Congress readies to sell off empty space in strategic petroleum reserve

[thackney]

Congress readies to sell off empty space in strategic petroleum reserve
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Congress-readies-to-sell-off-empty-space-in-13105304.php
July 26, 2018

What to do with a vast government complex of underground salt caverns that once held hundreds of millions of barrels of oil?

As Congress steadily sells off the oil contained within the Strategic Petroleum Reserve - residing 1,000 feet beneath the surface of coastal Texas and Louisiana - Democrats and Republicans are now exploring a concept that would have been inconceivable a decade ago: Allowing others to store oil in unused sections of the reserve.

Under a new bill sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ellis, and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, the government would make the more than four-decade old facility available to both the private sector and foreign governments, adding 200 million barrels of storage capacity at a time increasing volumes of crude are flowing to the Gulf Coast....

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Why would we accept the federal government using taypayer funded facilities to compete with private industry?

[Bigun]

Why not?

[Frank Cannon]

Wonder if they would let be build a string of rental townhouses down there.

[thackney]

Why not?

Really?  You want a federal government that competes with private industry?

[Bigun]

Really?  You want a federal government that competes with private industry?

Excellent point.  Perhaps a better idea would be to just sell off what they no longer have use for.

[thackney]

Excellent point.  Perhaps a better idea would be to just sell off what they no longer have use for.

Absolutely.  Not to mention, the SPR isn't set up like the salt domes in Mont Belvieu and many others.  They are not using brine ponds to use fully saturated salt water for displacement.

When they take oil out of the SPR, they pump in fresh/brackish water.  Each time that is done it eats away at the cavern walls.  That design is okay for long term storage, emergency use.  But when you frequently move in and out as a commercial venture will do, that is going to destroy the separation between caverns.  It isn't set up for that use.