Join the discussion
Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.
- Hacker News
- How quickly could it realistically be replenished if some kind of detente were reached and supply roughly returned to where it is was? Would replenishment contribute significantly to price pressure?by rkagerer
- looks like gasoline will skyrocket very soon very badly..by andriy_koval
- When oil prices spike, where does the money go? https://theconversation.com/when-oil-prices-spike-where-does...
Its possible Oil price might go higher. Oil Prices Ignore the Warning Signs in Physical Markets: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Oil-Prices-Ignore...
- It's worth pointing out that these are stored across ~60 salt caverns that were built to do a max of 5 drawdowns. All of them are now at about 9 drawdowns and there's every drawdown introduces serious structural integrity issues. We will never be able to completely empty them but the actual floor is debated.
The previous head of the reserves said we "couldn't realistically go below 300m". The Dept. of Energy requires at least 250m in the reserves for emergencies. Some other have estimated we could go as low as 70m.
It's entirely possible that we've already just about reached the minimum.
The very lowest layer of oil also has more sediment mixing issues and requires more processing to be useful.
by culi - Global oil prices haven't skyrocketed so far thanks to China inverting the OPEC strategy of keeping prices up by destroying supply.
China stopped/reduced buying, used their large reserves, EVs and now accelerating EV trucks. And also coal to liquids.
Eventually, China may have to start buying and thats when the fun begins.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/business/energy-environme...
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Chinas-Renewable-Boom-Masks...
China is now the world’s great oil power. Forget OPEC. The Chinese Communist Party calls the shots. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49238158
- If you retain any hope of the cessation of hostilities in the US's war with Iran causing a sudden and large dip in fuel prices, just remember that these stocks need to be rebuilt when all is said and done. And the US isn't the only country with rapidly depleting stocks requiring a post-war rebuild. Refining capacity aside -- there's a long road ahead for high prices.
Strategic petroleum reserves work best when there's strategy behind that which depletes them. It's difficult to see the US's strategy behind exposing itself in this way.
by acaloiar - So seriously, what is the administrations intention here? They’ve used all the missiles and drained all the gas. Are they trying to get the U.S. invaded?by bix6
- Chart of strategic reserve levels since 1982, for context
https://en.macromicro.me/charts/41674/us-strategic-petroleum...
by brightball