U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve: Your Cheat Sheet to the Oil Inventory

Last month leading member nations of International Energy Agency decided to release 60 million barrels of strategic reserves, half of which came out of U.S. stockpiles. Retail gas prices (NYSE:UGA) slumped as a result, and crude prices dipped lower for a short time, though are now trading back at higher levels than they were before the IEA decision.

Here’s a detailed look at the make-up of global petroleum reserves, and some information on how the strategic release process plays out. As you can see below, the US is the global leader in oil (NYSE:USO) reserves by a wide margin, providing the country with a sizable safety net in the event of an energy (NYSE:XLE)crisis. There are 42 gallons in a standard barrel of oil. 1.7 million barrels are consumed daily by the global marketplace.