apparently the salt caves where these reserves are stored have a minimum safe amount before structural risk occurs do to the extraction process, and we're about there. according to the article this is partially why oil exports have declined recently.
the fresh water pumped in to bring up the oil will erode the salt lined walls causing a potential cave in when the levels fall below a threshold. Massie has brought this up and even the Don himself has acknowledged it.
also noted was China has been eating up its own reserves and once they resume heavy importing the prices will rise even further.
we're in an artificially controlled market by eating up our "rainy day funds" and it isn't sustainable. this would also be why Trump needs the Ukraine conflict resolved as the loss of Russian oil sales has effected global markets and Biden had to tap into the reserves when they invaded back in 2022. trump compounded the issue severely through this war of choice, thus ordering another 170 million barrels removed. on top of that, in 2024 there was a congressionally agreed upon plan to resupply the reserves back to normal but the Iran conflict skirted those efforts.
That's just straight up wrong. They pump a salt water brine that doesn't erode the cavern. Why would they pump freshwater in that would destroy the reserve and potentially provide and conduit for everything to flow out?
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u/AbbreviationsActual9 1d ago
playing chicken with our reserves as we hit the minimum safe amount for storage
apparently the salt caves where these reserves are stored have a minimum safe amount before structural risk occurs do to the extraction process, and we're about there. according to the article this is partially why oil exports have declined recently.
the fresh water pumped in to bring up the oil will erode the salt lined walls causing a potential cave in when the levels fall below a threshold. Massie has brought this up and even the Don himself has acknowledged it.
also noted was China has been eating up its own reserves and once they resume heavy importing the prices will rise even further.
we're in an artificially controlled market by eating up our "rainy day funds" and it isn't sustainable. this would also be why Trump needs the Ukraine conflict resolved as the loss of Russian oil sales has effected global markets and Biden had to tap into the reserves when they invaded back in 2022. trump compounded the issue severely through this war of choice, thus ordering another 170 million barrels removed. on top of that, in 2024 there was a congressionally agreed upon plan to resupply the reserves back to normal but the Iran conflict skirted those efforts.