The Table Is Set

And Dinner Is About To Be Served!

Petroleum refineries convert crude oil and other liquids into many petroleum products that people use every day. Most refineries focus on producing transportation fuels. On average, U.S. refineries produce, from a 42-gallon barrel of crude oil, about 19 to 20 gallons of motor gasoline; 11 to 13 gallons of distillate fuel most of which is sold as diesel fuel; and 3 to 4 gallons of jet fuel.

What's The Problem?

The Strategic Oil Reserve was established in 1973 out of concerns that political conflict with Arab countries and trade embargoes would compromise the United States' security position. Such circumstances include war or other unforeseen crises. A good example of such a release was during Hurricane Katrina, when the damage to the Gulf of Mexico region caused widespread and critical disruption of oil production and circulation.

Recently, the largest release in the history of the reserve was announced

as an economic measure.

United States Strategic Petroleum Reserves are kept in the form of crude oil.

From 2019-2020 the United States consumed approximately 20.54 million barrels of crude oil daily.

At our current consumption rate of about 20 million barrels a day, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would last only 36 days if we were faced with a situation where the oil had to be released all at once. (however, only 4.4 million barrels a day can be withdrawn, extending our supply to 165 days).

Or, in the event of a geopolitical conflict or crisis, the question can be answered this way: The Reserve says that at full capacity, the stash provides about 75 days of import protection.

As you can see from the graph above, America hit it's peak in the discovery of new domestic crude oil supplies in the 1930's. Since then new discoveries of domestic crude has been on the decline with no new discoveries since the mid 1980's.

Peak Oil Theory

General consensus estimates predicts world oil production to climax between 2010 and 2030, with anything after 2030 deemed impossible.

The general uncertainty concerning the actual state of global reserves, however, makes a more specific estimate impossible. The majority of papers published after 2010 have been relatively pessimistic.

A 2010 Oxford University study predicts production to peak before 2015. [12] In general, world crude oil production and the quantity and size of proven reserves have been at a record high since 2012. [13] (see Full Thesis for references)

Food For Thought

List of Petro-Products (pdf)

part two to follow