Strategic petroleum Reserve, has it been re-filled ?

[Lakewood90712]

Last year , after Katrina , the US gov. released oil from the reserve.

Anyone know if it has been re-filled ?

 

[saluki9]

Yes it has (well in part at least) They only released less than 2% of their inventory because of Katrina


The department of Energy maintains a website which shows the inflows, outflows and exchanges

http://www2.spr.doe.gov/DIR/SilverStream/Pages/pgDailyInventoryReportViewDOE_new.html

 

[MooreBonds]

Speaking of the SPR....I've always wondered about the structural integrity of the salt mines that they use.

How do they check the old salt mines to make sure that there aren't any leaks/cracks/holes in them? Be a damn shame to suddenly need the reserve in 20 years and find out "Whoooops....looks like we're about 50% short". Of course, compared to some of the insane expenditures of the gov't, it wouldn't look any worse...

 

[astromeria]

My interpretation of the tables is that they took out about 20 <gazillion?> barrels and put back about 6. Makes perfect sense--or they're waiting till after the election or leaving it for the next Congress/Administration to refill the reserves, thereby (presumably) increasing the price of oil--you be the judge.

 

[HFWR]

Speaking of the SPR....I've always wondered about the structural integrity of the salt mines that they use.

How do they check the old salt mines to make sure that there aren't any leaks/cracks/holes in them? Be a damn shame to suddenly need the reserve in 20 years and find out "Whoooops....looks like we're about 50% short". Of course, compared to some of the insane expenditures of the gov't, it wouldn't look any worse...

A really long dipstick...

 

[Leonidas]

My interpretation of the tables is that they took out about 20 <gazillion?> barrels and put back about 6.

Your math seems a little off. Probably due to the not readily apparent differences in that spreadsheet between exchange bbbls and drawdown bbls. The DOE doesn't explain it very well and I had to go elsewhere to find the details.

Last year , after Katrina , the US gov. released oil from the reserve.

Anyone know if it has been re-filled ?

Both a qualified yes and no.

The SPR can "drawdown" (sell) oil and it can "exchange" oil (loan). During Katrina they did both. There was an 11 Million Bbl sale (drawdown) and an authorized 12.6 Million Bbl loan (exchange) of which only 9.8 Million was actually exchanged. The total amount that went out was 20.8 Million Bbls.

Any oil that has left the SPR in a drawdown can only be replaced by buying more oil. I think they usually do that by taking oil in exchange (Royalty Exchange in Kind) instead of cash from oil companies that owe royalties to the government for mineral rights they are leasing on federal land. So, unless a purchase is authorized, the 11 Million Bbls sold post-Katrina is gone. The Government received $702 Million from a variety of oil companies for the drawdown oil that was sold. The exchange barrels that were loaned are paid back with oil that is returned to the SPR.

In August 2005, the pre-Katrina inventory was at it's all time high of 700.7 Million Bbls, so if you deduct the 11 Million sold - the inventory should eventually go back to at least 689.7 Million Bbls when the exchange barrels are returned.

The SPR inventory is currently at 688.3. DOE says all the Katrina exchange oil has been returned with the exception of 1.7 Million Bbls which has been deferred until 2007. That repayment will bring it up to 690 Million Bbls.

I don't know where the extra 300,000 Bbls came from, but I can speculate. The SPR has made several exchanges in close proximity to Katrina (before and after) to prevent disruptions caused by 2004 hurricanes and when shipping traffic was disrupted for other reasons. Without going into every transaction I can only speculate that 300,000 bbls were still outstanding from 2004 when the SPR reached its high of 700.7 in August 2005. It would make sense that the SPR should have been holding 701 Million Bbls then, but 300,000 exchange Bbls had not yet been paid back from an earlier transaction.

I think the correct answer is that all but 1.7 Millions bbls that we loaned out have been paid back. But the 11 Million bbls we sold is gone forever unless we buy some more.

