Oil reserves in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve have fallen to their lowest level since 1982. UNN reports this citing Reuters.
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According to the U.S. Department of Energy, crude oil reserves in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to 283.8 million barrels last week. This is the lowest level since October 1982.
This reduction is part of a U.S. agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility.
As Oilprice.com notes, this year the U.S. oil reserve reached a new multi-year low twice, first falling below 300 million barrels and then dropping below the 1983 level in early August.
Ben Cahill, an energy analyst at the Atlantic Council, warned that oil releases have diminishing returns: "At a certain point, it becomes a self-defeating move, because releasing more oil into the market is undermined by the perception that we are running out of options."
The decline in prices coincides with what Saul Kavonic of MST Marquee earlier this month called "living on the oil market's credit card": supply volumes through the Strait of Hormuz still amount to approximately one-third of their pre-war level, while inventory drawdowns, rather than new supplies, have kept the price of Brent below $110 for most of the crisis.
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