Guest “Let’s go Brandon!” by David Middleton
Back before the shamdemic, the economy was booming, oil prices were rising and President Trump was about to slam the Iranian thugocracy with severe sanctions. There was a great deal of caterwauling among the snowflakes about this triggering oil price spikes and that President Trump would abuse his executive authority to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an unprecedented effort to manipulate oil prices…
What happens if Trump taps the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
PUBLISHED WED, JUL 25 2018
Priyanka NarayanPresident Donald Trump has been talking a lot about controlling global oil prices, tweeting about Saudi Arabia’s need to ramp up production and, during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, posing the idea of “regulating oil prices.”
There is good reason for Trump to be concerned. His administration’s plan to sanction Iranian oil exports in November will create a significant global oil-supply decline. Oil prices that spike too quickly have caused past economic recessions, and the U.S. economy already is running hot ahead of midterm elections taking place when the Iran sanctions start in November.
For these reasons, there has been speculation Trump may seek to tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Trump administration also is reportedly lobbying international allies to release emergency stockpiles through the International Energy Agency, though the president’s administration remains divided over the idea. The IEA denied the reports, telling the press “there have been no specific discussions about an emergency stock release.”
If Trump were to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil, 660 million barrels stored in massive underground salt caverns off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico — it would be the first time that an SPR release was deliberately planned in advance.
Experts say this would set a precedent.
[…]
CNBC
The “experts” went on to describe the imagined SPR release as a “foolish and an extraordinarily bad precedent,” unlikely to significantly affect oil prices.
Now some of the snowflakes are praising the Harris-Biden Dominion for doing exactly what they moronically imagined President Trump would do.
Some climate campaigners praise Biden for releasing emergency oil reserves
Move appears to contradict president’s climate crisis goals but some say it defends the economy ‘against disruption’Maya Yang
Fri 26 Nov 2021In a surprising move, some climate crisis campaigners have praised Joe Biden for ordering the release of emergency oil reserves in an attempt to reduce energy prices across the country.
On Tuesday, the president announced the release of a record 50m barrels of oil stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in coordination with other countries including China, India and the UK.
[…]
Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who has focused extensively on the climate crisis, praised the Biden administration. “This is what reserves are for – defending our economy against disruption. Profiteering can’t go unanswered, especially as Big Oil makes billions and fuels the climate crisis through exports,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
Markey attributed the surge in oil prices to oil companies and corporate greed, saying: “Some of the upward pressure on oil prices today is directly tied to the fact that oil producers can make more money by producing less oil … the smartest thing we can do to insulate America from future global oil price shocks is to reduce our dependence on oil in general, and especially foreign oil. That means investing in America’s transition to a clean energy future.”
Lorne Stockman, research director of Oil Change International, an environmental group focused on creating a “fossil-free future”, said Biden should have acted sooner, if only to counter a barrage of Republican criticism blaming him for high gasoline prices.
“Presidents are always blamed for high gas prices, whether they have anything to do with it or not,” Stockman said, calling the measure a small step to bring short-term relief to American consumers.
“I don’t see a conflict between having long-term policies on climate change and having a short-term policy that would protect the economic well-being of Americans in need,” Amy Myers Jaffe, managing director of the Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University, told Bloomberg.
[…]
Kelly Sheehan, senior director of energy campaigns with the environmental organization Sierra Club, praised Biden’s actions but cautioned that the only way to fully attain energy security is to “rapidly transition away from risky fossil fuels like oil and gas and make it easier for more people to access clean energy”.
[…]
Yet despite previous criticisms, many environmental groups regard Biden’s recent announcement as a necessary evil in the long journey to reduce American dependence on fossil fuels and break up the monopoly of oil companies.
“Price volatility will always be part of big oil’s playbook,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Let’s break their stranglehold on our economy once and for all.”
The Grauniad
The reaction to Brandon’s Biden’s weak and futile gesture was a sharp rise in crude oil prices.
Why oil prices jumped despite the U.S. tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Nov. 23, 2021
By William WattsOil futures rose sharply Tuesday after the Biden administration announced a coordinated, U.S.-led effort by energy consuming countries to release strategic crude reserves. What gives?
First off, a move had been well-telegraphed. News reports speculating on potential releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and talk of a coordinated effort that would include China and others circulated in recent weeks, and were widely cited as a factor in crude oil’s pullback in price from 7-year highs set last month.
West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery CL00, 2.27% CLF22, 2.25%, the U.S. benchmark, jumped $1.75, or 2.5%, to close at $78.50 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent crude BRN00, 2.44% BRNF22 surged $2.61, or 3.3%, to $82.31 a barrel.
