Doug Stephen was playing an interview with an “expert” repeating the idea that not raising the debt ceiling does not mean default is necessary – saying one easy way would be to sell off the strategic petroleum reserve which is worth a Trillion Dollars.
The SPR is full and contains about 725 million barrels. Oil is at about $100 per barrel, meaning it is worth about $70 billion, not $1000 billion.
The SPR should not be confused with the National Petroleum Reserve, which is an area of the North Slope in Alaska set aside in 1923 in case the United States had a future military need for oil.