Refilling Reserve With Lower Oil Prices, Will It Continue?

CHICAGO, Illinois (News Talk 1480 WHBC) – Local gas prices are staying under three-dollars for now, and crude oil prices remain in the 70s.

So some of that lower-priced crude is going back into the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

GasBuddy Chief Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan says the salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas are about half-full.

“Full” is 700 million gallons.

President Biden tapped the reserves when prices went over five-dollars a gallon back in 2022.

But before that in 2015, Congress mandated sales from the reserve.

The good news is though, many of those sales are off the books and canceled, says GasBuddy’s Patrick DeHaan.

Oil prices were up over two-percent Friday morning on developments in the Middle East.

The AAA average price for gas in Canton-Massillon was up 41-cents this week, to $2.84 Friday morning.