About 345 million barrels in inventory, with another 15 million in pipeline and ships.
We use a but over 20 million barrels per day.
The Failure made that number up.

how really and truly they and their ilk have fucked this country?

I don't mean brain-dead MAGAT holdouts, or those too busy playing the stock market (and winning, for now) to give a fuck about mid- and long-term consequences. I mean people who have come, or are coming, to their senses about the true consequences of this POS being elected to the US Presidency.

Just wondering if there is a reasonable sized current of remorse out there yet. But sure people will rationalize their reasons for not voting for Kamala. But maybe some are starting to realize that "she would not have been this bad".* At worst her actions would have been contained to a "normal" range around where most voters are anyway, with some things many disliked but NOT disastrous on the Trump scale.


* n.b. Of course I think Kamala would have been good, if not great. (we'll never know which). Trying to speak from the POV of someone who couldn't bring themselves to vote for her.

In the most general sense, the reserves are typically built up when world oil prices are low, and depleted when world oil prices are high. If the strategic reserve were to become empty, it would be reflective of world oil prices having been high for a protracted period of time. And the longer that condition continues, the less "cushion" there is in terms of being able to protect consumers and industry from large, sudden price shocks.

Put another way, The USA can always "buy more, if it's willing to pay", so the condition of the reserve being empty is not, in and of itself, some particularly important inflection point. OTOH, the reasons it became depleted are reflective of some rather important metrics.

I believe we will really see an overhang of oil in 2027 or whenever this is fully resolved. We are being set up for an oversupply of oil once the straits are open and currently oil is tight. It’s not short and readily available.

There is 412 million barrels in our reserves last week. We are drawing 8 million barrels a week. We have a long way to go.

Brent futures are up on the latest news about Iran, but still at $80. Readily available Brent spot is in line a slightly higher. Oil is readily available.
China has reserves to last easily through 2026.

If oil was truly short, you would see it in the forward pricing curves or spot buys of traded oil. Those numbers have steadily decreased the last weeks.