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Natalie Weber \/ Houston Public Media<\/p>\n
A row of tanks can be seen from the road near the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas.<\/p>\n
Like many Americans, 79-year-old Elester Andrews is feeling the pinch of rising gas prices<\/a> amidst the United States and Israel\u2019s war with Iran. <\/p>\n Andrews, who drove down from Houston to Freeport to fish on a recent Friday, said it costs about $60 to completely fill up the tank of the 2016 silver Chevy Colorado pickup truck he’s been driving for about a decade.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n “That’s when you really feel the pinch, but it’s just a psychological thing for me,” said Andrews, who’s taken to filling up his gas tank when it reaches half empty.<\/p>\n The Trump administration recently announced<\/a> that it would release 172 million barrels of oil from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower oil prices amidst the war with Iran. <\/p>\n Click here for more inDepth features.<\/a><\/p>\n It’s part of a coordinated effort with the International Energy Agency, a coalition of 32 countries.<\/p>\n Two of the United States’ four reserve sites are in Texas, including a location in Freeport, just down the road from where Andrews likes to fish.<\/p>\n A large SUV, with a security guard inside, blocks the entrance to this particular reserve. It’s surrounded by a tall fence, topped with rolls of barbed wire.<\/p>\n The oil here \u2014 and at other reserve sites \u2013 is stored in large underground salt caverns.<\/p>\n “Salt is a great way to contain things because oil does not flow past the salt,” said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a petroleum engineering professor and the vice president for energy and innovation at the University of Houston.<\/p>\n Krishnamoorti said the reserve is located along the Gulf Coast, in part because of these naturally occurring salt caverns across Louisiana and East Texas. He says it’s common for companies to store not only oil, but also natural gas and hydrogen in salt caverns.<\/p>\n “All kinds of liquids and gases are stored subsurface that way,” Krishnamoorti said.<\/p>\n Lucio Vasquez \/ Houston Public Media<\/p>\n An oil and gas refinery near La Porte, Texas, on Aug. 28, 2020.<\/p>\n The reserve sites are also close to many refineries as Texas is home to a third of the nation’s crude oil refining capacity. And the locations are also close to Texas oil fields, Krishnamoorti said.<\/p>\n “You can take that oil and without necessarily having to move it very large distances, you can actually end up storing it and then as needed, pump it out and send it to the refineries to make gasoline, diesel, jet fuel,” Krishnamoorti said.<\/p>\n Impact of the reserve<\/p>\n Then-U.S. President Gerald Ford founded the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 1975 after the nation faced an oil embargo from Arab countries, leading to a recession.<\/p>\n Currently, the reserve stores 415 million barrels, or about 57% of its total capacity. That’s enough to sustain U.S. petroleum consumption for about 20 days. <\/p>\n The last time the U.S. drew from the reserve was in 2022<\/a>, following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The administration of President Donald Trump has promised to add 200 million barrels to the reserve within the next year.<\/p>\n While the administration hopes to drive down energy prices through the release, it may not have much of an impact on oil costs in the long term, said Robert Weiner, an international business professor at George Washington University. <\/p>\n “In the longer run, there is no substitute for reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Texas, oil producers may be hesitant to ramp up their production right now, Weiner said.<\/p>\n “Oil prices will have to look like they\u2019re going to be high for a while,” he said. “Otherwise, the Texas oil companies have already said that they’re not going to drill more.” <\/p>\n Late last year, the Department of Energy predicted that oil prices would remain low<\/a> in the first quarter of the year \u2013 predicting a Brent crude oil price at about $55 per barrel on average. The price per barrel has surged<\/a> to more than $100 at times since the start of the war with Iran.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Edited-5060-1000x667.jpg\")
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