Energy Dept. taps into oil reserves after Harvey
Source: The Hill
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 08/31/17 09:32 AM EDT
The Department of Energy (DOE) is releasing oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in an attempt to mitigate disruptions from Tropical Storm Harvey.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry authorized a release of 500,000 barrels of crude oil, to be transported via pipeline to Phillips 66s refinery in Lake Charles, La., DOE spokeswoman Jess Szymanski said Thursday morning.
The department will continue to provide assistance as deemed necessary, and will continue to review incoming requests for SPR crude oil, Szymanski said.
The release of 200,000 barrels of sweet crude and 300,000 of sour crude is the first emergency release from the SPR since Hurricane Isaac hit Louisiana in 2012.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/348679-doe-taps-into-oil-stockpile-for-harvey
George II
(67,782 posts)...back in the 1970s. He was ridiculed by republicans in Congress and by candidate Reagan. They thought they were useless.
Since then, though, they've proven very important in situations like this and during some minor oil shortages.
Funny thing, several years ago when Obama wanted to release some of the reserves in 2012, of course the republicans in Congress (those who thought they were idiotic when they were Carter's idea) balked because they were "too important"!!!
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)now what?
Sgent
(5,857 posts)unless something has changed recently, the refinery is still operating.
Has the storm passed there yet?
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)groundloop
(11,486 posts)harun
(11,348 posts)Dopers_Greed
(2,640 posts)...that Dump wanted to sell off, I presume.
DK504
(3,847 posts)IronLionZion
(45,250 posts)Lake Charles is getting flooded
And why don't they build more refineries in places with fewer hurricanes?
Igel
(35,191 posts)And one of the problems that's going to really hit much of the NE and mid-Atlantic is that a major pipeline that carries petroleum and petroleum products from Texas to the NE is shut down.
A lot of refineries were built where there was easy access to oil, and as that access decreased pipelines were built to get the oil to them. So a fair number of refineries have limited access to pulling in oil from just anywhere. It's why they're often located near ports for tankers to get to. The Texas Gulf coast has both tanker access and oilfield access and has around 30% of production capacity.
This will also effect Venezuela, since much of their oil is crap and gets refined by Citgo refineries in the US, mostly, you got it, along the Gulf Coast.
Javaman
(62,435 posts)Igel
(35,191 posts)Reagan talked against it, but was responsible for most of the early build up in supply.
Bush II released some for Desert Storm. In case.
Clinton had non-emergency releases to bring down gasoline prices, and then some more to bring down heating oil prices.
Bush II came under extreme criticism for sharply increasing the strategic oil reserve, mostly because he was buying at a time when oil prices were increasing. In other words, at higher prices than before and, worse, in way that plausibly increased demand when supply was already strained.
Obama released some in response to emergencies. Last year there was a long-term plan produced to start drawing down the reserves and sales were to have started by now, but I can't find that they actually did. The last sale at https://energy.gov/fe/services/petroleum-reserves/strategic-petroleum-reserve/spr-quick-facts-and-faqs was to fund at least part of the 21st Century Cures Act that was signed into law (with a bit of exulting) last fall. The plans discussed weren't dismissed as bad by most, because maintaining the fuel reserve at record or near record levels made no sense if our future was weaned away from carbon-based fuels and there was going to be a long(ish)-term glut of the stuff. (The last addition was late in 2009, at the time criticized as Bush II-era contracts and worse, spending government money to prop up the oil industry as the economy was still trying to recover from the Great Recession.)
Trump's talked about selling it off, but that's hardly new. Every time there's a budget problem somebody talks about selling it off. Happened under Clinton, under Bush II, under Obama. It's not new, it's just now news. It needs to be squashed when it comes up.
The reserves are held in just a few places. All but one is in areas significantly affected by Harvey except one NE of the refinery being discussed in this.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)Even in the Florida town that I'm in now, some stations are charging 30 cents more than others for a gallon of unleaded regular. The independents are the highest, whereas the name-brand stations generally have gas left in their tanks from pre-Harvey deliveries, but that won't last long.
This has to be really tough on people who need to commute to work, and hopefully the SPR does the job it was designed for.
Orrex
(63,083 posts)The most important thing is that we protect the oil companies, because if their profits shift by even a quarter point, the world will end.
NCjack
(10,279 posts)by paying the dividends to investors with corporate tax cuts.
Orrex
(63,083 posts)Corporate Profit Uber Alles!
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)NCjack
(10,279 posts)and sell it cheap.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Igel
(35,191 posts)It's piped to the Texas coast for refining, and that's pretty much shut down.
A lot comes from offshore, and those platforms were shut down for Harvey. They won't have been badly damaged, but it'll take time to come back on line.
Even those refineries that aren't very damaged and can come back on line fairly quickly have supply shortages.
(I predicted this wasn't going to be the case. It's what happens when I make predictions based on partial information. Most of the refineries weren't in the path of high winds and could handle the flooding from rain, so this shouldn't have been an issue. But late in the game Harvey's milquetoast south winds continued for long enough to create a storm surge that didn't splash brackish water all over the place but caused the record rainfall to back up to make the equivalent of 9-10' storm surge in the oil-refinery part of Houston. Record rains put out power to major pipelines and affect those refineries not flooded. And then the storm headed more eastward and shut down oil Gulf production and hit refineries that weren't supposed to be affected given the forecasts from last Thursday-Saturday.)
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,536 posts)Not that it's worth that much -- the station had already paid for the fuel in its storage tanks when the price was $2.59/gallon. It's just an excuse to gouge the customers before the station gets a delivery of the higher priced fuel.
lapfog_1
(29,166 posts)doesn't do anything about gasoline prices in this instance.
In fact, due to refinery closings for the hurricane, crude supplies jumped in the pre-Harvey period thru till now.
The problem is the refined products are not being made, or, if made, are not being delivered via pipelines or other distribution methods.
opening the SPR is not a solution to spiking gasoline prices.
FSogol
(45,355 posts)F'ing hypocrites.