Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
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Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#2Don't think of it as 700 000 000 barrels.
Think of it as 0.13 years of oil for the USA alone or 0.02 years of oil for the World.
Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#3Don't think of it as 700 000 000 barrels. Think of it as 0.13 years of oil for the USA alone or 0.02 years of oil for the World.
Or think of it as X years of oil for the USA military (where I don't know X).
Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#4>largest of the four, near the tiny city of Freetown, Texas
A little weird that I cannot find a "Freetown, Texas" using Google. I like to look at places on a map when they are mentioned in articles.
Maybe they got the name wrong, or is it so small it's not on the map?
Or I'm using Google wrong :)
Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#5Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#6>largest of the four, near the tiny city of Freetown, Texas A little weird that I cannot find a "Freetown, Texas" using Google. I like to look at places on a map when they are mentioned in articles. Maybe they got the name wrong, or is it so small it's not on the map? Or I'm using Google wrong :)
It's Freeport, not Freetown: http://energy.gov/fe/services/petroleum-reserves/strategic-p...
Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#7>largest of the four, near the tiny city of Freetown, Texas A little weird that I cannot find a "Freetown, Texas" using Google. I like to look at places on a map when they are mentioned in articles. Maybe they got the name wrong, or is it so small it's not on the map? Or I'm using Google wrong :)
They mean Freeport, Texas - https://goo.gl/maps/pvJRM5XHWiL2
Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#8> But there’s an important line to draw between that and using an SPR for ad hoc manipulation of the world’s markets. On this point, Martin Young is emphatic: “The oil stocks are not there for price management as such,” he explains, “they’re there to correct a shortage in the market because of a supply disruption.”
Strategic reserves can absolutely also be used as an offensive economic weapon, however. As one example, when Salvador Allende became President of Chile in the early 1970s and nationalized Chilean copper mining, the US dumped >250,000 tons of copper from its strategic reserves onto the world market, crashing the price, in a (quite successful) attempt to destabilize the Chilean economy, which was heavily reliant on copper exports. Of course when that still didn’t lead to Allende’s downfall, plan B was a CIA-sponsored military coup.
Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#9The use of "hides" is a bit clickbaity, if they said "stores" then people would have thought it a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
Re: Why the US stores 700M barrels of oil underground
#10> But there’s an important line to draw between that and using an SPR for ad hoc manipulation of the world’s markets. On this point, Martin Young is emphatic: “The oil stocks are not there for price management as such,” he explains, “they’re there to correct a shortage in the market because of a supply disruption.” Strategic reserves can absolutely also be used as an offensive economic weapon, however. As one example…
I am not beyond believing that the current gutting of oil prices was done at the US's behest to damage Russia. It wouldn't take too much in the way of guarantees to Saudi Arabia to have them swamp the markets. Far more effective than military intervention.