The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has dropped to its lowest level since 1982, Department of Energy data this week showed, revealing the continued drawdown of emergency oil as the nation weathers a global energy shortage.
The reserve shrank by more than 3 million barrels of oil over the week ending on Aug. 28, the DOE said, leaving the stockpile at 286.6 million barrels or about 40% of overall capacity.
The largest global oil supply disruption on record has catapulted U.S. gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, rekindled inflation and helped set the stage for November's midterm elections.
Since April we've been losing an average of about 6 million barrels of oil from our stockpile every week. Assuming the rate of decline stays about the same, our stockpile will be completely empty in about 46 weeks.
But I'm pretty sure I also read somewhere that the whole oil refining system will break down before the stockpiles are actually empty, and 46 weeks is hopefully a long enough time to figure something out.