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The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) stores crude oil to help address petroleum supply disruptions. The National Defense Stockpile (NDS) holds strategic and critical materials to reduce supply risks for defense and essential civilian industry during a national emergency. They serve different purposes, contain different things and operate under different agencies and authorities.
What each stockpile holds and why it exists
| Question | Strategic Petroleum Reserve | National Defense Stockpile |
|---|---|---|
| What is held? | Federally owned crude oil stored in underground salt caverns at four sites on the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). | Strategic and critical materials. A 2021 interagency review reported holdings of 55 materials; that is a historical snapshot, not a current inventory count. |
| What risk is it meant to address? | Petroleum supply disruptions and U.S. obligations under the international energy program. | Supply-chain risks to defense and essential civilian industry during a national emergency. The 2021 review describes it as a strategic, not economic, stockpile. |
| Who is responsible? | DOE owns and operates the reserve. | The Department of Defense maintains the stockpile under the Strategic and Critical Materials Stockpiling Act of 1979, as described in the 2021 review. |
| How is material made available? | DOE describes presidentially authorized competitive sales and limited exchanges; its FAQ says deliveries can enter the market within 13 days after a presidential decision. | No directly comparable current release-rate figure is established in the available official material cited here. |
The stockpiles cannot be compared as though they were two versions of the same reserve: one is measured in barrels of crude oil, while the other consists of multiple kinds of materials. Their objectives and release arrangements differ too.
How large is each reserve?
SPR figures are dated snapshots
DOE reported 294.1 million barrels in the SPR on August 20, 2026, against an authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels. These are inventory and capacity figures, not a measure of how quickly oil can be delivered. DOE’s SPR Quick Facts gives the inventory date and capacity.
DOE also reports a nominal maximum drawdown capability of 4.4 million barrels per day. That is the stated technical maximum, not a guarantee that every barrel can be delivered at that rate under all circumstances. Separately, DOE says oil may enter the market within 13 days after a presidential decision; that timing is not the same thing as the maximum daily drawdown rate. See the quick facts and SPR FAQs.
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The NDS figures available here are historical
The 2021 interagency review put the NDS at 55 materials valued at approximately $1 billion. Those figures describe that review’s snapshot and should not be read as current holdings or value. The cited review does not provide a current, comparable days-of-cover figure or release rate.
Why “days of import protection” can be misleading
DOE’s estimate of approximately 125 days of crude-oil net-import protection is based on SPR inventory and crude-oil net-import data at year-end 2025. It is a calculated coverage measure, not a promise that the reserve could supply all U.S. oil needs for that many days. The estimate and its basis appear in DOE’s SPR Quick Facts.
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A different figure appears in DOE’s FY2026 budget material: the International Energy Agency (IEA) member commitment is described as 90 days of net petroleum import protection through government-owned and/or commercial stocks. That commitment is not an SPR-only measure and does not use the same stock basis as DOE’s 125-day SPR calculation. See DOE FY 2026 Volume 3.
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What the NDS’s historical proceeds figure does—and doesn’t—show
The 2021 interagency review reported that 89.8 percent of NDS activity proceeds over fiscal years 2003–2018 were diverted to other defense and non-defense programs, measured in real dollars. That is a historical funding figure; it is not a current diversion rate or a measure of present inventory. It also does not change the stockpile’s stated purpose: holding materials against strategic supply risks rather than serving as an economic stockpile. The figure and characterization come from the 2021 review.
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Which one responds to a crisis?
It depends on what is disrupted. A petroleum supply disruption is the kind of risk the SPR is designed to address, with DOE administering oil sales or limited exchanges under its authorities. A shortage of strategic or critical materials affecting defense or essential civilian industry is the kind of risk the NDS is meant to mitigate. The sources cited here do not establish a current NDS material-by-material inventory or a release timetable comparable to the DOE’s SPR figures.
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