US Lawmakers Push Clinton to Sell Stockpiled Oil -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000125/bs4.html

Congress is pushing Clinton to sell stockpiled oil meg Unregistered User (1/26/00 12:31:16 am) Reply Stategic Petro. Reserves are not that accessible -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I posted this as a (ps) on another question, but I thought I'd reiterate it here since it's about the SPR.

During Y2K, I read quite a few outstanding posts made my an oil insider to the Yourdon site. I assumed this person was an authentic "expert" and others confirmed that the poster certainly seemed to talk oil industry lingo knowledgably.

Anyway, in the posts I remember this person specifically saying that the SPR is NOT what everyone seems to think it is (stored oil for quick access in an emergency). In fact, this person claimed that it would take YEARS (not weeks, or even months) to pump out the reserves, prepare and refine them.

http://server5.ezboard.com/fdownstreamventurespetroleummarkets.html

-- boop (leafyspurge@hotmail.com), January 26, 2000

Answers

Heh, us quoting them quoting us?

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 26, 2000.

heh heh, us are them!

-- rocky (rknolls@no.spam), January 26, 2000.

I worked at the SPR for about 6 months back in the late 70's (in the Info Systems area). What I heard back then correlates with current suspicions. Apparently the quality of oil in much of the SPR is poor, mixed, and has a lot of Sulfur in it (Sour?). It is also VERY difficult to get the oil back out of the salt caves.I heard some talk that they might not even be able to get a lot of it back out. Most likely, things have not improved much since then.

...Joe

-- NazFlash (nazflash@northlink.com), January 26, 2000.

Oil was released from the SPR during the Gulf War. Some refiners didn't like the specs. It took a few weeks to get the auction set up and get the deals consumated and, of course, another 2 weeks or so for it to get through the refineries, but it worked.

Where it works even better is taking the wind out of the panic buying.

The real problem it can't address is the shortage of conversion refining capacity we're bumping up against. Just look at last night's API stats. Refining runs are down 6% from last year at this time (granted only a one week stat), demand is prob up 2%. The Venz Amuay Bay cracker has major probs. The SPR can't make up for the coming refining shortfall.

-- Downstreamer (downstream@bigfoot.com), January 26, 2000.

Downstreamer-

Any rumor of mergers yet? The seemingly infinite; On condition Y2K=Yes,Y2K=No ...being used in takeovers, acquisitions, and mergers should reshape the Big Picture in some interesting ways, ya think?

A global gobble, if you will. [g]

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), January 26, 2000.