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With oil prices at historic lows, now is the time to sell?

When you're close to bankrupt, there's not a lot to lose by selling off assets at a loss. Even a significant one.

Given the expansion of known oil reserves in the US, even if they aren't currently being exploited (including because the price of oil doesn't support doing so), I do wonder about the value of the strategic reserve. It was supposed to exist as a hedge against having outside oil sources, such as from the Middle East, cut off.

If those sources are cut off, today, it seems like we've reached a point where we can quickly enough replace them using domestic sources. If that's the case, then the strategic reserve is an unnecessary redundancy.

Given that, my big issue here is HOW the money from them will be used. Plowing them into new government spending, particularly spending on things that will have to be maintained, at some cost, once the initial "investment" is made, is stupid. Much better to use any sales to reign in the deficits towards the point where we can start paying down debt, or meet the massive unfunded obligations this nation has racked up.