Calls Mount to Tap U.S. Oil Reserves

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — As oil prices have risen in recent weeks, calls have been growing in Congress for the Obama administration to consider tapping into the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve, which is now at its full capacity of 727 million barrels.

Senator Jeff Bingaman, the influential chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, this week added his voice to the chorus, urging President Obama to be prepared to consider a significant sale of oil from the reserve to stabilize prices and temper any disruption in supply.

“Between the lost production in Libya, the crude oil dislocation associated with additional Saudi production and the prospect of further turmoil in the region,” Mr. Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, said in a floor statement late Wednesday, “we are now unquestionably facing a physical oil supply disruption that is at risk of getting worse before it gets better.”

He said that previous sales from the reserve had quickly brought domestic oil prices down and calmed edgy markets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/business/energy-environment/04oil.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

[Vincardog]

1. Why exactly do we have it?

[stockholmer]

3. because just 4% of the global population (the USA), uses 25% of all the petrol produced in the world

now THAT is a true national security risk, not to mention the environmental, geo-political, and economic impacts

there is only 7 days worth of food supplies on USA grocery shelves, and the average distance (via petrol-fuel) it is shipped is over 1000 miles

no gas/diesel, no eat

less than 2% of the USA population is food self-sufficient

[stockholmer]

2. 727 million barrels(total of the reserve) is what the US uses in 35 days,& only 5 months of imports

"Currently the United States is not running short of oil. In fact, the oil storage facility in Cushing, Okla., that supplies the nation’s heartland has record inventories because of expanding production in North Dakota and a new pipeline shipping increased supplies of synthetic fuel from oil sand fields in western Canada.

But the loss of more than a million barrels of sweet crude on world markets resulting from the turbulence in Libya is tightening supplies for European refineries that need high-quality oil to produce diesel fuel, which is popular in Europe.

By releasing sweet, or low-sulfur, crude oil from the reserve, Washington might relieve a bidding competition between American and European refiners for sweet crudes produced by Algeria and Nigeria, two producers that are straining to fill the gap left by Libya.

Saudi Arabia holds most of OPEC’s spare capacity, but its crude is mostly sour — that is, higher in sulfur content — and cannot easily replace the lost Libyan sweet crude."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/business/energy-environment/04oil.html