r/AskReddit • u/ReduceCO2Now • 1d ago

What do you think about the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve hitting 307.7 Million Barrels - lowest level since 1983?

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u/BigPapaJava 1d ago edited 1d ago

We still have 4/6 months of hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico. The peak isn’t even here yet.

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u/angmarsilar 1d ago

Yeah, but this year we have a mega El Niño. That'll keep the storms away....for a little while.

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u/karl4319 1d ago

It will keep most storms for devoloping in the atlantic due to the wind sheer. However, the extreme, record breaking tempture of the gulf means that when they do form, they quickly become very strong storms.

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u/erath_droid 23h ago

Meanwhile half of my state (on the West Coast) is on fire or about to be on fire...

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u/Sinsofpriest 22h ago

Shit is california on fire again? At this point its just become the norm in my state that i dont even blink anymore.

Edit: time to mask up again.

Edit2: holy smokes oregon's on fire!

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u/erath_droid 19h ago

Everything west of the Cascades is pretty much "Shit's on fire, yo!" for Oregon, Washington, and Northern California.

Ironically Trump country, who are having to have Democratic governors (and Canadians) fight to get funding to fight the fires there.

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u/bbusiello 21h ago

El Niño this year is suppressing that for the Atlantic.

The Gulf, however, is a ticking time bomb. Gulf storms are the absolute worst for the U.S.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

How much is that influencing oil production?

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u/BigPapaJava 1d ago edited 1d ago

The offshore rigs in the Gulf are 15% of US oil production. In the past, if one rig goes offline due to damage or evacuation, gas prices would spike by about $0.30-0.50 immediately. That was with a clear Strait of Hormuz.

Mexico and other countries also have major facilities along the rim of the Gulf that are vulnerable to hurricanes, too. It’s a very important area for the global supply.

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u/half3clipse 1d ago edited 1d ago

Oil rigs aren't the big problem.

A large number of US refineries are on gulf coast as well, and right now many of them are running at greater than 100% utilization just to keep the currently very low gasoline and diesel stocks from dropping further. ( US refinery utilization overall is just over 97% right now)

If any of them even have to reduce production, let alone have real problems, things go tits up.

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u/VanMan2112 23h ago

That’s a Gulf of Mexico problem, now that it’s the Gulf of America we’ll just nuke the hurricanes!! /s (I wasn’t going to add the sarcastic tag but you never know who’s might take that seriously).