alt Hacker NewsThough note that, for some reason, the last 250M barrels are not physically extractable from the SPR, and the red line has dropped to 284M.
Replies
marcosdumay • today at 4:25 AM
Not exactly "not physically extractable", but extractable only slowly, probably contaminated by water, in a way that is very expensive to refine.
People jump over the details in normal times, but then times get abnormal and impossible things start to happen.
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stackghost • today at 5:08 AM
The red line is a percentage. Axis on the right.
unethical_ban • today at 3:57 AM
Source on that? Not doubting, just curious. If true that explains the Y axis starting there.
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The "for some reason" is that the caverns the oil is stored in are expected to become geologically unstable if they are emptied below a certain threshold. Extract below the 250 mark, and run the risk that they will collapse and cannot be refilled.