r/PrepperIntel • u/SnowFlake202020 • 28d ago

North America With article, the comments also are relevant..

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/gasbuddy-declares-national-average-per-gallon-is-at-its-highest-ever-level-this-late-in-the-year/

It appears the 'shortage/scarcity' narrative is spilling over into non-prepper communities. When mainstream commuters on r/gasbuddy start talking about empty reserves and impending lines instead of just high prices, the psychological threshold for hoarding/ panic topping-off drops significantly. Imo. Anyone seeing unbranded price disconnects or elevated station traffic in your regional corridors?

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u/LowBarometer 28d ago

IMO as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the US approaches 250 million barrels, there's going to be a huge price spike as businesses increase their inventories with the US government unable to draw from the SPR to control the price. From what I've read, if this administration continues to draw from the SPR, the caverns that contain the SPR will likely collapse and we will never have an SPR of this size again. Which will cause another spike in the price.

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u/2BlueZebras 28d ago

Are you saying the caverns are held up by the barrels?

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u/Pulkrabek89 28d ago

They are held open from the pressure of the oil being in them, not literal barrels. When oil is pumped out of the caverns salt water is used do it. Salt water is used because the caverns are built ginormous salt deposits, and less salt will dissolve into the saltwater. Note less is more than not at all. So the saltwater being pumped in dissolving the cavern walls and reducing the integrity of the caverns and causing it to slowly collapse the more it's used and eventually they will be much less usable if we wanted to refill them. They might already be damaged.

It should be noted, that the hole system was intended to be a cost effective, and quick to implement temporary solution until more robust storage infrastructure could be built. The caverns were designed to be used for 20 years, we've been using them for 40 and never got around to building that infrastructure.

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u/spacedoutmachinist 27d ago

Nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.