alt Hacker NewsI think the reserves have more complex dynamics. The law requires 250 million barrels to be kept but the pumping rate decreases as more is pumped. Also, there's various estimates that indicate that the storage areas will lose structural integrity and start to collapse at levels higher than 250M barrels. I'm not sure anyone really knows about the levels for sure and the best estimates are probably kept secret for security reasons.
Not that the administration is trustworthy, but they recently announced that the structural floor is ~70M barrels. Which is significantly lower than other public estimates. Which strikes me as an attempt to ease the market that there is significantly more breathing room.