With oil bumping along near $70 a barrel, this should be the perfect time for the US to refill its depleted emergency stockpile.

The administration of President Joe Biden sold off a record amount of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over a six-month stretch in 2022, when the average price was $95 per barrel. Replacing supplies at current prices would be a nice deal.

The problem is the government’s crude-procurement fund doesn’t have enough cash to pull it off.

The Energy Department account to buy oil for stockpiling is down to about $841 million, according to an estimate by the consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners. It would stretch to about 12 million barrels at today’s prices.

That would be a mere fraction of the 320-million–barrel shortfall between the current amount stockpiled and the SPR’s maximum capacity of more than 700 million barrels.

The reserve’s level has been at or close to a four-decade low since the Biden administration sold 180 million barrels into the global market in an attempt to bring down gasoline prices following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Energy Department didn’t respond to requests for comment.

All told, the US has sold about 290 million barrels under Biden. Part of that has been through sales mandated by Congress, which uses the cash for roads, drugs, deficit reduction and other things that don’t necessarily have anything to do with energy.

Officials are slowly refilling the reserve, saying it’s crucial to the nation’s energy security. That includes buying about 50 million barrels of oil and securing the return of 5 million barrels loaned to oil companies. The administration has also asked lawmakers to cancel upcoming congressionally-mandated sales to keep levels from slipping further.

Congress could, of course, allocate more money to the Energy Department, allowing it to take advantage of low prices to buy crude. But that’s a tough ask during a highly polarized election year.

—Ari Natter, Bloomberg News