Posted on 03/26/2020 7:44:37 AM PDT by Hojczyk
The final version of the Senate’s coronavirus stimulus package left out billions of dollars that had been planned for the Department of Energy to go toward replenishing the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
An earlier draft of the legislation included $3 billion in appropriations for the Energy Department’s SPR Petroleum Account meant “for necessary expenses related to the acquisition, transportation, and injection of domestic petroleum products.” After Democrats resisted, claiming it was an expensive bailout for the oil industry, it was removed from the final version.
“Here are some of the improvements,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an announcement about the changes introduced to the bill by him and his party, including, “Eliminated $3 billion bailout for big oil.”
That money was to be used for purchasing oil to top off the U.S. petroleum reserves at a time when prices are low. WTI Crude is currently at just over $23 a barrel, down from a high of $63.27 in January.
The Energy Department had announced last week that it would purchase 77 million barrels of American-made crude oil to begin to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid the coronavirus outbreak.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
My memory is that Clinton released the reserves when gas went up ten cents. It gave them a lot of money to play around with.
So much for national security. The arts >>>>> energy. Go ahead and sign it, Trump.
We always get screwed.
About the SPR
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil, was established primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program. The federally-owned oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns at four sites along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. The sheer size of the SPR (authorized storage capacity of 713.5 million barrels) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool in foreign policy.
SPR oil is sold competitively when the President finds, pursuant to the conditions set forth in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), that a sale is required. Such conditions have only existed three times, most recently in June 2011 when the President directed a sale of 30 million barrels of crude oil to offset disruptions in supply due to unrest in Libya. During this severe energy supply interruption, the United States acted in coordination with its partners in the International Energy Agency (IEA). IEA countries released altogether a total of 60 million barrels of petroleum.
Additionally, the Secretary of Energy may authorize limited releases in the form of exchanges with entities that are not part of the Federal Government. This authority allows the SPR to negotiate exchanges where the SPR ultimately receives more oil than it released; thereby acquiring additional oil. With the exception of the 2000 Heating Oil Exchange, the SPR has entered into negotiated contracts at the request of private companies in order to address short-term, emergency supply disruptions to a refiner’s normal operations on several occasions.
https://www.energy.gov/fe/services/petroleum-reserves/strategic-petroleum-reserve
/.02
At least for now, we are essentially self-sufficient in oil and gas with current production. If a serious war / crisis happened, we would not be as dependent on shipments from overseas to keep the US operating.
The SPR entered calendar year (CY) 2018 with 662.8 million barrels (MMbbl) of crude oil, and at the end of CY 2018 (as of December 31, 2018), the SPR held 649.1 MMbbl—an amount equivalent to approximately 113 days of net U.S. crude oil imports .
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/01/f70/2018%20SPR%20Report%20to%20Congress.pdf
But on the bright side, Congress gets a pay raise.
Assclown schmuckey’s idea of improvements is a little different than mine. Hey schmuckee-——fah Q
https://www.energy.gov/fe/services/petroleum-reserves/strategic-petroleum-reserve/spr-storage-sites
info on the storage site. Discusses authorized but I wonder how much they can really hold. Very interesting, worth the read.
Is the $350 Million still in there to help illegals?
And the purchases of oil for the SPR were NOT going to help “big” oil...only smaller companies, most vulnerable to the drop in oil price, were to be eligible for the program. Chuckie LIES ALL THE TIME!
By carefully controlling the freshwater injection process, salt caverns of very precise dimensions can be created.
And buying medical supplies helps the medical supply industry.
Which I am sure they will pay any price for.
Why would a democrat use taxpayer money to buy something when it’s cheap?
Bailout for Big Oil? Paying $22 for something that was $60 a few months ago?
Of course they removed it. The liberals will do anything to kill the energy industry make America less safe from energy interruptions.
So ... no petroleum reserves, but Kennedy Center and NPR get funding.
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