Frequent Oil Draws From U.S. Strategic Reserve Push Old System to Breaking Point - WSJ

Source: WSJ

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DW NOTE

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was built to cushion supply shocks, not to function as a standing market intervention tool. Each withdrawal for non-emergency purposes — whether to dampen election-year gasoline prices or smooth seasonal volatility — drains both inventory and the mechanical integrity of salt caverns that were never designed for continuous cycling. The reserve now holds roughly half what it did in 2020. Infrastructure decay is the expected outcome when you treat strategic assets as if they were tactical.

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