But there’s more to the bounce than traders simply fading a piece of long-anticipated news, analysts said.
The size of the U.S. release at 50 million barrels was larger than the 35 million barrels that had been widely anticipated, said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. But details of the plan, including the use of swaps, which means oil purchased from the SPR must be returned in the next one to three years, may have blunted the impact somewhat, he said, in a phone interview.
[…]
Market Watch
Oil prices did tank on Friday… However this was due to the latest government-induced panic over the recently discovered Ohmygod variant of the ChiCom-19 (ChiCom-19-OMG) virus.
The Ohmygod variant is apparently highly contagious, but far less virulent than the previously engineered variants. But… Hey… Why let a new variant go to waste?
The newly engineered ChiCom-19-OMG variant led Morgan Stanley to “slash” their 2022 oil price forecast. Having spent the past 40.5 years working in the oil industry, I think this is the first time I have ever seen $82.50/bbl be the result of a slashing…
Morgan Stanley Slashes Oil Price Forecast On Omicron Fears
By Tsvetana Paraskova – Nov 29, 2021The oil market expects that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus could dampen oil demand in coming weeks, Morgan Stanley said on Monday, slashing its Brent price forecast for the first quarter of 2022 to $82.50 a barrel from $95 per barrel expected earlier.
Oil prices plummeted by more than 11 percent on Friday amid fears that the newly detected heavily mutated Omicron COVID variant could prompt more restrictions and lockdowns globally and slow oil consumption.
Early on Monday, both benchmarks were up by 5 percent, with Brent at over $75 and WTI above $71 per barrel, after market participants realized that the Friday plunge may have been excessive and also driven by low liquidity due to the festive Thanksgiving weekend in the United States.
Still, the new variant has already prompted the United States, the EU, the UK, and many other countries to ban flights from South Africa and other countries in the south of Africa where the Omicron strain was detected first.
[…]
OilPrice.com
Remember when Brandon accused President Trump of being “xenophobic” when he instituted travel bans back when ChiCom-19 was first released on the world by Communist China? Funny… Ain’t it?
Back to oil prices and the SPR
Not a bad year…
A really futile and stupid gesture
Brandon’s “really futile and stupid gesture” consists of 32 million barrels of “exchanges” and accelerating the previously authorized sale of 18 million barrels from the SPR.
Summary of 50 Million Barrel Release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
NOVEMBER 23, 2021Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the release of 50 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The SPR release will consist of a 32-million-barrel exchange solicitation to be open to the public on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, and an 18 million barrel Congressionally-mandated sale that will conclude all sales under the authority of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 during Fiscal Years 2022-2025.
The exchange will be conducted with crude oil from all four SPR sites:
*Up to 10 million barrels from Bryan Mound
*Up to 10 million barrels from Big Hill
*Up to 7 million barrels from West Hackberry
*Up to 5 million barrels from Bayou Choctaw
SPR crude oil will be delivered to successful bidders between December 16, 2021, and April 30, 2022, with priority given to those bidders that can take the SPR crude oil the earliest. Successful bidders will then have to deliver the amount of crude oil they received, plus a premium volume defined in the solicitation, back to the same SPR site where the crude oil was released at specific months during Fiscal Years 2022, 2023, and 2024. The longer it takes to return the crude oil back to the SPR, the more premium volume of crude oil will be required.
Companies interested in receiving crude oil through the exchange must submit bids no later than 10:00 a.m. Central Time, December 6, 2021, and contracts will be awarded to successful offerors no later than December 14, 2021.
[…]
Ponder this… If a company opts to partake in the SPR exchange, they will have to return the same volume of similar quality oil plus a premium to the SPR “during Fiscal Years 2022, 2023, and 2024,” when prices may very well be higher than they are now.
• What are exchanges of oil? How does an exchange differ from a sale?
Crude oil exchanges are authorized as a means of acquiring oil for the SPR at no cost to the SPR. “Loans” are a form of time exchange generally used after a disruption to commercial oil supplies has occurred that resulted from an event outside the control of the company, such as a hurricane in the Gulf or a ship channel closing. The event must be of sufficient scope and duration that DOE determines it would be in the public interest to make the loan. Loans are initiated at the request of the company.
Exchange authority requires that oil of a similar quality be repaid to the SPR, along with premium barrels (similar to interest), within a specified time. The amount of the premium barrels and the repayment date are determined through contract negotiations. Additionally, the costs to the SPR for drawdown and transportation of the crude oil are included in the value of the premium to be paid.
