With an unprecedented surplus of oil supply, oil prices have fallen to record lows. Trump, US President, reiterated his previous commitment to purchase up to 75 million barrels of oil to completely fill the US strategic oil reserves.

According to the Russian Satellite News Agency, on the 20th local time, Trump said at a new conference of New Crown Pneumonia Working Group held on White house that the US Department of Energy ’s emergency oil supply will be filled. "We are filling up the US national oil reserves. We hope to increase 75 million barrels of oil reserves." Trump said that he will take this opportunity to let the national oil reserves reach peak. "This will be the first peak in a long time." Trump said that the fall in oil prices is a "short-term tightening", mainly a financial phenomenon, "many people were found short." He also pointed out that in the case of oversupply in the market, he will consider stopping the delivery of oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States.

The strategic oil reserve was established after the oil crisis from 1973 to 1974, when Arab oil-producing countries tried to punish Western for supporting Israel by significantly increasing oil prices. The underground storage tank network in Louisiana and Texas is capable of storing approximately 797 million barrels of crude oil. The U.S. Department of Energy is leasing some of the 77 million barrels of available space in its strategic oil reserves to U.S. oil companies to help them cope with the lack of commercial storage space caused by the sharp reduction in domestic energy demand due to the new coronary pneumonia.

When Trump declared a state of emergency on March 13, he announced his intention to "fill up" the reserves. However, because members of Congress did not fund the purchase of oil in the National Economic Stimulation Act, the US Department of Energy abandoned its plan to purchase 30 million barrels of oil. Earlier this month, another bill that explicitly provided $ 3 billion in funding to the plan was proposed, but no progress was made.

According to reports, this move coincides with the time when oil prices are at historically low levels because oil producers have run out of inventory space. West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WestTexasIntermediate) May futures plunged Monday (April 20) to a negative $ 13.10 per barrel, which had previously hit a low of $ 40.32 per barrel.