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- Hacker News
- It is just amazing watching how markets are working to build prosperity for the rich. With scarcity a thing of the past, bombing choke points is proving to be wildly profitable and as capital never sits still it can be wherever conditions are nicer. whoooeee $2.40 a gallon of pure profit, but when you strip away the rest of the scam, pumping, production, shipping and distribution are still only $1/gal, so full profits not counting interest lending to people to buy the car and the fuel in the first place are more than 75% right now. And with NOWHERE left to put the money, AI.by metalman
- This is a refining capacity problem, not an crude oil supply problem. The various wars have taken out refining capacity and transport capacity.
On the crude oil side, the US strategic petroleum reserve is declining rapidly.[1] That took a hit during COVID and the early Ukraine war because production was down. Refilling started afterward, but didn't take it up to normal levels. There's still maybe a year of oil left.
[1] https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W...
by Animats - The upside is that some diesel engines could run on alt fuels via transesterification, but given the supply chain isn't there I would gather electrification would happen faster. Curious how far they could push blends in a modern diesel if needed. Modern fuel rails (at 30k+ ft lbs) require the lower viscosity of refined diesel unlike older motors.by windexh8er
- Doubt there’s a year. They’re currently draining it down to like 270-280ish million barrels. Which is breaking the integrity of the caverns and they can’t actually drain it completely it needs something like 100ish million barrels at minimum capacity to not fuck up the pipes.
On the integrity side. The caverns were only designed for a lifetime of 5 full drawdowns[1]. The caverns the oil is stored in and the pillars supporting them are made of salt. They get the oil out by pumping water in which floats the oil up.
Salt has certain integrity problems when submerged in water or so I’ve been told.
This current admin doesn’t appear to accept the idea of negative consequences for their actions so I would not be surprised if they destroy the caverns because they think they can suck every last drop out.
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/frequent-oil-draws-f...
by lovich - I think declaring the Straight of Hormuz a US territory will solve this problem.
- How? Or was it sarcasm?by cjbenedikt
- Now that you mention it, I'm surprised it hasn't been renamed to Straight of Freedom.by xnx
- Declaring the US an enemy to the free people of the world is going to solve it, that’s for certain.by MomsAVoxell
- The refining bottleneck is the part people miss. Crude supply headlines get all the attention but margins blow up when you can't process what you have.by marten31
- highest Diesel price per gallon national average was $5.81 after covid June 2022
we are most certainly going to break that by the end of the year (it's $5.47 average today)
they are trying to use Strategic Oil Reserve (and maybe Venezuela) as a piggy bank
but all that's about to break badly, permanently
if this administration lets it go down to 70 million barrels despite the warnings by experts at 300 million, they'll never repair the damage
by ck2 - When you say “never repair the damage,” do you mean that the practicality of refilling the stores is impossible due to demand requirements, or something else I’m missing?by Eric_WVGG
- This should help with transition to electric vehicles.
On the other hand, batteries for EVs are produced in even smaller number of countries (mostly China) then oil is pumped (Middle east, US, Russia, Canada).
https://www.iea.org/commentaries/global-battery-markets-are-...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_extra...
by leonidasrup - #StreetCarsAreAThing
- Chinese companies also supply 15-20% of the world's fuel tanks for cars and more for heavy vehicles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAPP_Automotive_Systems. Funny how that's not a problem.
Batteries. Are. Not. Oil. They are oil tanks.
by triceratops - Can't be soon enough. I'm currently in a country with lots of old diesel vehicles from Western Europe. I was just walking to pick up my EV with HEPA filters from cleaning. The amount of fumes around street makes it unbearable to walk alongside road.by dzhiurgis
- https://archive.today/FXENu
Related:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_spread
https://rbnenergy.com/market-data/3-2-1-crack-spread
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=1630
https://financialpost.com/news/posthaste-an-energy-shock-muc...
by toomuchtodo