US oil reserves hit 40-year low as Iran war drains caverns, risking collapse
US oil reserves are so low, the caverns holding them could be damaged
The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve has dropped to its lowest level in 40 years amid the war with Iran, with experts warning that repeated rapid drawdowns could permanently damage the underground salt caverns that hold the crude. The reserve has fallen below 300 million barrels for the first time since the early 1980s, and the current release of 172 million barrels will leave it at about 243 million barrels. Petroleum engineering professor Siddharth Misra of Texas A&M University told CNBC that the system was not designed for so many cycles, leading to severe cavern deformation and increased risk of structural cave-in. The Department of Energy dismissed the concerns, stating that the caverns are always full and that the administration is responsibly managing the reserve.
Because the system was not designed for this many cycles, the repeated injection of water and extraction of oil have caused severe cavern deformation, accelerated the rate of massive salt falls from the ceilings, and significantly weakened the overall structural integrity of the aging reserve.
- jubilanti
Just going to leave this graph of reserves over time here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/US...
- Waterluvian
> The reserve was designed to handle five full drawdowns over its lifespan. Instead, it has undergone dozens of cycles over 40 years.
It was not designed for American politics. This feels like a failure of applying realistic, knowable expectations.
- raphinou
This is probably a naive question, but I'm wondering: isn't the usefulness of a reserve seriously diminished if using it prevents refilling it afterwards? What was the use case covered by this huge reserve if only a small part can be used before geopardising its future?
- sebazzz
So natural caverns - empty spaces in the Earth - are used to store oil, but they shouldn’t be drained because it damages them permanently. Can anyone explain why it is useful as storage then? It is like a battery you arent allowed to discharge past 30%.
- hnbad
Wasn't this known for a while? The problem is that simply agitating the liquid already causes immense wear because these are natural caves selected for their potential as long-term storage, not active sources.
Not to mention that draining them reduces the quality of the remaining oil (much like how you never want to feed an engine from the bottom of a diesel tank).
It's also my understanding that the problem is not just the reserves being drained, let alone drained so much, but also how rapidly they were drained because that again makes things worse.