--or they're waiting till after the election or leaving it for the next Congress/Administration to refill the reserves, thereby (presumably) increasing the price of oil--you be the judge.

DOE says they paid an average of $27.73 per Bbl. when they originally bought the oil that is currently in the SPR. The Katrina Drawdown sales reports look like they sold it for around $65 a bbl. Current replacement cost is below $60. From where I stand it looks like the Government actually made a profit in all of this, and if they replace it before oil goes back up above $65, they will be able lock in their profits and replace the inventory. U.S. crude oil inventories are around 40 Million Bbls above normal - makes me think that if they started buying (actually receiving oil from oil companies in exchange for royalty payments) that it might not make too big of an impact on the price. It would depend on how aggressive they are about it.

 

[Leonidas]

Here's the link to the DOE page where you can read about all the different drawdowns and exchanges.

http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/spr/spr-facts.html

 

[saluki9]

My interpretation of the tables is that they took out about 20 <gazillion?> barrels and put back about 6. Makes perfect sense--or they're waiting till after the election or leaving it for the next Congress/Administration to refill the reserves, thereby (presumably) increasing the price of oil--you be the judge.

Perhaps you should talk to some members of the previous administration who had the reserves at a much lower level than they are today?

 

[AltaRed]

Speaking of the SPR....I've always wondered about the structural integrity of the salt mines that they use.

How do they check the old salt mines to make sure that there aren't any leaks/cracks/holes in them? Be a damn shame to suddenly need the reserve in 20 years and find out "Whoooops....looks like we're about 50% short". Of course, compared to some of the insane expenditures of the gov't, it wouldn't look any worse...

They don't need to check. The reason it is a salt mine/dome in the first place is because it is 101% sealed and the salt could not be dissolved out over geologic time from the water table. Deep salt (empty) caverns are also used to store Natural Gas under significant pressure for similar reasons.

 

[larry]

They don't need to check. The reason it is a salt mine/dome in the first place is because it is 101% sealed and the salt could not be dissolved out over geologic time from the water table. Deep salt (empty) caverns are also used to store Natural Gas under significant pressure for similar reasons.

And the fact that they are one of the most stable structures on the planet, down in south central KS they are used for document storage and contain most any motion picture ever made.

 

[bpp]

And the fact that they are one of the most stable structures on the planet, down in south central KS they are used for document storage and contain most any motion picture ever made.

But if any water does get in there (for example through the hole that humans dug to get into it), the whole thing can collapse, yes? Not that petroleum would care -- it would just float up I guess -- but Gone With the Wind might look worse for the wear.

 

[Leonidas]

But if any water does get in there (for example through the hole that humans dug to get into it), the whole thing can collapse, yes? Not that petroleum would care -- it would just float up I guess -- but Gone With the Wind might look worse for the wear.

From the DOE's SPR site: "Besides being the lowest cost way to store oil for long periods of time, the use of deep salt caverns is also one of the most environmentally secure. At depths ranging from 2000 to 4000 feet, the salt walls of the storage caverns are "self-healing." The extreme geologic pressures make the salt walls rock hard, and should any cracks develop in the walls, they would be almost instantly closed."

"The fact that oil floats on water is the underlying mechanism used to move oil in and out of the SPR caverns. To withdraw crude oil, fresh water is pumped into the bottom of a cavern. The water displaces the crude oil to the surface. After the oil is removed from the SPR caverns, pipelines send it to various terminals and refineries around the nation."

 

[bpp]

From the DOE's SPR site: [...]To withdraw crude oil, fresh water is pumped into the bottom of a cavern.

Wow. Ok, never mind!

I thought I had heard of salt walls collapsing due to water infiltration, but maybe the pressure at the bottom of the pool makes a difference...

 

[larry]

The salt mines at Hutchinson, KS have experienced roof collapses where ginormous hunks of salt have came crashing down but no cave-ins. This is also the same place that your table salt comes from.