency. More than 30 countries agreed then to release a record 400 million barrels, with the U.S. contributing 172 million, in an effort to calm markets after the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28.