Broad authority for exchange contracts is found in Section 159 of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, P.L. 94-163. EPCA provides that the Secretary may acquire oil for the SPR by “purchase, exchange or otherwise.” There also exists special authority for the Secretary to conduct a test sale or exchange.
DOE
Exchanges are common in the aftermaths of hurricanes and other actual supply disruptions. Refiners will borrow SPR oil and then return it plus a premium when their commercial supply is restored. In this case, a refiner would be borrowing oil from the SPR that they could purchase for ~$70/bbl. They would then have to purchase somewhat larger volume of similar quality crude oil and return it to the SPR. The only way they come out ahead on the deal will be if oil prices are significantly lower when they have to repay the borrowed oil.
The sale of the remaining 18 million barrels was previously authorized by Congress. They will simply attempt to accelerate this sale.
Did you know?
SPR sales previously authorized by Congress will cut the SPR in half over the coming decade.
The purpose of the SPR is to act as a cushion against supply disruptions, not falling poll numbers.
NOVEMBER 29, 2021
Recent legislation would reduce the U.S. Strategic Petroleum ReserveOn Tuesday, November 23, the White House announced plans to make 50 million barrels of crude oil available to the market through a combination of exchanges and accelerating previously announced sales. With these sales and several other legislated drawdowns, SPR inventories could decline from 618 million barrels (as of October 1, 2021) to about 314 million barrels by the start of the 2032 fiscal year, the lowest level since March 1983. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed earlier this month, includes a provision to draw down 87.6 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in fiscal years (FY) 2028 through 2031.
The SPR was established in the 1970s to alleviate the effects of unexpected oil supply reductions. The reserve was designed to hold up to 714 million barrels of crude oil across four storage sites along the Gulf of Mexico, where much of the U.S. petroleum refining capacity is located.
Crude oil can be released from the SPR under four conditions: emergency drawdowns, test sales, exchange agreements, and nonemergency sales. Emergency drawdowns and test sales are relatively rare. The most recent emergency drawdown occurred in 2011 in response to production disruptions in Libya, and the most recent test sale occurred in 2014. The SPR has released crude oil under exchange agreements 13 times since 1996, most recently after Hurricane Ida earlier this year. In these exchange agreements, crude oil is released to private companies and repaid in kind by specified dates with additional barrels, similar to monetary interest on a loan.
Congress has also authorized nonemergency sales of SPR crude oil to respond to lesser supply disruptions or to raise revenue for the U.S. Treasury. For example, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, passed in 2015, and The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 collectively call for the sale of more than 160 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR in FYs 2022 through 2027.
One of the SPR’s core missions is to hold enough oil stocks to fulfill U.S. obligations under the International Energy Program, the 1974 treaty that established the International Energy Agency (IEA). As a member of the IEA, the United States is obligated to maintain stocks of crude oil and petroleum products, both public and private, to provide at least 90 days of U.S. net import protection. The U.S. Department of Energy calculates this value by dividing the SPR inventory level by EIA’s sum for net crude oil and petroleum product imports.
As net imports of crude oil and petroleum products into the United States declined in recent years, the volume needed to meet the 90-day import coverage also fell. In October 2019, the United States exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported, becoming a net exporter for the first time in EIA data, which dates back to 1977. IEA members who are net petroleum exporters do not have stockholding obligations. Although the United States has occasionally imported more petroleum than it exported in some months since late 2019, SPR inventory levels have continued to provide sufficient coverage for net import protection.
EIA
The EIA provided this graphic to demonstrate that the SPR is far larger than what would be required “to provide at least 90 days of U.S. net import protection“:
Note: IEA is the International Energy Agency. Days of cover increase as net imports decrease or switch to net exports. Only months with less than 360 days of cover are shown. On a monthly basis, days of cover have exceeded 360 days 18 times since 2018, and the United States was a net exporter in 17 months. (EIA)
The chart is either poorly informed or disingenuous. The net import/export plot is of petroleum and refined petroleum products. We are a net importer of crude oil (2.7 million bbl/d in 2020). We are only net exporters of refined petroleum products and natural gas liquids.
The SPR only contains crude oil.
Crude Oil Storage by Site (as of August 30, 2021)
*Bryan Mound – holds 224.1 MMB in 20 caverns – 66.6 MMB sweet and 157.5 MMB sour.
*Big Hill – holds 139.4 MMB in 14 caverns – 65 MMB sweet and 74.4 MMB sour.
*West Hackberry – holds 185.7 MMB in 22 caverns – 102.2 MMB sweet and 83.5 MMB sour.
