Thread

1. consensus1 · 1790653289 · focus · HN ↗

   The headline is hiding the fact that this was a fairly modest 400K bbl draw for the week.

   1. hedora · 1790654150 · focus · HN ↗

      The reserve is effectively empty at 250M-300M barrels, and currently sits at 284M. The rapid deceleration to 400K could mean that there’s no quick way to keep withdrawing the remaining reserves.

      1. consensus1 · 1790655542 · focus · HN ↗

         I do not buy that the SPR is effectively empty at 35-42% of capacity

         1. kalleboo · 1790660739 · focus · HN ↗

            What I've read is that, the SPR was designed for a 25 year lifetime and 5 purge/fill cycles. It's now at 40 years and dozens of purge/fills, so it's way out of it's design parameters.

            The problem is that as you pump oil and water in and out of it, in the intervening layer between the salt water and oil there forms a water/oil/impurities sludge which is useless (it ruins the pumping equipment). The thing is, they have no way of measuring it, nobody knows how much good oil is left and how much is sludge (or if they do, none of that information is public). And the closer you get to the sludge, the harder the good oil is to extract, slowing down the extraction pace.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.