Not Filling the Strategic Reserve

…sounds like a GREAT idea, given the current conditions.

The Energy Information Administration announced that crude inventory levels for the week ended May 17 fell 5.32 million barrels, marking the first decline after four consecutive weeks of inventory builds. Analyst expected stockpiles to increase by 300,000 barrels.
As a result, crude oil prices spiked from the unchanged mark to a gain of 2.4% at $132.08 per barrel, marking an all-time high. Crude prices are up 16% in May, the largest monthly percent advance in nearly four years.

And that whopping 70K + barrels a day (WOW! THAT much?!?!?!) will make a HUGE difference in gasoline prices.

A group of senators called on President Bush on Thursday to halt billions of dollars in sophisticated arms sales to Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf oil producers unless they agree to pump more petroleum, reflecting growing frustration in Congress over soaring energy costs.
Separately, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that Bush should stop putting 70,000 barrels of oil a day into the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying the oil would be better left in the market place to help lower prices. The Energy Department recently announced it is extending oil shipments into the reserve, which holds 700 million barrels, through the end of the year.

(And Bush caved to the reserve pressure.)
Holy macanoni, Nancy! It’s GREAT to know you’re lookin’ out for us. No ANWAR, no shale, no Gulf, no weapons for them A-rabs. ( Let all that filthy lucre prop up the…say…Russian or Chinese military machines, with schmaybe a little Kim Jong action on the side. There are hungry faces in NoKo, after all. I mean, who can resist them? Not any Democrat I know!) and now no spare capacity.
So, sure, why not? We’re one big happy world! And spreading the wealth is a centerpiece of Democratic strateegery, isn’t it? So grab yourself a cold kumba rumba cuba libre and follow the bouncing ball!

For the math impaired Congressionals busy pounding their solar calculators, work this one (Careful now. It’s a WORD problem): If you have a BIG salt cavern filled to the drippy barrel brim with gooey fruits of filthy Arab gushers and then take away in (one week) fivepointthreetwomillionbarrels…HOW many days at seventythousandbarrelsperday does it take to make that up? If you really want to be Einstein-like (unless you’re anti-Jewish) throw in the variables that make math so fun ~ war, pestilence, Paris Hilton (you know, stuff we can’t control).
Granted, that 5.32M was stockpile drawdown vice the petroleum reserves, but the exercise is useful in pointing out how rapidly we deplete resources when the mood takes us. Gas may be $4 a gallon, but SOMEBODY somewhere’s been doing some driving. And woof! There’s goes another couple bucks per barrel because some trader somewhere is thinking the exact. Same. Thing.
When you’re talking millions of barrels down in a ‘surprise’, that 70K won’t be missed.
Sitting in a gas line for two hours on an odd day sucks, my friends. And that was only a couple years ago, not the ’70’s. I can’t wait ’til the rest of the country gets to share our pain.
And thanks, Nance! Have a great summer.

One Response to “Not Filling the Strategic Reserve”

1. The_Real_JeffS says:

   May 21, 2008 at 3:09 pm

   Congress, the final haven for idiots in the US of freaking A.