*Bayou Choctaw – holds 71 MMB in 5 caverns – 18.9 MMB sweet and 52.1 MMB sour.
[…]
Current days of import protection in SPR – At the end of CY 2019 (as of December 31, 2019), the SPR’s crude oil inventory was 634.9 MMbbl. This is equivalent to approximately 1,069 days of supply of total U.S. petroleum net imports.
[…]
DOE
634.0 mmbbl is not adequate to cover 1,069 days of crude oil imports, not even at the shamdemic-reduced rate of 2.7 mmbbl/d in 2020. It’s only adequate to cover about 235 days of crude oil imports at 2.7 mmbbl/d.
If it is drawn down to 314 mmbbl over the next ten years, it will only cover 116 days at 2.7 mmbbl/d. While still barely above the 90-day minimum, how likely is it that our net crude oil imports will remain at 2.7 mmbbl/d or lower over the next decade? The IEA 90-day commitment also allows for private stocks to be counted; however those stocks are currently depleted and one of the main reasons prices are high.
The only way oil and gasoline prices can come back down is for supply to consistently outpace demand. And that will happen when we once again do what Barrack Obama said we couldn’t do.
Prices could also fall if demand is crushed by a government overreaction to the Ohmygod variant or if the Saudis get into another price war with the Soviet Union (just respecting Vlad’s wishes).
In the meantime, maybe Brandon should read the CNBC article that was aimed at President Trump. It ended with a link to some sage advice from Daniel Yergin:
Yergin, vice chairman of consultancy group IHS Markit, said he’s not surprised that Trump jumped on the higher oil prices, which usually means higher gas prices at the pump. “You get the political response with the president looking at gasoline prices and reading how motorists will respond to it.”
However, Trump’s policy actions are limited, said Yergin, who had been on Trump’s now-disbanded Strategic and Policy Forum. “There’s not much except for talking about it.”
CNBC
I guess oil prices are like the weather…
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
Quote Investigator
It does seem appropriate that many of the people complaining most vociferously about the weather (climate change activists) praised Brandon for this “really stupid and futile gesture” regarding oil prices. Well, Brandon? What do you have to say for yourself?
President Biden lacks understanding of crude oil’s contributions to civilization.
Of the 3 fossil fuels, crude oil is the only one primarily used to manufacture products for society.
Breezes and sunshine may partially replace coal and natural gas for the generation of electricity, but renewables CANNOT manufacture any of the products derived from crude oil.
https://www.eurasiareview.com/01122021-biden-lacks-understanding-of-oils-contributions-to-civilization-oped/
Can’t even power “renewables” manufacturing on the power they generate unless hydro is taken into account. And even then, I bet it’s a just barely.
President Biden clearly doesn’t have much left of his mental faculties, he’s just the face of the policy put in motion by others.
Neither Biden nor his handlers care much about civilization, except to find all the ways to subvert it and concentrate power into their own hands. Oil, and gasoline are largely decentralized sources of energy. It’s much harder for someone to cut off access to the public than something like electricity. Electricity is much more concentrated, and would be easier for a government to lean on the providers (or nationalize them) to gain leverage over the people.
It’s also easier for a government to cause scarcity of electricity to drive prices up while then also giving subsidies to favored groups in exchange for votes, support, or compliance.
I think that is why there is such a push for everything to be electrified. There are numerous levers of control.
BLM declared that blacks need to start boycotting all white businesses.
They also declared that capitalism was invented by whites in order to suppress black people. Therefore capitalism must be destroyed and replaced.
The racist socialists are discarding their cover.
Indeed there are thousands of products derived from oil.
But I could not understand and nobody mentioned the following.
All products start with crude oil distillation. Only small part of distilled products are using for plastic manufacturing. The others are: petrol, kerosene, diesel fuel.
How they are going to make plastic? Should the whole oil production chemical process be redesigned? Otherwise how they are going to get rid of gasoline and kerosene? Burn?
Simple.
Use the leftover food that their dead won’t need anymore!
They could even say that it’s “Organic”!!
(Of course oil is also organic but that doesn’t compute to the Green-virus infected brain.)
David, great post. Factual ridicule is the best weapon we have. Let’s go Brandon.
Two serious observations.
The market is still panic-prone…
https://www.investing.com/news/commodities-news/us-oil-stockpiles-fell-by-910000-barrels-last-week-eia-2696038
Does anyone really think the lock-downs will return due to Ohmygod? That said, governments are stupid and power-hungry. The current occupant of the White House is exceptionally stupid and power-hungry.
