Trump Boast About Filling Up U.S. Oil Reserve Is A Lie: OilPrice.com

The editor of an oil industry online publication has slammed Donald Trump for lying that he had filled up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SRP) of the US to the brim during his one-term presidency.

Photo Insert: According to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), when Trump took office in January 2017, the SPR contained 695 million barrels. When he left office four years later, the SPR contained 638 million barrels.

OilPrice.com editor Robert Rapier wrote that, as expected, Trump threw his hat in the ring for the 2024 presidential election more than two years before the polls open. As he bloviated for more than an hour in Mar-a-Lago, Trump made a number of questionable claims in the speech.

On the subject of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), Trump claimed that he “filled up” the SPR, but Biden has “virtually drained” it.

Earlier this year, after President Biden announced the largest SPR release in history, Trump bragged: “So after 50 years of being virtually empty, I built up our oil reserves during my administration, and low energy prices, to 100% full. It’s called the Strategic National Reserves, and it hasn’t been full for many decades. In fact, it’s been mostly empty.”

According to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), when Trump took office in January 2017, the SPR contained 695 million barrels. When he left office four years later, the SPR contained 638 million barrels.

So, the level of the SPR actually declined while President Trump was in office, Rapier wrote. “However, I will say that Trump proposed to top off the SPR during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, as I noted previously, 1). The directive was blocked by Democrats in Congress; and 2). The SPR was already within 13% of its highest-ever level when that directive was issued. In any case, it’s clear that it wasn’t filled during Trump’s time in office.

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