My first thought was let’s build more storage for SPR and fill it up. Who knows what the future holds, so it would help to have more backup for our nation.
Since I know so little about the subject, I read a little on Wikipedia and found this:
Richton, Mississippi: This facility, if built as planned, would have had a capacity of 160 million barrels (25,000,000 m3) with a drawdown capacity of 1 million barrels (160,000 m3) per day. Former Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman announced the creation of this site in February 2007.
As of 2008, this site was facing some opposition.According to the DOE: “Activities towards the goal of expansion of the SPR to one billion barrels, as directed by Congress in the 2005 Act, were cancelled in 2011 after Congress rescinded all remaining expansion funds.”
link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(United_States)
Tanks of this size would require quite a bit of time to build.
They require a significant amount of site preparation.
The amounts of steel required isn’t exactly laying off in the weeds waiting to be used, it’s ordered from a steel mill for the job.
And then finally there is the construction of the tank proper. 12-18 months or longer. You can only load so many bodies on a project at any one time and still get any acceptable increase in production.
Then there would be the miles of piping, valves, pumps e.t.c that would be needed to use any of the stored oil.
And the often overlooked portion of inspection and maintenance of all of this capital equipment one built.
Even if the decision was made to build this tomorrow, there would be little chance of having any of it completed before there current crisis is over.
If this current state of events continues as is, it will not matter anyway.
Without an economy, there isn’t any need for oil, or it’s products.
Except to the ruling class and their personal armies.
They will need the finished goods.