Texbuz

Much Ado about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The SPR Program commenced due to the threat of the Russians during the cold war. Not the current problem of competition for a diminishing supply world wide for crude oil. It was planned and put into operation on a FAST TRACK concept.

Salt domes were well known suitable structures for storage and several voids in the salt domes existed enabling fast action for storage and close to the Gulf Coast refiniers as well as pipelines serving the Gulf Coast and Mid-Continent regions as well as Gulf Coast import terminals. The SPR Program was conceived in the interest of National Security due to extensive saber rattling.

Now that the Cold War is a distant memory the SPR Program is still a vital assest as now potential interruptions will be due to the inability to provide an uninterrupted supply due to the emergiing markets world wide and the diminishing supply of oil for the volume of oil that our economy requires under our current patterns of useage. The inventory concepts in the capitalist society is to be "Just in Time" and that is now often about 15-20 days.

The problem with expanding the SPR Program based on the Gulf Coast Salt Domes is short sighted. The use of hard rock storage facilities closer to the Mid-Continent Refineries is vital as the pipeline capacity to the Mid-continent is historically inadequate in times of short supply.

There are no crude oil pipelines serving the East Coast refineries from domestic crude oil supplies. All crude oil serving the east coast refiners comes in by ocean going tankers.

Current Salt Dome Storage facilities requires the use of fresh water is remove the oil from the salt caverns and in the process the salt caverns are enlarged and eventually will collaspe. To avoid the collaspe the current design provides for only four withdrawals. Not a long term concept that we now are faced with.

The SPR design and location of storage concentrated on the Gulf Coast during the Cold War short term potential problem full filled a potential threat but inadequate for a program that is now needed to provide back-up for a world wide increase in demand and a diminishing supply of crude oil. That will last for decades until massive energy alternatives are conceived and put into operation

Therefore hard rock caverans located near the east and west coast refineries is a must. Besides the fact that a one billion barrel reseserve for the Gulf Coast refineries and zero for the w
West and East Coast is not in the national interest.

Diversification is a basic guideline.