Thread

U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Falls to Lowest Level Since 1982

182 points · 234 comments · thelastgallon

yanhangyhy · 1790653587 · focus · HN ↗
how about the oil from Venezuela?
1. mrdependable · 1790653904 · focus · HN ↗
  Will take years to make productive if anyone is even willing to invest in it.
2. thelastgallon · 1790653911 · focus · HN ↗
  It will need 10s - 100s of billions of investment. By the time they start producing, demand would have been permanently destroyed, thanks to China supplying the world with EVs and solar panels. With sufficient demand destruction, oil should be priced like salt, a simple commodity that nobody ever cares about the price.
  Oil companies are not super keen on investing and increasing supply, it will destroy profits.
  Turning Oil Into Salt: Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/6963043-turning-oil-into-salt" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/6963043-turning-oil-i...
3. monster_truck · 1790654826 · focus · HN ↗
  It's completely incompatible with the SPR
  1. mahboi · 1790666997 · focus · HN ↗
    If it can be used somewhere in place of other oil, then they can send the compatible oil to the reserve. So is this what Trump means by US oil companies returning 1.25 barrels for each 1 they take? Doubt he's really thought it through.
4. tehjoker · 1790655084 · focus · HN ↗
  It's sour crude that requires special infrastructure that our oil companies don't even want to bother investing in. They told Trump as much, he still kidnapped President Maduro, who is as far as I know, still in New York City.
  1. excannuk · 1790655686 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
  2. mahboi · 1790668121 · focus · HN ↗
    There's already US infrastructure to process sour crude from Mexico. Who said this is a problem? When I search this, I see that Exxon's CEO called it uninvestible due to geopolitical risks, but Chevron claimed to be ready to go ahead.
  3. culi · 1790701252 · focus · HN ↗
    US is actually really good at processing that type of crude. Much better than the oil we drill domestically. Don't forget that US oil companies used to dominate Venezuela. In 1976, Venezuela bought out the companies and paid them what they claimed they were worth on their financial/tax ledgers. Ofc all the companies massively deflated their worth to avoid taxes so this angered them and they've never really stopped complaining about it.
    Trump has basically enacted their revenge for that.
  4. jandrewrogers · 1790705077 · focus · HN ↗
    You have your facts backward. The US refineries are famous for being some of the best in the world at refining sour crude. It is why so many countries ship their sour (and other difficult) crudes to the US for refining.
    US refinery capacity is much larger than its world-leading oil production. Oil refining is a major export business for the US.
    tehjoker · 1790774793 · focus · HN ↗
    We can process it, but we don’t have capacity. Expansion will cost billions <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/why-more-venezuelan-oil-won-230000293.html" rel="nofollow">https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/why-more-venezuela...
5. tmellon2 · 1790656432 · focus · HN ↗
  We can simply get rid of most oil - Just ONE square mile of batteries and a TOTAL of 100 x 100 square miles of Solar can power the entire USA 24/7.
  It is because of world wide adoption of EVs that the fossil fuel demand has reduced and stabilized gas prices in the US.
  See : <a href="https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/batteries-have-unlo" rel="nofollow">https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/batteries-have-unlo...

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