The SPR exists to protect the economy and American livelihoods in times of emergency oil shortages.
Selling high in 2022 when supplies were impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and buying back low does that.
"The Energy Department has been slowly replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which reached a 40-year-low following an unprecedented drawdown in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, the Biden administration ordered the release of a record 180 million barrels from the emergency oil supply in the face of surging retail gasoline costs."
