I'm guessing this is a result of 3 factors:
-
Hormuz closure.
-
Russian refineries getting blown up by Ukraine. (And then Russia using up what fuel it does still have in an attempt to alleviate shortages and keep the front lines supplied.)
-
The US emptying out their strategic reserves in a desperate attempt to prevent gas prices from going even higher due to the former two.
Edit:
The scale of this graph is a bit deceptive, though. While a casual glance makes it look like it's going almost down to zero, the vertical scale starts at 1,050,000. While the chart makes it look like it's already gone down to almost nothing, it's only gone down from ~1,275,000 to ~1,175,000. Obviously, it's still significantly low when compared to previous years, but it has 'only' gone down by about 8% since the beginning of the year.
