Imagine, if you will, WW III and OPEC (and other enemies)cut off all oil supply to the US. How long before we starve our “emergency” resources?
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) currently has 695.9 million barrels of oil in inventory.
http://www.spr.doe.gov/dir/dir.html
Our OPEC imports have fallen to about 4 million barrels per day.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRIMXX2&f=M
This is close to the maximum withdraw capacity of 4.4 million barrels per day of the SPR.
http://www.fe.doe.gov/programs/reserves/spr/spr-facts.html
So... about 174 days supply. But before that would run dry, you would see some other significant changes on the world oil market. Could OPEC really afford to give up a $2.8 Billion a week for nearly half a year? Would they try to sell to others freeing up other sources, say from Russia, Brazil, etc that would allow us more imports from other sources on a short term basis?
In my opinion, OPEC could not survive the $70 Billion required to wait us out.
In addition, we currently have over 200 million barrels in commercial storage scattered around the nation, much already at refineries.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRSFUS1&f=M