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To provide some context, the US uses about 20m barrels of oil per day. We have about 35 days worth of oil reserves. It seems if there was some kind of extended

To provide some context, the US uses about 20m barrels of oil per day. We have about 35 days worth of oil reserves. It seems if there was some kind of extended emergency where we could not produce oil, 772m barrels would be wholly inadequate.

claudiawerner 7y ago
I'd imagine that in such a situation, a lot of things would be shut down - there's a good chance it'd last a little more than 35 days when use is lower.
- dpbriggs 7y ago
  And North American production will ramp up as quickly as possible. We've seen very expensive oil in the last decade which has made a variety of alternative extraction methods economical. Not entirely sure how a situation could arise where oil production is impossible.
- mdorazio 7y ago
  Exactly. For example, right now we're operating at somewhere around 25% less transit than normal [1] and that's without even specifically targeting reducing oil consumption. In an oil emergency situation we could probably get to 30-40% reduction pretty quickly. [1] https://www.geotab.com/blog/impact-of-covid-19/ https://www.geotab.com/blog/impact-of-covid-19/
- tobylane 7y ago
  Of that 20m/day normal use, the reserves can only bring up about 4.5m/day, so that’s more like 150 days.
AlgorithmicTime 7y ago
The US also is capable of producing all the oil it needs domestically, so it's not as though we'd be just drawing on the reserve in case of emergency.
morelisp 7y ago
As we should be learning right now with medical supplies, the point of these reserves is not primarily to keep us at normal levels in the face of long-term supply disruption (which is nearly impossible for most things at scale), but to be able to cover the time we need 3x normal capacity to give us 10 days to plan a sustainable response.
- valuearb 7y ago
  The strategic oil reserve has never been necessary given we are a massive oil producer.
  - frank2 7y ago
    From some time in the 1950s or early 1960s to a few years ago, the US consumed more oil than it produced. I am going to guess that for more than half of that time, it produced less than half of the oil it consumed. Then US companies figured out how to profit from extracting from shale oil deposits (by fracking).
    - valuearb 7y ago
      The strategic oil reserve doesn’t protect us from being a net oil importer. It’s always going to be a tiny fraction of 1% of our existing supplies, and a small percentage of our annual consumption. It literally does nothing but subsidize US oil producers and mildly reduce price spikes for limited periods.
    - SilasX 7y ago
      Just through the 60s? I'm pretty sure the US consumed more oil than it produced all the way into late 2018 when it became a net exporter: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-becomes-net-exporter-of-oil-fuels-for-first-time-in-decades-1544128404 https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-becomes-net-exporter-of-oil... Edit: Nevermind, misread the sentence. Keeping this for the link.
      - frank2 7y ago
valuearb 7y ago
We have trillions of barrels of oil in shale and oil fields waiting to get pumped when prices go back up.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
codegeek 7y ago
Interestingly, would like to know how manny barrels we are using currently with almost a complete lockdown ? I am just 1 anecdote but I have only driven my car twice in past 2 weeks and total of less than 15 miles. In general, I drive 20 miles per day on an average.
lostapathy 7y ago
The idea, generally speaking, isn't to provide all the country's oil for a period of a time. In fact, there's only pumping capacity to remove about 5m barrels/day from the reserve. The point of the reserve is to be used with smaller withdrawals to stabilize the system over time or provide a buffer in case of short term disruption.
djohnston 7y ago
they arent going to distribute the oil to civilians so they can drive to the beach or buy groceries, this oil would go directly to military operations that would then establish more long term oil production

claudiawerner 7y ago

I'd imagine that in such a situation, a lot of things would be shut down - there's a good chance it'd last a little more than 35 days when use is lower.

dpbriggs 7y ago
And North American production will ramp up as quickly as possible. We've seen very expensive oil in the last decade which has made a variety of alternative extraction methods economical. Not entirely sure how a situation could arise where oil production is impossible.
mdorazio 7y ago
Exactly. For example, right now we're operating at somewhere around 25% less transit than normal [1] and that's without even specifically targeting reducing oil consumption. In an oil emergency situation we could probably get to 30-40% reduction pretty quickly. [1] https://www.geotab.com/blog/impact-of-covid-19/ https://www.geotab.com/blog/impact-of-covid-19/
tobylane 7y ago
Of that 20m/day normal use, the reserves can only bring up about 4.5m/day, so that’s more like 150 days.

AlgorithmicTime 7y ago

The US also is capable of producing all the oil it needs domestically, so it's not as though we'd be just drawing on the reserve in case of emergency.

morelisp 7y ago

As we should be learning right now with medical supplies, the point of these reserves is not primarily to keep us at normal levels in the face of long-term supply disruption (which is nearly impossible for most things at scale), but to be able to cover the time we need 3x normal capacity to give us 10 days to plan a sustainable response.

valuearb 7y ago
The strategic oil reserve has never been necessary given we are a massive oil producer.
- frank2 7y ago
  From some time in the 1950s or early 1960s to a few years ago, the US consumed more oil than it produced. I am going to guess that for more than half of that time, it produced less than half of the oil it consumed. Then US companies figured out how to profit from extracting from shale oil deposits (by fracking).
  - valuearb 7y ago
    The strategic oil reserve doesn’t protect us from being a net oil importer. It’s always going to be a tiny fraction of 1% of our existing supplies, and a small percentage of our annual consumption. It literally does nothing but subsidize US oil producers and mildly reduce price spikes for limited periods.
  - SilasX 7y ago
    Just through the 60s? I'm pretty sure the US consumed more oil than it produced all the way into late 2018 when it became a net exporter: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-becomes-net-exporter-of-oil-fuels-for-first-time-in-decades-1544128404 https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-becomes-net-exporter-of-oil... Edit: Nevermind, misread the sentence. Keeping this for the link.
    - frank2 7y ago

valuearb 7y ago

We have trillions of barrels of oil in shale and oil fields waiting to get pumped when prices go back up.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

codegeek 7y ago

Interestingly, would like to know how manny barrels we are using currently with almost a complete lockdown ? I am just 1 anecdote but I have only driven my car twice in past 2 weeks and total of less than 15 miles. In general, I drive 20 miles per day on an average.

lostapathy 7y ago

The idea, generally speaking, isn't to provide all the country's oil for a period of a time. In fact, there's only pumping capacity to remove about 5m barrels/day from the reserve. The point of the reserve is to be used with smaller withdrawals to stabilize the system over time or provide a buffer in case of short term disruption.

djohnston 7y ago

they arent going to distribute the oil to civilians so they can drive to the beach or buy groceries, this oil would go directly to military operations that would then establish more long term oil production