I think the Biden Administration is actually a committee, which would account for it’s rampant stupidity. I really doubt Joseph Robinette Biden jr is actually running anything.
Yep…
I think the word for that kind of committee is “cabal”.
“The market is still panic-prone…”. Yes it is, so buy the dip. All 3 US stock indexes were positive today and along comes an announcement that OMG has been detected in Kalifornia (one person, fully vaccinated, returning from a visit to south Africa, and all of their contacts are negative) and down goes all 3 indexes. Buy the dip.
Or wait for the big DIP and just buy things, like gold, real estate, etc.
David,
The ChiCom-19 OMG variant is reported to have mild symptoms of muscle aches and tiredness, much like doing a hard day’s work! This is the major reason the DemoKKKrats are so terrified of it, most of them haven’t had that type of experience in years!
As far as the Bai Den Regime’s policies with petroleum go, it seems apparent that Dementia Joe is just the slurring, stumbling mouthpiece! The puppet masters behind the curtains are intent on doing as much damage as possible before the midterms, then they will spend the next two years blaming the RINOs for all the problems that they themselves created! Sadly, most of the Republicans will bend over or cower at their feet, while allowing energy independence to disappear like morning mist in the midday sun!
years? some of them have never had that kind of experience ever!
mild symptoms of muscle aches and tiredness, much like doing a hard day’s work
I’m actually rather certain I’ve had it. 3 days of “crud” including feeling like that and some sniffles, that just ended. But I don’t go running to the hospital for every sniffle so I wouldn’t know “for sure”
Does anyone really think the lock-downs will return due to Ohmygod?
I think they absolutely will try. In some places they will be successful.
At least until the mid-term elections here in the US.
By then it will be the “Yikesilon” variant that will give Joe(‘s puppeteers) an excuse to issue and Executive Order that States must mail out ballots to all registered voters and shut down all polling places.
(No increase in deaths or even hospitalizations. Just a “new” variant to keep the panic going.)
This will be done too late for the courts to say, “You’re full of Schiff!”.
(Hope I’m wrong.)
Unless the extremists can get enough support to mandate universal vaccination on extreme penalties, and there is certainly enough money involved to buy a great deal of support.
Everything politicians touch turns to merde!
Especially less go Brandon.
David Middleton shoots a Hole In One:
“The propose of the SPR is to act as a cushion against supply disruptions, not falling poll numbers. “
Yes but someone with falling poll numbers are sometimes willing to throw a hail marry 🙂
Today’s market report:
Rising expectations that OPEC+ will abandon plans to boost crude production in January sent crude prices sharply higher early Wednesday. However, crude prices fell back on a bearish EIA inventory report. Losses in crude accelerated Wednesday afternoon on reports that the omicron Covid variant was found in the U.S. for the first time in California.
The OPEC+ Joint Technical Committee concluded their meeting on Wednesday with no recommendation for OPEC+ production policy. The markets will await Thursday’s OPEC+ meeting to see if the group ditches their recent plan to boost crude production in January by +400,000 bpd.
So much for extra oil from OPEC then. Meanwhile, looking at the price structure there isn’t a whole lot of scope for massive amounts of premium repayment barrels with prompt prices being forced down to around $65/bbl by the omicron scare, only around $2/bbl over prices for next Spetmeber. Allow a quality discount for cavern stored oil compared with notionally similar oil fresh from the wells and treatment plants, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the full swap programme never gets implemented. Of course the best policy is to encourage more production by not getting in the way of markets with restrictions on drilling and leases and pipelines.
David, thanks once again for another educational and entertaining post.
And the photo of Biden/Brandon staring off into nothing with “Blank Looks Matter” text made me laugh.
Regards,
Bob
Trickle down fuels, redistributive change, and lowered expectations of reliable energy, heating, and general Welfare.
Alex, what are the goals of the branden administration?
Not a fair question as they don’t seem to be cohesive or have a clear idea themselves. It looks more like a US cast survivor show at the moment.
Another member of Kamala’s tribe voted himself off the island today.
LdB,
I have a sneaking suspicion that we aren’t seeing even half of the real actors! It seems like there are a lot of players offstage, but having a major impact on the tone and direction of the show!
It’s a strange, weird conspiracy of dunces and intellectual morons!
U.S. policy is coming from Martha’s Vineyard.
whatever the WEF says they are…
TLDR: Totalitarian Technocracy via programable CBDC, UBI and social credit system
The Petroleum Reserve is not meant for tinkering with the economy that they wrecked for political gain. In my understanding it is to run critical services during a national crisis. Number One on that list I’d think to keep the military moving on the battlefield, and in the skies during wartime.
