Live data from Hacker News

Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

bloomberg.com

21–30 of 63 posts

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#21
post #14

highest Diesel price per gallon national average was $5.81 after covid June 2022 we are most certainly going to break that by the end of the year (it's $5.47 average today) they are trying to use Strategic Oil Reserve (and maybe Venezuela) as a piggy bank but all that's about to break badly, permanently if this administration lets it go down to 70 million barrels despite the warnings by experts at 300 million, they'l…

When you say “never repair the damage,” do you mean that the practicality of refilling the stores is impossible due to demand requirements, or something else I’m missing?

i'm not an expert in the oil industry, but my understanding is that caverns they have made are full of liquid to keep them from collapsing. For every barrel of oil they pump out, they pump a barrel of water in, and push more oil to the top and grab it out. And that once a certain percentage of it is just water, it changes its density, and all the calculations for its 'holding' strength were assuming a certain density range..

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#22
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubt there’s a year. They’re currently draining it down to like 270-280ish million barrels. Which is breaking the integrity of the caverns and they can’t actually drain it completely it needs something like 100ish million barrels at minimum capacity to not fuck up the pipes. On the integrity side. The caverns were only designed for a lifetime of 5 full drawdowns[1]. The caverns the oil is stored in and the pillars s…

It's very annoying that the cost of fixing all this and replenishing the stockpile is going to most likely fall on people who had little to nothing to do with it becoming such a big problem.

Shouldn't it be profitable? Buying low and selling high. Like, the current oil in there was bought at below $60/barrel or so and sold at 50% higher price or whatever. The oil is always sold at a much higher price (otherwise it wouldn't be available in the first place).

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#23
post #14

highest Diesel price per gallon national average was $5.81 after covid June 2022 we are most certainly going to break that by the end of the year (it's $5.47 average today) they are trying to use Strategic Oil Reserve (and maybe Venezuela) as a piggy bank but all that's about to break badly, permanently if this administration lets it go down to 70 million barrels despite the warnings by experts at 300 million, they'l…

When you say “never repair the damage,” do you mean that the practicality of refilling the stores is impossible due to demand requirements, or something else I’m missing?

The caverns the oil are stored in are old salt mines that were repurposed but that means the walls and pillars are made of salt. They pump water into the caverns to float the oil to the top when they extract it.

The water itself already dissolves the salt but if you get down to 70 million barrels then you start getting salt water touching on the plumbing which corrodes it, as well as the last bits of oil are sludgy and can also foul the pipes.

The strategic oil reserves were not built with an expectation of being used perpetually, they had a lifetime expectation of 5 full drawdowns and we’ve repeatedly done fractional drawdowns.

I only learned this a year ago and felt like we as the public have been mislead as growing up and as an adult the government always presented drawdowns as something that wouldn’t be a problem, we could always just top it back up later. And although I hate ever doing both sides arguments that’s been the impression I got from every admin since Clinton.

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#24
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I assume there was an implied /s at the end

Well, there's an unspoken rule in SV/HN circles about when the take Trump's idiocies seriously and when to ignore them. For example, "Gulf of America" and "Department of War" you're supposed to take seriously, and all SV communications feature these prominently. Correcting someone about the fact that "The Department of War" doesn't exist will get you downvoted, but apparently you're not supposed to take "Straight of…

Correcting someone about the fact that “The Department of War” doesn’t exist is pedantic.

I wouldn’t go downvote a random comment making the correction, but if I posted a substantive comment remarking on current events and received a reply only pointing out that “it’s ACTUALLY the Department of Defense” then I’d definitely downvote that.

Correcting others’ language on this point isn’t saving democracy, it’s needling others on technicalities who very well might be largely aligned with your views. I think the altered name is clownish and reflects the buffoonery of everybody in charge, but I might still use it when making a point because using it in context is not an endorsement.

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#25
It is just amazing watching how markets are working to build prosperity for the rich. With scarcity a thing of the past, bombing choke points is proving to be wildly profitable and as capital never sits still it can be wherever conditions are nicer. whoooeee $2.40 a gallon of pure profit, but when you strip away the rest of the scam, pumping, production, shipping and distribution are still only $1/gal, so full profits not counting interest lending to people to buy the car and the fuel in the first place are more than 75% right now. And with NOWHERE left to put the money, AI.

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#26
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very annoying that the cost of fixing all this and replenishing the stockpile is going to most likely fall on people who had little to nothing to do with it becoming such a big problem.

Shouldn't it be profitable? Buying low and selling high. Like, the current oil in there was bought at below $60/barrel or so and sold at 50% higher price or whatever. The oil is always sold at a much higher price (otherwise it wouldn't be available in the first place).

You can't fuel an aircraft carrier from profits, if the oil runs out.

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#27
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? Or was it sarcasm?

That's apparently the latest bright idea out of the White House. And no, that's not out of The Onion.

You can find all the news articles here:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hormuz+us+territory&ia=web

I miss the days when world leaders read from the internet but didn't post to it.

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#28
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very annoying that the cost of fixing all this and replenishing the stockpile is going to most likely fall on people who had little to nothing to do with it becoming such a big problem.

Shouldn't it be profitable? Buying low and selling high. Like, the current oil in there was bought at below $60/barrel or so and sold at 50% higher price or whatever. The oil is always sold at a much higher price (otherwise it wouldn't be available in the first place).

But the person who is president when it incurs the cost, is probably not going to be the president when it makes the profit. That is one of the problems with things like this where you can get the blame for doing the responsible thing.

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there's an unspoken rule in SV/HN circles about when the take Trump's idiocies seriously and when to ignore them. For example, "Gulf of America" and "Department of War" you're supposed to take seriously, and all SV communications feature these prominently. Correcting someone about the fact that "The Department of War" doesn't exist will get you downvoted, but apparently you're not supposed to take "Straight of…

Correcting someone about the fact that “The Department of War” doesn’t exist is pedantic. I wouldn’t go downvote a random comment making the correction, but if I posted a substantive comment remarking on current events and received a reply only pointing out that “it’s ACTUALLY the Department of Defense” then I’d definitely downvote that. Correcting others’ language on this point isn’t saving democracy, it’s needling…

If people downvoted pedantry, everyone on HN would have negative karma.

No, it's something closer to The Parable of the Green Grocer from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Powerless. The MAGAfication of large parts of Tech means that lots of people see themselves as respectable, serious, insiders. Pointing out the utter ridiculousness of what they profess to believe is extremely gauche.

Re: Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows

#30
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of fixing this will be everyone's problem. If we suddenly have to ramp up domestic production because diesel is >$10/gal it'll be a no holds barred unmitigated environmental catastrophe. We will be drilling and spilling absolutely everywhere, because the alternative is dead people in the streets. Emergencies like this are one nightmare scenario accelerant of climate disaster.

The dead people in the streets are already why diesel is >$10/gal. Don’t want expensive gas? Don’t start wars. Invest more in peace than war.

well sure.. obviously. but only very few actually have any control over that and they're not incentivized to choose peace. the best the rest of us can do is vote in elections. it doesn't generally work out very well though.
Post reply on HN