The 252.4 Million-Barrel Barrier: Why the SPR’s Buffer Is Hitting Hard Limits
Fortune argues the SPR’s buffer is vanishing against physical and legal limits: with about 293 million barrels stored in salt caverns and a statutory floor of 252.4 million, only roughly 41 million barrels remain usable; rapid draws risk cavern collapse, salt creep, and sludge formation, so operations must slow to a conservative rate and be spread across multiple caverns while policy clarifies when a full emergency release is warranted.