+1 It’s called “strategic” for a reason.
We should have tapped into the ANWR oil reserve instead.
The Alaska Pipeline may soon run dry … so that no oil can be pumped.
ANWR isn’t an actual oil reserve. The SPR can produce up to 4.4 million bbl/d within 30 days of tapping it. If ANWR was actually opened for drilling, it would take 5-10 years for oil production to be established… If economic volumes of oil were discovered.
A good deal of the price of oil moves on news as it relates to future production, rather than on current production. Announcing opening up ANWR. Announcing reinstating the Keystone pipeline. and/or any other news that suggests increases in future production will do more to move the price of oil than playing games with the SPR.
Those sorts of announcements don’t have much prolonged impact on oil prices. President Trump did open ANWR and a lease sale was held in late 2020. Neither affected oil prices. Brandon illegally cancelled those leases… Another court battle he will ultimately lose. President Trump approved Keystone and it was under construction. It didn’t materially affect oil prices.
Now… If Keystone was still under construction and we were anticipating a material increase in Canadian dilbit flowing to our refineries and if significant oil discoveries were being made in ANWR… The market would be less vulnerable to geopolitical risks in places like the Straits of Hormuz.
If Saudi Arabia and Russia suddenly flooded the market with an additional 4 million bbl/d, it would crater oil prices because they could sustain that production rate as long as they needed to. If Brandon suddenly flooded the market with 4 million bbl/d from the SPR, it would have less effect on prices because he could only maintain that rate for about 5 months before the SPR was empty.
If Democrats use the Ohmygod variant as an excuse to shut the economy down again, it would crater oil prices.
Maintaining a policy that encourages domestic oil production and secures access to the necessary volume of imported oil would work to stabilize oil prices
As a matter of free speech, I reserve the right to call it “The ANWR Oil Reserve”.
It’s the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
As matter of definition. An oil reserve is a proved or probable volume of oil that’s been discovered and can be produced from existing wells and/or infrastructure.
ANWR Area 1002 is a portion of the wildlife refuge along the coastal plain and potentially has billions of barrels of oil under the barren tundra. However, it is largely unexplored. No wells have been drilled in it apart from one well, drilled back in the 80’s on the eastern edge. The results of this well have been kept secret for 35 years.
https://www.adn.com/business-economy/energy/2017/07/22/anwr-well-drilled-on-a-private-native-inholding-has-held-its-secret-for-decades-as-interest-in-the-coastal-plain-has-grown-and-subsided/
Oil prices respond to supply versus demand. Back in 2013 WTI prices were $90-100/bbl, $50 in 2016, $60 in 2019, and now $70-90/bbl. Here’s a radical thought – find more oil.
When I was in college in the late 60’s, I had an energy lecture by a physics professor who told the whole class that ALL crude oil in the world would be gone by 1980.
Fortunately, he said, we had unlimited energy available from nuclear power so there was nothing to worry about.
Yeah I kind of hate it when a physicist pontificates about things not in their lane. Everyone has opinions and some on them are wrong.
There’s ample oil, it’s just that under pressure from Trump on Saudi Arabia and Russia reduced their production to put the price up because he thought that low oil prices were bad for the US economy. Another proposal of his with the same objective of raising the price was to put more oil into the strategic reserve.
Speaking of OMG… When mandates appeal to empathy and the cargo cult, and science takes a knee to viable legal indemnity:
The epidemiological relevance of the COVID-19-vaccinated population is increasing
Many decisionmakers assume that the vaccinated can be excluded as a source of transmission. It appears to be grossly negligent to ignore the vaccinated population as a possible and relevant source of transmission when deciding about public health control measures.
…
In Israel a nosocomial outbreak was reported involving 16 healthcare workers, 23 exposed patients and two family members. The source was a fully vaccinated COVID-19 patient. The vaccination rate was 96.2% among all exposed individuals (151 healthcare workers and 97 patients). Fourteen fully vaccinated patients became severely ill or died, the two unvaccinated patients developed mild disease [[4]]
These cases have been observed with denial of early treatment, faulty mandates, and are ever more common with the general distribution of non-sterilizing “vaccines” with unknown, weak, and poor safety profiles resulting in excess deaths, hospitalization, and silent spread.
I don’t get it. These clowns are very upset that the oil companies are making money by selling their product for “exorbitant prices”. A product necessary for civilization to function. But they have no problem with Big Pharma selling questionable vaccines to combat a flu-type condition for exorbitant prices. Does this dichotomy have anything to do with the flow of money. And the direction thereof.
