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and how long would it last if there was an oil embargo? Assuming that it was not all rationed to just the military.

anyone know?

~90 days at current U.S. usage rates

DOE - Fossil Energy: Quick Facts about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Wiki: Strategic Petroleum Reserve

I am sure many will correct me if I am wrong but if the total storage capacity is 727 million barrels, and America uses 25% of the total 86 million barrels a day of world production wouldn't that give us a little under 34 days of capacity?

86 x 25% = 21.5
727 / 21.5 = 33.8 days

I believe the maximum pumping rate is 4 megabarrels/day, so it would take 198 days to burn through it.

If the US is left with the SPR to support itself on 4M Bbl/day, the use of the fuel derived from this crude would be earmarked, prioritized, and allocated according to national security needs. Don't expect to fill your tank to drive to the beach, ain't gonna happen. In an oil emergency, this stuff will become invaluable. It would not be sold to the highest bidder and released to the public market. The military would get what it needs, followed by the federal government, then trickling down to state level allocation for police, command and control, critical infrastructure and systems such as the postal service, hospitals, then to the counties and cities.

Who gets the oil? Diesel locomotives hauling coal to power plants. 18 wheelers hauling food. FEMA. Harbor pilots and tug boats. Water districts and sewage treatment vehicles. The big grain producing companies like ADM and Cargill. Trucks hauling heating oil and propane. Bus lines, cabs, mass transit. Industries such as fertilizer plants, coal mines, steel, chemicals, and defense. Construction projects, highway repairs, ferries, road crews. Most importantly: Northcom, state troopers, national guard, sherrifs and the local police in order to control the crowds that will surely be rioting when they learn they get nothing.

How much do they get? 4M barrels/day to work with, less refinery consumption, the military taking what they need off the top, followed by federal agencies, then law enforcement, there won't be much left. If we're lucky, it will keep the lights on and the water flowing, but probably not everywhere and surely not for long.

The events of the last couple of months have shown how vulnerable the refinery capacity is to disruption, and how quickly and widespread are the effects. We have too many eggs in too few baskets, and an entire civilization dependent on continuous smooth operations.

kpeavey wrote:Don't expect to fill your tank to drive to the beach, ain't gonna happen.

Well, maybe you could if you delivered a "gift" to the Royalty-in-Kind department at the MMS.

The max drawdown is 4.4 mb/d, not 4.0. Bodman has authorized another SPR site at Richton, Mississippi, with 160 mb. Bets are that we'll be hearing talk of a finished products SPR soon.

Hurricanes are detrimental to the SPR's functioning as well.

Ok, so when oil got up over $100, Bush suspended filling the strategic oil reserve.

Now that it's gotten so low, have they started stockpiling again? Does anyone know?

This should answer your question:

US Strategic Petroleum Reserve Inventory

I found the link via the DOE's website.

DOE - Fossil Energy: U.S. Petroleum Reserves

Is the answer no? It seems like we have a 700 million barrel reserve that should be a billion.

Anyway, now's the time to add to the reserve. It's never going to be this cheap again.

Lanthanide wrote:Ok, so when oil got up over $100, Bush suspended filling the strategic oil reserve.

Now that it's gotten so low, have they started stockpiling again? Does anyone know?

In fact, it was congress that stopped the filling of the SPR. The law was passed last summer and became effective in September IIRC. I think it only lasts til the end of the year. Any new stockpiling will show up in the EIA weekly report, it hasn't yet. Now would be an excellent time to fill 'er up!

They are going to start adding to it again in January, according to bloomberg this morning.

U.S. to Add 12 Million Barrels to Petroleum Reserve
By Daniel Whitten

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Energy Department plans to add 12 million barrels of oil to the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the first increase since prices surged to a record in July.

A ban on oil purchases for the reserve ended Dec. 31.

... skip ...

“Thank God they’re doing it at reasonable prices,” said Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover, an energy consulting company based in New Canaan, Connecticut. “But 12 million barrels is a drop in the bucket. It’s not going to have a big impact on prices.”

... snip ...

Oh but you are forgetting about the volatility amplifier.

A week or so ago, the inventory in Cushing was at record levels. No problem to pump another 12 million or so into the salt domes at the moment. February is typically the lowest refinery utilization month of the year.

So, it's a no-brainer.

Pup,

What's the recovery rate of the SPR? Does any oil seep through the salt and get lost?

Is this why oil went up in the last few days? The official explanation is that it is due to the fighting in Gaza, but since that doesn't affect the oil in the Arabian Gulf, I don't believe it.

An intelligent move, for a change.

Make it 500 million and we're talking....

12M barrels
call it $50/barrel for simple math
$600 Million.
consumption per day =20M barrels
this amount would get us by for 14.4 hours

Automakers bailout proposal
$25 Billion
500 Million barrels, enough for 25 days

Latest bank bailout proposal or some damn treasury thing
$500 Billion
this would buy 10 Billion barrels, 16 months

Amount the Governors want
$1 Trillion
20 Billion barrels, 2.7 years, we'll be into the next election
This would be 20-25% of a years global production, so its not gonna happen

Amount they are giving me
$0

DaleFromCalgary wrote:Is this why oil went up in the last few days? The official explanation is that it is due to the fighting in Gaza, but since that doesn't affect the oil in the Arabian Gulf, I don't believe it.

Guess who consumes oil too now? BP reported they were the third fasting growing consumers of 2007.

Saudi Arabia to Boost Spending

... U.S. benchmark crude prices will have to average $43 per barrel in 2009 to cover the [Saudi] budgeted revenue projection, said John Sfakianakis, the chief economist at SABB, HSBC Holdings PLC's Saudi affiliate. ...