Posted on 02/09/2017 9:03:17 AM PST by bananaman22
A protected oil stockpile, dispersed in a region home to multiple refinery, connections to many pipelines, and proximity to seaports—whats the problem?
No one expects this to sustain the country—it’s a military strategic asset for war operations. Get a clue.
The oil stockpiles are silly. Now we can pump oil into pipelines that crisscross the country and connect to most refineries. The oil is underground now in several diverse locations and it can be pumped out as fast from the Permian Basin as from a salt mine. The stockpile was a good idea in the 1960s but now its redundant and inadequate.
And when it comes to bombs, another change from the 1960s, anyone who could cut off our oil supply could also send a nuke to Louisianan. Even if you don’t hit the salt mine. You can hit the pipes that load and suck the oil out of the mine. And of course, job one would be to hit the refineries. Just hitting half of them would be devastating to our economy and our war effort.
Frankly we don’t do to well in a war with the Chinese. They have 4 people to our 1. In a decade they will have as many cruise missiles as we do. And their Navy and Air Force will begin to compare with ours. A few hits on refineries, Airports, power grid and communications. And we are a big mess. A redundant pile of subterrestrial oil will not help our cause.
The pipelines are full. The tanks are full. The ground is full. Buying a bunch of oil and sticking it in Louisiana salt mines is not helpful. First its not that much. It won’t last us very long. Second, we can always fill it if we think we may need it in the future. Third, one bomb and its gone. Same with Cushing. Fourth, you still have to refine it. We have lots of pipelines crisscrossing the country that bring oil from fields to refineries quickly and cleanly. The Strategic reserves is like us pumping oil out of the ground and then pumping it back in so we could pump it out whenever we wish.
Yes, it was a great idea in the 60’s but now, with fracking everywhere. Its just not needed. The situation may change in the future. But for now we have huge reserves in the ground that can easily be piped to our refineries. We leave most of it their because oil is cheap. But if there was a crises we could add a million gallons in a month.
Energy wise and in particular oil supply today has zero realationship with what happened in the 1960’s.
We have had a paradigm shift, and the Opecker princes no longer control the flow and price of oil.
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