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By Timothy Gardner
(Reuters) -U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright estimates it would take $20 billion and years to accomplish President Donald Trump's goal of refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to its maximum capacity, the Energy Department said on Friday.
President Donald Trump said on his first day in office he wants to fill the reserve up to the top as part of a policy to support oil and gas.
Former President Joe Biden's administration sold nearly 300 million barrels from the reserve including a 180-million-barrel sale in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. The sales pushed the SPR to the lowest level in 40 years.
"The Energy Department has not made any budget requests to Congress at this time," a department spokesperson said.
It will take years to refill the reserve, the spokesperson said, and a request that size to Congress is not something the department would do immediately in one request given the other budget concerns of the department, which also manages the nation's arsenal of nuclear weapons.
The SPR is the world's largest emergency crude oil stockpile with capacity to store about 727 million barrels and currently holds about 395 million barrels. The estimated $20 billion would only be enough to buy about 301 million barrels of U.S. crude at today's prices, and would bring the reserve to less than 700 million barrels.
Wright had told Bloomberg News in an interview he was seeking $20 billion which would restore holdings "just close to the top."
The SPR was created in 1975 in the aftermath of the 1973 Arab oil embargo and is intended to blunt the impact of supply disruptions, such as hurricanes or war in producer countries.
Trump has criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, for tapping the reserve to bring down the price of gasoline.
Biden's administration bought its last batch of oil for the SPR in November with deliveries continuing through May of this year. His administration also canceled congressionally mandated sales from the reserve, which both Republican and Democratic lawmakers had voted for.
As part of a strategy to keep supplies robust, Trump could cancel remaining mandated sales to prevent flow of oil out of and into the reserves to avoid wear and tear on the hollowed-out, underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coasts where they are held.
"To minimize wear on the facilities, we would expect DOE to pursue a cancellation of the scheduled sales," ClearView Energy Partners said in a research note.
(Reporting by Disha Mishra in Bengaluru and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Christina Fincher, Tomasz Janowski, Philippa Fletcher and Andrea Ricci)
