Posted on 09/08/2008 10:46:21 AM PDT by thackney
The U.S. Department of Energy said it is honoring a request from the Marathon Petroleum Co. for 250,000 barrels of oil from the nation's petroleum reserve.
The company said it needs the oil to meet its refinery needs in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. A similar request issued last week by the Citgo Petroleum Corp. was withdrawn when Louisiana's Calcaseiu Channel was reopened following the passage of Gustav.
Energy Department officials said the 250,000 barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve was delivered Monday to Marathon refineries along the Capline pipeline system.
See also: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/08/business/NA-US-Oil-Request.php
Imagine if we had drained the reserve months ago to subsidize gas prices?
Exactly. Having oil in the SPR has a stabilizing effect on prices and speculation just because it is capable to deliver oil IF needed.
Using it once in a while for this purpose confirms the ability to deliver in a timely fashion.
This is standard practice.
As always I defer to your expertise and am glad you concur with my thinking. Thanks for the feedback.
Meanwhile, the Dems have cut off oil from being added to the SPR. Presumably, that includes replenishment of oil needed in cases such as this.
Maybe they're hoping that hurricane season drains the reserve dry. Then the cold weather arrives...
Yes, although not common, these types of releases from the SPR demonstrate the intended use:
To provide oil for America in times of interrupted supply.
If the state owned Venezuelan oil company, CITGO wants oil from the strategic US petroleum, Hugo Chavez needs to get on his knees and ask for it.
Wasn’t too long ago that Hugo was bragging that he was going to stop shipping oil to the US and send it to his Communist Chinese friends instead.
Incidentally, still waiting for my free light bulb.
But if a refinery in America has a supply interrupted, I think the refinery should be eligible for purchases/exchanges from the SPR under the same conditions as other refineries, providing the products from the refinery are not for export.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.