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You're in a 1970s mindset when you need to be in a 2020+ mindset. The USA is now a net exporter in oil. We were making more crude oil in 2020 than today. Even

You're in a 1970s mindset when you need to be in a 2020+ mindset. The USA is now a net exporter in oil. We were making more crude oil in 2020 than today. Even with the Russian / Ukraine war, the oil makers in the USA were too afraid to open up the wells, because COVID19 crashed the oil market so hard, that oil prices went _NEGATIVE_ (-$40 per barrel of oil). Oil drillers don't want to be burned again. So what's the solution? 1. USA Supplies a ton of oil this year. 2. When the US Oil reserves are empty, then we can "guarantee the purchase" of oil. Meaning we can afford to keep oil wells open next disaster (instead of forcibly closing them down like in 2020). ------ Strategic oil reserves were too full. We had no place to put the oil in 2020 / as COVID19 hit us, so a ton of oil wells had to be sealed shut. Spending oil, and making sure we have enough "spare space" for our reserves, only makes sense moving forward. Its not 1970s anymore. USA makes more than enough oil for ourselves... assuming that we can keep the markets happy. The strategic oil reserve is a good tool for that, a huge cavern able to hold hundreds-of-millions of barrels of oil. USA has bought oil futures (encouraging the opening of new oil wells), while selling oil from our strategic oil reserves (aka: opening up more room for later). It just makes sense given our economy today.

than3 4y ago
If that were true, then why was Chevron allowed the Venezuela license. If we don't need it as you say, why are our gas prices above $6/gallon... why do it if we don't need it as you say? We are not on good terms with them, they nationalize regularly, and our own oil refining capacity has been significantly lowered. The negative 40 a barrel you refer to was caused by several events, one of which was market manipulation by a hedgefund illegally, and then other failures/fraud found on the part of the same ETF (USO) by the SEC. When the Oil reserves are empty, we can guarantee only one thing, a complete breakdown of our modern civilization as we know it. Energy is intimately linked with food security, and we won't have anything to exchange for it because we pay our bills with toilet paper hot off the presses, and everyone we might trade with knows this now, we have little credibility thanks to the Fed, and are stuck in a cycle that will only keep getting worse according to the history. You seem to think the problem is that no ones willing to take the risk, when in fact, a large part of the problem is a monopoly problem. There are no companies left that will take the risk because the ones that did went out of business, or were leverage buyout'ed after taking such a risk, and in monopoly you just have to get certain companies, stifle entry, lever them up with hotels to charge whatever you want, and collect your money until the games over. Reducing the supply simply raises the price, just like the baby formula in Florida. The problem starts with the banks funding this behavior, and other malfeasance which they have been allowed to craft for decades.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  > If that were true, then why was Chevron allowed the Venezuela license. This is an utterly strange way to respond to my assertions. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcrfpus2&f=m https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=m... USA was making 13-million barrels of oil _PER DAY_ in 2020. Today in 2022, we're only making 12-million barrels of oil. "If it were true" ?? It is true. Its now your job to explain how your world view fits the data, not my job. As far as I can tell, your worldview is bunk with just the simple statistics associated with the USA's crude oil production. > The negative 40 a barrel you refer to was caused by several events, one of which was market manipulation by a hedgefund illegally, and then other failures/fraud found on the part of the same ETF (USO) by the SEC. No. The negative $40 barrel was fixed by the US Oil industry dropping from 13-million barrels of oil a day to 10-million barrels of oil a day. Look at the stats. Its pretty simple. Demand dropped like a cliff, and supply was forced to drop once our storage filled up. Entire oil fields were resealed with concrete. Those US-based oil companies lost a LOT of money over the COVID19 slowdown. Now yes, it will take some time for those fields to open up again, and furthermore, those oil companies are still scared about that last drop. Opening up more room in the strategic oil reserve will do them the favors they need to encourage more oil production (and as you can see: domestic oil production is skyrocketing again under these policies).

than3 4y ago

If that were true, then why was Chevron allowed the Venezuela license. If we don't need it as you say, why are our gas prices above $6/gallon... why do it if we don't need it as you say? We are not on good terms with them, they nationalize regularly, and our own oil refining capacity has been significantly lowered. The negative 40 a barrel you refer to was caused by several events, one of which was market manipulation by a hedgefund illegally, and then other failures/fraud found on the part of the same ETF (USO) by the SEC. When the Oil reserves are empty, we can guarantee only one thing, a complete breakdown of our modern civilization as we know it. Energy is intimately linked with food security, and we won't have anything to exchange for it because we pay our bills with toilet paper hot off the presses, and everyone we might trade with knows this now, we have little credibility thanks to the Fed, and are stuck in a cycle that will only keep getting worse according to the history. You seem to think the problem is that no ones willing to take the risk, when in fact, a large part of the problem is a monopoly problem. There are no companies left that will take the risk because the ones that did went out of business, or were leverage buyout'ed after taking such a risk, and in monopoly you just have to get certain companies, stifle entry, lever them up with hotels to charge whatever you want, and collect your money until the games over. Reducing the supply simply raises the price, just like the baby formula in Florida. The problem starts with the banks funding this behavior, and other malfeasance which they have been allowed to craft for decades.

dragontamer 4y ago
> If that were true, then why was Chevron allowed the Venezuela license. This is an utterly strange way to respond to my assertions. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcrfpus2&f=m https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=m... USA was making 13-million barrels of oil _PER DAY_ in 2020. Today in 2022, we're only making 12-million barrels of oil. "If it were true" ?? It is true. Its now your job to explain how your world view fits the data, not my job. As far as I can tell, your worldview is bunk with just the simple statistics associated with the USA's crude oil production. > The negative 40 a barrel you refer to was caused by several events, one of which was market manipulation by a hedgefund illegally, and then other failures/fraud found on the part of the same ETF (USO) by the SEC. No. The negative $40 barrel was fixed by the US Oil industry dropping from 13-million barrels of oil a day to 10-million barrels of oil a day. Look at the stats. Its pretty simple. Demand dropped like a cliff, and supply was forced to drop once our storage filled up. Entire oil fields were resealed with concrete. Those US-based oil companies lost a LOT of money over the COVID19 slowdown. Now yes, it will take some time for those fields to open up again, and furthermore, those oil companies are still scared about that last drop. Opening up more room in the strategic oil reserve will do them the favors they need to encourage more oil production (and as you can see: domestic oil production is skyrocketing again under these policies).