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SideburnSundays t1_iswwqrx wrote

Whenever I read news like this I imagine 15 million, 55-gallon literal barrels of thick black fluid just chilling out somewhere for decades.

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CrappyMSPaintPics t1_isx15l2 wrote

It's actually stored underground inside salt caverns previously created by solution mining.

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Chippopotanuse t1_isx56s6 wrote

So, it’s just been chilling out for decades?

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WSL_subreddit_mod t1_isx81kb wrote

I mean, before we put it in a barrel it was sitting around under ground for a lot longer than that...

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birdpix t1_isxc5ba wrote

In the 80s, they built pipelines to transport oil to/from the underground reserves right across some of the most wild and pristine parts of coastal Texas and Louisiana. The oil is pumped into old salt mines.

My experience was a shocking before and after, when as a youngster, relatives in SW LA took me out to the swamp (National Wildlife Refuge) before and after the pipeline was built. My 2nd visit was within a year of it being built and it was heartbreaking to see the damage putting it in did, and how almost every support section had a chemically caused circle of death (agent orangish) 10-20 feet in diameter and some icky stains under pipeline. In the midst of the absolute wilds, seeing nothing growing was sad. That and seeing fresh oil spill in Mobile Bay colored my view of the oil industry for the last 40 years.

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Deluxe78 t1_it796wn wrote

I checked it said best used before midterms, it’s still good

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Al_Bundy_14 t1_isx6klu wrote

That’s a drum. Oil comes in 42 gallon barrels.

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pookshuman t1_isww39i wrote

what the fuck is the point of calling it a strategic reserve when every president uses it as an economic reserve?

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[deleted] t1_isxarvu wrote

That's exactly what 'Strategic' means. Save up when the price is low, use the reserve when the price is high. Common sense capitalism is a strategy.

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No___ImRight t1_isxkhoa wrote

Then why did Democrats block Trump from filing the reserves up when oil was going for $24/barrel?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-13/biden-may-buy-oil-just-below-80-democrats-stymied-trump-at-24?leadSource=uverify%20wall

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JohnnyUtah_QB1 t1_isxljlp wrote

Our reserves were stocked up at that time, that wasn't about replenishing reserves, that was an obviously transparent effort to bail out oil companies/investors.

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No___ImRight t1_isxlxgx wrote

In March of 2008 we had 730 million barrels in reserve.

In March of 2020 (when we were talking about buying at $24/barrel) we were down to 640 million barrels.

We had room.

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baxterstate t1_isy2931 wrote

We desperately need to bring down the cost of oil to prevent Republicans from winning the midterms. Isn’t that enough of a crisis?

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JohnnyUtah_QB1 t1_isxn6l0 wrote

It wasn't needed. Obviously because even though we just heavily tapped it we had enough and still have plenty left, we didn't run dry.

We don't need to set our reserve policy based on what's best for the oil industry at that moment, that's beyond moronic. Likewise we don't need the government gambling on oil futures. That's the type of energy policy someone who comes up with the idea of injecting Lysol to cure Covid would come up with.

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JohnnyUtah_QB1 t1_isxl8bl wrote

What is the point of having it if we don't use it when things get tight? This is how strategic reserves work...

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[deleted] t1_isxuv5t wrote

[removed]

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JohnnyUtah_QB1 t1_isxwo0v wrote

>We’re supposed to have it there in case of war or Arab oil embargo.

If these things happen we can just stop exporting our domestic supply. We largely solved this problem in the wake of Katrina and the huge oil prices in the 2000s. Those shake ups and lasting high prices incentivized the reestablishment of American oil production and we rebuilt our North American supply. That's a big reason why pre-Covid prices were so low compared to the decade prior. We finally had all that 2000s infrastructure coming online.

We currently sell off much of our domestic supply as that light sweet crude sells well on international markets, but if those things you're talking about come to bear we're just going to shut down exports.

The strategic reserve is the small button intended for market corrections. We have a much bigger button to press now if things really hit the fan.

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Turambar87 t1_isy0ci5 wrote

OPEC trying to get Republicans elected is an act of war against the US, they are trying to destroy the nation.

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[deleted] t1_isy2nwc wrote

[removed]

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r3rg54 t1_it2338a wrote

That's kind of irrelevant though since us oil companies don't really want to increase the pace of drilling.

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Particular-Board2328 t1_iswwd12 wrote

700 million barrels of oil sitting around for decades....