You left out that they want to close down those oil companies sales as part of net zero. Yet they are asking them to help sell more now of something they want stopped … Griff logic right there 🙂
bill,
The main difference is that oil companies don’t actually control large parts of our government! It is also good to remember that the patents for the mRNA treatments are jointly held by the drug companies and our government!
Futile, yes. But Democrat Marxists aren’t stupid. Everything they do is intentional and well,planned. The point of releasing a few days supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is to give the appearance of “doing something,” while ensuring it won’t undo any of the damage done from Democrats’ ridiculous green initiatives that seek to destroy the fossil fuel industry in America. All part of the Party’s America Last policies.
I beg to differ with one of your points. The Dems actually ARE stupid and although some of their actions might be intentional – well planned they are not.
I don’t know what Kassie Siegel’s background is, but she’s a verifiable idiot if she thinks oil companies have a play in their playbooks that lowers the price of oil and deliberately destroys their profitability and share price.
I know you are trying to be funny, and clowns are allowed to be silly, but…
Please think of the bereaved before joking about painful deaths.
All pandemics cause deaths and that’s good reason to bereave.
Shamdemic reaction however, cause multitudes of other problems. I think about the way Sweden handled coronavirus without taking draconian measures. Then I look at the results.
Sweden has a population of 10.2 million, a little more than Los Angeles.
Sweden total coronavirus cases 1.2 million, 15,151 deaths.
Los Angeles total corona virus cases 1.5 Million, 27,166 deaths.
Los Angeles had strict lockdown orders and Sweden didn’t. So there is a sham going on there somewhere.
Population Density of Sweden =
25.4 inhabitants per km2.
Population Density of LA = 8,485 people per sq mile =
3270 inhabitants per km2.
What’s the population density of a store, or an office, or a city, or a hospital in Sweden? How about a house?
Do you really imagine the Swede’s live individually, alone, isolated in 25.4 km2.
Utterly pathetic argument.
Whoosh.
The point that just flew over your head is that the denser the population the more contacts (and more closer contacts) each person is like to have with other people. meaning more opportunities for the virus to transmit. The more opportunities for transmission = greater transmissions rates.
Walking down the street in LA on a typical day, you’re likely to pass closely by (IE less than 6 feet) hundreds of people a day, and even likely to physically bump into or brush against quite a few of them along the way.
Walking down the street in rural nowheresville at it’s most congested, you’re like to only pass by dozens with as much space between you.as you want without coming anywhere close to coming into physical contact with a single one of them.
Are you so “utterly pathetic” that you can not see how those two scenarios differ in the amount of opportunities for transmission that the typical person walking down the street would have?
If you look at all the “hot spots” that have popped up during this pandemic, you’ll find they mainly are densely populated area. Why do you think NYC (the most densely populated city) and NJ (the most densely populated state) were among the first US “hot spots” rather than Anchorage or Wyoming? bad luck?
To summarize for the “utterly pathetic”: The denser the population the greater the transmission risk.
“The denser the population the greater the transmission risk”. Yes, but YOU are missing the point. Sweden’s population is clustered, not uniform. 87 percent of Sweden’s population lives in an urban area. It’s completely disingenuous to compare population densities as if they were uniform when they’re not. You might look at whether the percent of the population that takes public transportation correlates with covid deaths because it’s not honest to use a phony population density that averages uninhabited areas in with urban areas.
What if his handler’s goals are to steadily deplete the reserve? That way in the future, we wouldn’t have much flexibility in dealing with Iran. If you add this action to others, like just walking out of Afghanistan and leaving behind so much military equipment and cash, and you think back to Obama years where pallets of cash were airdropped into Iran, doesn’t it make you wonder if the squeezing of the domestic oil business isn’t a means to give money and influence to Iran now and into the future?
You are thinking like a chess master.
Put on your Tiddlywinks hat and try again.
Biden, Obama, and those handlers are barely cognizant.
Talk about climate please but STFU with your COVID denialism (“shamdemic”). It’s all utter ignorant stupid bullshit fit only for Trumplican True Believers who are just as ridiculous as warmunists.
Two stupids do NOT make a smart.
Let’s have a Let’s Go Brandon for Duane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay, Duane, especially since more covid deaths under your revered idiot boy, Joe.
Mr. Duane: More than one way of interpreting “shamdemic”. But my question is, two stupids? What’s the second stupid? I know my answer, just curious what you were referring to?
lets go Brandon !
aka– FJB
Duane,
If you can’t see the connections developing between the CAGW hoax and the ChiCom-19 plandemic then you are going to get a rating of at least three stupids!
