That's as much as we burn in 9 days BTW https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_oil_consumption

To put it in perspective that is about 40% of the reserve!

Approximately 20 million barrels traveled through the strait of Hormuz before the war. Even if the conditions allowed for half of that number to go through now, we are pretty much burning though that stockpile in 40 days. The clock is ticking. Things will be completely uncontrollable in a month long war.

It's for the shareholders to keep costs down, prices for the unwashed masses won't go down.

Of course, to sell it now gives a lot of money. 

releasin’ the Fraken

Not why it's there or supposed to be used for...

Oh good the long term damage to oil production, storage, and shipping is solved!

The US uses 20M barrels of oil per day this is less than 9 days worth of supplies.

This is burning down all your crops and going “don’t worry though I picked up a box of protein bars so we are good food wise”