The End of U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves || Aug 31, 2026
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was created in the 70s as a safeguard against major disruptions in oil imports. Well, those 700 million barrels were never used for its intended purpose.
As the U.S. became one of the world's largest producers and exporters, the SPR was retasked. It's been used a few dozen times by various presidents to influence oil prices and stabilize markets. But it was never made for that. The geologic makeup of the SPR caverns means that each time a drawdown occurs, the structures are weakened.
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Comments (26)
Can't the salt domes be regenerated by filling them with super saturated fluid salt? Adding a hardener. Allowing the dome to 'rest' until crystallization happens. Then opening the core again for reuse. (?)
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was in the process of burying the fleet's reserve oil tanks when the Japanese attacked on Dec 7th, 1941. About a third had already moved underground, leaving the remaining exposed tanks vunerable. Fortunately, the aboveground tanks were never considered to be a worthwhile target, along with all the other infrastructure of the base, which were all off the list. The US Navy quickly buried the rest soon after the attack.
How about we make some new nicely spherical caverns in geologically stable areas by digging way down and detonating a nuke or two? So your stored oil turns a bit radioactive over time. What's a few extra RADS between friends?
If Trumpstein isn't a paid Russian asset, he should be.
Regulating this market might require bombing Iran into the Stone Age. Que sera, sera
There is a possible biodiesel reserve in liposuction waste
Can’t we pump in a fluid that is heavier than water but lighter than oil that, like oil, doesn’t dissolve or interact with the salt? Seems like we could then keep the geological, cheap storage.
wrong again, it looks like
I grew up about 2 miles from the first and largest the Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It employs about 100, many of them armed guards. Which is a bit strange. I don’t foresee a tanker pulling up to steal a million barrels (the daily output capacity). Obviously they guard against someone doing damage to the above ground system.
You must have grown up in the Freeport area.
We can make new salt domes at the cost of about $12 a barrel. And we have have a lot more we can add.
There are many 100s of these salt domes in the South. We could drill and open new salt domes very easily, just like we did before, if we had the willpower as a nation. That seems to be the issue, like most of our problems as a nation.
Once they evacuate the oil do they have a plan to collapse the roof of the salt dome?
Is there any way we could stuff all the politicians through the pipes and store them down there?
It would probably ruin the oil.
Interesting, I did not know the oil reserves are stored in that way.
I was wondering how you grew your beard back over a weekend. Then recalling, you're backpacking for the week ... at least. Director Mike ... Cameo please ...😺 ... all these Patreon question, filer episodes are Fukn Boring. And ... YooNoeWit ... 😕 Please tell us the state of our 🌎 ... and feel free to stay within your WheelHouse-Strike Zone. The Middle Feast. There is a lot go🪽 on over there. This wud🐝uhGud week tuhdoit ... No? ... 😺 Constant ... "Developing Situations." ... rite? ... 😺 Com'n Mike ... We havn👁️👁️n YooFuruhWhile. Tell us HowYuhDoin ... 😸 Viel Spas Peter. 🐈
Why do you write in gibberish English and emojis?
Are there other salt domes that could be used? (Also, from my vantage point the video lagged the audio by 3-5 seconds. )
Why would injecting water have to dissolve the salt? Can’t they inject very salty water to prevent that?
The movement of the water/brine is the damaging factor. How salty the brine ends up makes no significant difference.
Think Rowen & Martin's Laugh-In. Verrry interestink. Thanks for a clear, fact based vid.
Isn't there some way to drive the water out, leave the salt behind and, at least partially, restore the salt domes in a way that is less expensive than aboveground storage?
Maybe by amateurizing the costs of the operation it over decades, but it'll never restore it anywhere near the degree it was at the start (it would still be degraded and would not support the same abuse it has been subjected to
And the strategic helium reserves got sold off and now we’re low on Helium.
Super dumb