// definition
SPR
Strategic petroleum reserve
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Short definition
A crude stockpile built by a state to cushion a supply disruption. China's reserve, estimated at about 1.24 billion barrels in early 2026 (commercial and strategic stocks combined), would be the world's largest, ahead of the United States and Japan. Beijing publishes no detail; analysts reconstruct it from import flows and satellite tank monitoring.
risk atlas
Knowledge map
Intuition
A strategic reserve is a political option on price and energy security.
Formula
safety cushion = deployable stocks / exposed consumption or importsWhy it matters now
Chinese and American reserves can dampen or amplify price moves depending on whether they are used, rebuilt or held.
Related analyses
- Oil: the Chinese inventory capping pricesReserves, Brent prices and Chinese buying behaviour.
- China crude imports fallPhysical flows, margins and market power.
Related guides
- Reading the oil marketPrices, curve, inventories, OPEC and physical data.
Related datasets
- risk.jsonPublic snapshot of the risk signals.
- signals/history.jsonPoint-in-time history of the signals.
- risk-diff.json1, 7 and 30-day diff of signals, sources and models.
- evidence-graph.jsonClaims, evidence and their sources as a graph.
Signals using it
- Energy MonitorMethodology of the energy stress signal.
- Risk DiffRecent change in risk and source freshness.
Primary sources
- U.S. Energy Information AdministrationOil, gas, inventories, production and the Short-Term Energy Outlook.
- Commodity Futures Trading CommissionFutures positioning through the Commitments of Traders.
- World Bank Open Data & OECD DataMacro comparables and commodity prices.