I don’t even like Trump, but the economic indicators showed him to be one best presidents ever for the working class and minorities! The fact that he was such a master comedian was just icing on the cake! I’m sorry if your humorectomy prevented you from seeing it!
LOL
Always great to read the posts from the “woke again” flock who worship the government and believe any sermon their clergy preaches.
From the link:
For the record the abolition of serfdom in Russia occurred in 1861 by Emperor Alexander II nine years before Lenin was born.
So let me get this straight. “Experts” quoted by the main stream media didn’t like any of Donald Trump’s ideas, but when Joe Biden actually acts by implementing those same ideas, all we hear from the “experts”, the main stream media and democrats are crickets and the wind in trees.
We can point to the strategic oil reserves, the travel ban, the “remain in Mexico” policies and withdrawal from Afghanistan for starters.
I’m sure there are more examples, but for the short time Joe Biden has been in office, I think its safe to leave the words “Build Back Better’ twisting in the wind since he is not doing that.
I really, really, really, really wish these people could be held accountable one day for their lies and deceit.
Doonman,
Trump messed up big time by allowing the RINO establishment to pick so much of his administration, and then his own germophobia got him to put Fauxi and the Forever-Covid crowd in charge of the federal response to the plandemic! They put the emergency brakes on the roaring economy that deregulation and low fuel prices was creating!
The DemoKKKrats used that, and Big Tech interference to swing the 2020 election! Since then the Bai Den Regime has done exactly the OPPOSITE of what Trump did, and turned the economy into a dumpster fire that they will save by pushing it off a cliff! The lapdog media will sit silent, with tails wagging, for all that they criticized Trump for; because they know the Regime is a wrecking ball, and it would be gauche to stand up and cheer them out loud!
Fauci and all his drug kingpins belong in the Hague facing tribunals.
Thanks Dave for a good summary of the situation.
This is a great line of yours:
“The purpose of the SPR is to act as a cushion against supply disruptions, not falling poll numbers.”
How Dare He!
We shouldn’t be so hard on China with covid, and their supposed unwillingness to join into the climate sham.
They released covid and since CO2 emissions are tied to human population it would appear they are doing their part to reduce emissions.
Q: How do you spell “Liberal?”
A: H.Y.P.O.C.R.I.T.E.
I get really upset when I see that nasty slur being posted about politicians.
They’re not hypocrites, they’re Criminals!
Big nothing apparently.
poor joe
cant even do the basic maths
at complete supplement of US lasts 2 years
at 10% it lasts 20 years
thats great because the US will be net zero because all oil production and the SPR will be depleted by 2040 well before the 2050 deadline
but there wont be any other energy so back to the wild wild west and OK coral with gun fights on the hour
It’s the Brandon & Boris show…….
Shell closed the $9.5 billion sale of its Permian Basin assets to ConocoPhillips yesterday.
Of the two parties, one is either very, very right about this transaction and the other very, very wrong.
Which is it? Only time will tell which is which.
Just for consideration about the SPR. The salt dome storage reservoirs created by the government were not pressure tested, so a significant portion of the oil may be spread out all over Louisiana. Secondly, at least part of the “oil” injected was “slop oil” or “tank bottoms” which is 85% water emulsion, that the government criminals paid full oil price. Ultimately, if we ever really had to utilize the reserve except for political reasons we may find out that it isn’t there.
100% wrong on “slop oil.”
Only one repository was found to be structurally unstable. The oil was transferred to other sites.
The salt caverns aren’t pressurized and salt is one of the most impermeable sealing formations.
https://www.energy.gov/fecm/strategic-petroleum-reserve-4
https://www.spr.doe.gov/reports/Crude_Oil_Assays.html
Let’s go Brandon!
It’s pretty obvious that Brandon didn’t release from the SPR because oil prices were rising but because his poll numbers were dropping.
A useless gesture just to get a headline.
If he really wanted to do something beneficial, he’d rescind all his Executive Orders that stopped Trump’s policies that had made the US energy independent.
Juan Peron of Argentina in the late 1940’s also spent Argentine gold and foreign currency reserves down to nothing in political move bolster his popularity among the People aware of how he was spending their future away. Peron needed the money to buy out foreign companies as he nationalized industry and banks.
Hugo Chavez did something similar in Venezuela’s nationalization and spending down its reserves.
Both countries now have embedded high/hyper structural inflation.
Democrats are attempting to do the same to the US. They see the SPR as a kitty to be looted, just like they do with private 401k’s and IRA, piggy banks to be looted of value with run-away inflation