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pookshuman t1_iswxiru wrote

that's what reserves do, that is literally all they do, sit around

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Accomplished_Worth t1_isx2tp3 wrote

Government should have bought a billion barrels when it was it 20 bucks. That is what governments should do. Everything is cyclical. The government ended up making money on TARP

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Jeremycycles t1_isxaibv wrote

Ahem, there was a plan to refill the reserve at an extremely cheap price. But one part of the government pulled it from the bill saying they didn't want to "bail out the oil industry"

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[deleted] t1_isxmevm wrote

[removed]

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Jeremycycles t1_isxmikb wrote

We weren't stocked up at the time. The plan was specifically to bring the oil reserves to capacity because oil was at decades low prices

Edit - It was over 120 million barrels below capacity

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itslikewoow t1_isxotsh wrote

Why did Trump say it was at 100% then?

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Jeremycycles t1_isxq57d wrote

Does anyone actually listen to what Trump says? The oil reserve never got over 640 million barrels under his administration. Why did you delete your previous comment?

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itslikewoow t1_isxsnn1 wrote

>Does anyone actually listen to what Trump says

He was literally our president...so yes?

>Why did you delete your last comment?

I didn't delete anything, not sure what your talking about. I added an edit to my previous comment though.

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karibear909 t1_iszwjn1 wrote

Your original comment was removed for some reason.

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Agent_Angelo_Pappas t1_isxve6y wrote

"refill"

They wanted to bring the reserve back to 2008 levels, where the Bush administration had it. The same Bush administration that was so deep in Big Oil's pocket they falsified the existence of WMD's in order to start a war over oil.

We never needed reserves that large which was why we reduced them and kept them lower when a saner administration entered office. If our 2020 reserves weren't sufficient we'd be wiped out right now, but we're still sitting on 400 million barrels and don't need to rush to bring that up.

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Dultsboi t1_iszlymm wrote

>the same bush administration that was so deep in big oil’s pocket

The Bush family is big oil. Bush Sr was an oil baron in the 60’s. People always forget that.

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MyCollector t1_isx7mzb wrote

They should hedge and learn from Southwest Airlines. But that requires thinking beyond 2 year house terms and political cycles, something our government completely fails at.

If a Democrat or Republican is going to conceivably “get credit” for the other party’s shrewd calculus, it won’t ever be done.

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Logistocrate t1_isxbn4z wrote

Storage concerns probably. Also, bear in mind, America produced, on average, 18.6 million barrels of oil every day in 2021. We consumed about 19.8 million barrels a day during the same period while also exporting around 8.5 million barrels a day.

For a variety of reasons, like refinery setups and taking part in the global economy around import/export, we have chosen to leave ourselves susceptible to OPECs rigging of the global market prices...I'm sure its also just a coincidence that petroleum companies just happen to make record profits when costs are high. Almost as if they don't just raise the pump price to cover increased cost.

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RTwhyNot t1_iszuytx wrote

No president from either side should do this. It only provides a few cents relief at the pump and that reserve is there for emergencies.

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johnnyringo117 t1_isxdjem wrote

Why can’t we just stop exporting as much oil as we currently do? Seems stupid to be sending a commodity out of the country that we could refine and use right here.

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Jeremycycles t1_isxniud wrote

The issue is that we can't refine enough domestic oil to keep up with capacity

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JohnnyUtah_QB1 t1_isxygpm wrote

We can, it's just more lucrative to sell it. A lot of US domestic oil is relatively lighter sweet crude, the kind of crude that is easy to refine. That means it's very in demand on global markets as that's the kind of crude most countries have the technology and infrastructure to handle.

So we sell that stuff off by the boatload, and in return we bring in heavy sour crude. Why? Because it's a pain in the ass to refine, and we're one of the few countries on earth with the infrastructure to do it. Since most other places can't handle it we get it for very cheap, cheap enough that the excess refining cost isn't an issue.

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Jeremycycles t1_isy0ebl wrote

We literally don’t have the refineries in place for light sweet crude oil. You can’t just change the plants to refine a different type. So no we don’t have the capacity to refine the crude oil from the United States.

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StThoughtWheelz t1_isyl652 wrote

The USA makes a large profit off of oil exports selling to friendly nations.

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Hrekires t1_isy0v33 wrote

It's a mix of the oil industry not being nationalized and under government control but also, not all oil is the same so we end up selling grades that we don't need and buying grades that we do.

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johnnyringo117 t1_isy2w6r wrote

Ah, this makes sense. So the US doesn’t have the right type of crude for making gasoline? I get it. Stupid dinosaurs.

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Pupwagn t1_it3zz2r wrote

Lets see all those politicians who bought short positions and are looking to cash in when it drops to 70ish per barrel.

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itslikewoow t1_isxnkla wrote

Short term fix, but it's not like there's any other good options at the moment. Since oil is a global commodity, Saudi Arabia and Russia have influence over the price of oil whether we like it or not. The solution is to move to renewable energy and transportation solutions (evs, public transit, etc) so that we're not reliant on Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The transition should have begun decades ago, but better late than never. Push for more green energy initiatives if you're tired of our adversaries messing with us economically.

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