The Trump administration plans to cancel a previous plan to sell oil reserves

On March 11, U.S. Energy Secretary Wright said on Monday that he was planning to work with Congress to cancel the previous plan to sell the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as one of the ways to solve the problem of low inventories. The U.S. Congress has authorized the sale of about 100 million barrels of crude oil from the world’s largest emergency crude oil reserves, of which 7 million barrels will be sold in the 2026-2027 fiscal year, with further sales by 2031. Wright said in an interview that it would take five to seven years and $20 billion to replenish the reserves. Former U.S. President Joe Biden sold nearly 300 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, including the largest sale ever made after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Wright said it would take more time to replenish the reserves than to sell them due to ongoing maintenance issues.