SPR: The Graph -- April 2, 2022

The Biden Surge is tracked here.

We'll see this graph a lot over the next six months. 

I don't think it means a lot.

But we're going to see it anyway.

This is just the national SPR. Wiki entry here.

This does not include what's in commercial storage such as Cushing (around 450 million bbls of crude oil). 

This does not include the amount of gasoline sloshing around in 300 million registered vehicles in the United States, which might work out to 200 million bbls of gasoline (using 42 gallons / bbl). 

The only thing that I get out of this graphic is that it will never be filled again in my investing lifetime. From CommodityContent.

The renewable energy folks, of course, will argue we will never need that much oil again.

Since 2015, Congress has been selling the oil in the reserve to fund the deficit, in unpublicized sales. The U.S. Department of Energy has run at least seven sales since 2017, selling 132 million barrels, or about 18.2% of what had been in the reserve.

I assume RBN Energy will visit and re-visit the SPR issue many times over the next six months. Their first installment was April 1, 2022, a day after the announcement.  

I'll be looking for the current definition of "strategic" as its being used for this emergency reserve.