Obama releasing 30M barrels from US oil reserves

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wary of a new surge in gas prices, the Obama administration has decided to release 30 million barrels of oil from the country's emergency reserve as part of a broader international response to lost oil supplies caused by turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Libya.

Source


this just shows that Obama knows that more oil means the price of crude goes down.
But instead of the U.S becoming independent, we just keep bending over and getting the shaft.

yup we'll be Petrobras biggest customer after we give them 2 billion, and Soros increases his shares to a million
IN PETROBRAS! and China is making bids for south Texas oil and natural gas (WTF?!)



and apparently from this graph, the U.S actually has not produced crude oil since the mid '90s
Crude oil production
Kind of amazing for an economy that relies on oil.

whether we can become totally independent or not isn't the issue. Why are we not supplementing what we buy with our own production, so we SPEND LESS?

I just see this as Obama cashing in his comoddities whilst the price is high for the benefit of his electorate.

reply to post by Kingbreaker


Whats really sad, is that we have more oil in the ground, not yet touched, that would make us independent from foreign oil purchases. I read recently, about how just in the Dakotas alone, there is enough oil waiting to be tapped that we could survive on its surplus alone for 40 years. I'll see if I can dig the article up.

Obama trying to get those poll numbers up

The SPR for emergencies only! Supply interuptions, embragoes and the like, not vain attempts to keep flagging poll numbers up.

Interesting strategy, I wonder why they didn't tap the strategic reserves when oil was $114 a barrel?
They waited till way after the peak when oil prices slid below $95 a barrel. Just a preemptive strike against a summer oil rally or is this the best price they expect to get for a while?

Great! Considering the US goes through approx. 21 million barrels of oil a day, this should tide us over until the weekend.

This is so damned stupid! The reserves are for EMERGENCIES. It took YEARS and YEARS to stockpile it. And why the hell is he releasing it now? The price was much higher than it is now. It's actually come down a bunch. It isn't where it should be, but it's definately a lot lower than it was. Freak'n stupid. Who the hell put him in charge. :shk:

The Saudi Riyal is no longer pegged to the US dollar.

Obama will have to spend 4x as much to re-fill the US Strategic Reserves.

You need $4 now to get 1 Saudi Riyal.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
This is so damned stupid! The reserves are for EMERGENCIES. It took YEARS and YEARS to stockpile it. And why the hell is he releasing it now? The price was much higher than it is now. It's actually come down a bunch. It isn't where it should be, but it's definately a lot lower than it was. Freak'n stupid. Who the hell put him in charge. :shk:

its called "poll numbers"

funny part is the world uses 63 million barrels a day so what is 30 million going to do......poll numbers anyone?

reply to post by Kingbreaker


So I guess it is official now? They are releasing 60 million barrels, 2 million per day, it is available for foreign and domestic uses (even though it is supposedly our "strategic" reserve), and then by some miracle of math it is supposed to be enough to help through the winter?

WOW!

Source

Maybe it's poll numbers, or maybe it's the green movement. All i know is the rest of the world is buying up crude where ever it can. Us? our "president" is gimping this country. We cant touch any oil.. but we'll allow china and other countries to come in and drill where ever. seriously do we really wanna see Chinese wells, and refineries being set up in eagle ford?


It's beyond stupid.

Right now, I do wish bush had gone into Iraq just for the oil. but no, the Iraq's are using their oil to barter for supplies and such.

reply to post by getreadyalready


well remember, we're a One World Community. what's ours is theirs. because we need to pay for our past claims of greatness. we need to help everyone.. because you never know.. the world might come and help us( )

Obama is mentally retarded.

reply to post by Kingbreaker


Possible Scenario:

One: This action will give the basis for their next announcement. It's a set up first and foremost and the upcoming emerging announcement will state that there is simply not enough oil for everyone. They will say that they did the best they could to supply us all with oil but for the time being all oil will be considered government property until the problem can be resolved.

Two: They know that the world will not cease from their wars in the Middle East but instead continue to increase.

