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Originally Posted by Brian Penning:
3.25 yesterday and gues what you can blame the food for fuel and US policy for most of our problems. Whats new?

It is not just the food for fuel program, but there are full tank farms that are sitting on the gasoline and diesel, under federal orders to hold the fuel for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Most of the reserves is in crude oil stored in salt caves, some is refined and stored in tank farms around the Nation. Something that I find funny is after the" energy crisis" back in 1970's the US Congress, under the request of the President, started the SPR as a means of National Security so we would not be harmed by another embargo, long-term oil supply disruptions or dramatic increase in price of crude oil. Oh ya, it was not the energy crisis leading to the gas shortage of 1979, during Pres. Carter's term. It was the energy crisis of 1973-74, under Pres. Nixon when the OPEC embargo happened. Doesn't look like it is working to me.

Currently the SPR holds 724 million barrels or approximately 34 days at current consumption levels.  But thanks to government screwups, 60% of that oil is what is referred to as "sour crude oil" having very high sulpher content. Sour crude is usually processed into heavy oil such as diesel and fuel oil rather than gasoline. Some is so "sour" that it is an actual hazard to the health of the oil workers. So the process of refining sour crude to gasoline, let alone putting in place the heath precautions required to refine, is so complex and expensive that some of our refineries have refused to even try to refine it.