Nothing is as it seems. The reality is that there exists sufficient oil but they don't want us to know that. It is however one of their most powerful cards that they have in their hand. It may not be as the scenario I described above but something is definitely cooking and it is not for the benefit of mankind, but rather another way to keep the serfs subjugated.

Originally posted by Realms
reply to post by Kingbreaker

 

Whats really sad, is that we have more oil in the ground, not yet touched, that would make us independent from foreign oil purchases. I read recently, about how just in the Dakotas alone, there is enough oil waiting to be tapped that we could survive on its surplus alone for 40 years. I'll see if I can dig the article up.

I'm guessing you are talking about the Bakken formation. Here is an article about it. However the media always seems to exaggerate and twist the facts in these kind of articles. This article says the following:

...estimated that the Bakken might hold a whopping 413 billion barrels.

However this is what geologists refer to as the resource base - the total amount in the ground, and should not be confused for recoverable resources which are far less, in this case about 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels according to USGS. To get some perspectives on the numbers: The annual oil consumption in the US is about 6.8 billion barrels. This means that the Bakken Oil field contains about half a year of US oil consumption...

The reason only a certain amount of the resource base is recoverable is because of the EROEI (Energy return on energy invested), It's pointless to extract energy when it takes more energy to extract the resource than what you get from the extracted resource.

Another thing to take into account is the extraction rate, even if an oil reserve is huge it could be hard to extract the oil and this will means a low extraction rate.Lower quality of oil = lower EROEI = lower extraction rate.

In this case the 413 billion barrels is very exaggerated even if it only refers to the total resource base.

The proven oil reserves of the US is about 21 billion barrels (ie about 3.5 years of US oil production).

And because of this there is no way the US could survive for 40 years on only domestic oil.

About the release of the oil reserves; I think this is all about calming the oil markets and preventing a new economic collapse; Oil has very low price elasticity, this means even a shortage of a few percent has the potential to cause a price spike. This in return will push the interest rates up and trigger another economic collapse. This was actually the main trigger when the financial crisis started and combined with the subprime mortages it wrecked havoc to the economy. In the current financial system a rising oil price will repeat the story.

The release of the oil reserves is actually a short sighted move and in my opinion a really bad decision. The only solution is to transition to an economy and lifestyle that uses less oil. This means smaller cars, smarter infrastructure, less transports, etc.

This fairly fresh interview with the chief economist of the International Energy Agency gives a good picture of the near future:

Originally posted by Boreas
Great! Considering the US goes through approx. 21 million barrels of oil a day, this should tide us over until the weekend.

That is what I am saying. This is nothing more than a ratings stunt. It really means nothing. People that do not know will see this as good news and be happy not knowing just how little it really means in the end. I hate it when they pull this crap. They think we are all dumb and stupid. The sad part is they will get away with it because enough will be dumb and stupid.

Originally posted by Realms
reply to post by Kingbreaker

 

Whats really sad, is that we have more oil in the ground, not yet touched, that would make us independent from foreign oil purchases.

I always find this approach fraught with problems.

First off, unless you believe those oil stores are infinite, why would it make sense to extract them NOW, instead of waiting for the future? Because what we extract NOW will not be available for the future. Wouldnt it make sense to continue to get a portion of our oil (about 1/4 at this point) from the mid east, instead of using all ours up right away?

Also, there seems to be an implication made in your post that the US isnt extracting any of its own oil. You know that the US actually extracts and ENORMOUS amount of its oil oil, right? And that our biggest foreign supplier is CANADA?

Originally posted by camaro68ss
Obama trying to get those poll numbers up

Yup he's making his move with this, with bringing home the troops bs, and with the gays. He's strategically trying to get reelcted or TPTB are trying to reelect him...

i wonder just whom is he releasing the oil to from the strategic reserve..

i remember when Bill Clinton released a bunch of oil to some of his big campaign contributers for pennies on the dollar... they made out big time at the domestic retail price..
.
and there were threads here on ATS that pointed out the favoritism for the Clinton cronies.