Biden just sold the National Helium Reserve…

We did and always have.. And along came the "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum"

Rut-roe, and ventilators were also part of that stockpile ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Well they already make most of our medicines, so they should also dictate who will need MRI's too.. In the DNC world, there is God and then there is CHINA

 

Well they gotsta keep their Ukrainian money funneling plugs paid up

 

Who says we need to go all the way back up to 650? what is it about the year 2020's levels that is a disable amount for our reserves?

We were at 695 back in 2016, and 725 back in 2011, we never went back up to those levels again because we did not need to. Even when demand hit its lowest point in 2020, the Department of Energy said they didn't need any more than 30 million barrels refilled, and that was back when they were anticipating the highest demand recovery since WWII. Where things are going now, we're likely going to be looking to sell off our reserves completely some time after 2030, as 2030 is when global demand is expected to hit its all time peak. After that it's expected to decline permanently

Are we looking to manage our reserves in a way that is the most cost effective in dealing with the next market offset, or are we just going for higher amounts of oil in our reserves just for the sake of having a higher number?

 

Right off the top my head is, the U.S. uses alot of oil

 

Once again, the reserves were created as a part of an international agreement so we can maintain meeting our trade obligations when there's a sudden disruption in the market. The reserves are not the primary sources of our oil usage at home, nor are they our primary exports. The private sector is our primary source, and we only use our reserves when the private sector is having issues keeping up with market demand

Where we are now, the private sector is having no issues meeting demand, we remain a net exporter of oil, our production is at an all time high, and global demand is expected to hit its all time peak in 2030, and permanently decline after that. Tell me again why we should go higher than our levels in 2020, which was back when we were anticipating the highest demand recovery since WWII?

 

Sure, sure

Like I said, "a wing and a prayer"

 

I am truly impressed with PF. Who knew we had so many Heliologists in our midsts?

Quick show of hands: the here JUST discovered that there was such a thing as the Helium Reserve?

Best quote I have found while looking into the Helium debate:

"We may conceivably in the future need ermine pelts and Grand Marnier," said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union in 1993. "That doesn't mean the Federal Government needs to be in charge of stockpiling them."


Another good one:
"It's an affront to the free enterprise system," said Representative C. Christopher Cox, a Republican from Orange County, Calif., who has emerged as the chief Congressional critic of the reserve. "It's a hoary example of socialism, of state-run industry, at a time when the whole world has rejected socialism."

30 years that conservatives and small government proponents have been trying to get the government out of the Helium racket. Biden was able to get it done!!!! Shouldn't you guys be excited?

 

So Biden sold off the helium reserves?

Does that mean his voice will improve?

 

I'm curious what part of what you just posted you believe contradicts what I just shared with you. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve were created as a part of an international agreement known as the International Energy Agency (IEA), which currently has over 30 members. You see, it's an international agreement meant to prevent countries from having to cut off their exports and focus on producing energy domestically during periods when their is a sudden disruption in the global market, thus mitigating a ripple effect in the energy market

As for the oil specifically in the US's reserves, that is oil owned by the US federal government, it is not a primary source for the US energy market, nor is it a primary source for the US's energy exports in the global market. Again, the private sector is our primary source for that, the purpose of the reserves is to mitigate when there is a sudden disruption in the market, so we can maintain our trade obligations with the other IEA members

 

Your entire argument is contrary to fact, the SPR is at 350 million barrels today. HALF of what it was in 2020 simply to con Americans in to believing old stinkys policies didn't effect fuel prices and inflation

THAT IS ALL

 

I literally never said anything to contradict that there are over 350 million barrels in the reserves today (it's little bit higher than 355 today), but you are wrong, it's not half of 2020's levels. Saying we cut our reserves in half would suggest that we had over 700 million barrels in our reserves, which hasn't been the case since 2011. In all likelihood, we're probably never going fill the reserves to what their levels were in 2020, we've been gradually decreasing the capacity and overall levels we refill our reserves since the early 2000s.

Once global demand hits its all time peak, which is expected to happen in about 6 years, there will likely be more calls to sell off the reserves to the private sector completely.

 

Now you're reduced to rounding errors.

Still a significant amount to replace in crisis when the U.S. uses

I let you do the math..

Then there is the military to consider in a crisis..

But considering there are no conflicts and the U.S. is more loved then other time in history, We'll just ignore that last part ;(

 

No I am not, because we are not in the year 2023, we are in the year 2024, and the reported numbers for our reserves level as of the first week of January 2024 is 355 million barrels, with more added since then that has not yet been reported.

To say the amount already sold is a significant amount, but the amount that remains is not a significant is a rational inconsistency. Furthermore, we are not likely to refill our reserves all the way to what they were in 2020. Even when we were in lockdown and demand was at it's lowest, the Department of Energy did not request any more than 30 million barrels to be refilled, which wouldn't even put us back up to what our levels were in 2017, not to mention the 700 million plus we had in 2011. Again, we have been gradually decreasing the amount we refill since the early 2000s.

Once again, you seem to not understand that our domestics use of fuel is dependent on the private sector, and not our reserves. The same is true for our military, the US military primarily gets its fuel from the private sector through government contracts... again, we only use our reserves when the private sector is unable to keep up with demand. The private sector is not

 

Lmao, show me

 

"The ending stocks of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reverse (SPR) in the United States amounted to around 355 million barrels in the first week of January 2024"

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1344466/monthly-ending-stocks-crude-oil-us/#:~:text=The ending stocks of crude,from sanctions on Russian oil.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/com...s-oil-strategic-petroleum-reserve-2024-01-19/

 

Maybe Biden's administration thinks that once we go to war with China and Russia, we can just take it all back away from them.

 

OH MY, how could I'd been so OFF

 

Because you're posting a reported number from 2023. The latest reported amount for the first week of January 2024 was 355 million barrels (354.99 to be exact). However, on the 19th of January it was announced another purchase to add more to our reserves had been made. The Department of Energy is likely to continue to request more be added later, but it is unlikely they will request to refill our reserves to what they were before the pandemic.

 

I found Feb 2024, it's up a tad nothing to get excited about. Get back to me were dealing with more than rounding numbers..

https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_e...serve#:~:text=Basic Info,371.58M one year ago.

 

I didn't round the numbers, I said it was a little bit more than 355 today, and I was basing that on the fact that we were at 354.99 at the beginning of January, with more added since then. There was nothing inaccurate about what I posted, the reserves are indeed a little bit higher than 355 today, with more being added as the year progresses

 

Helium is used for a lot of high tech processes. High vacuum systems use helium to find leaks. Cryogenic high vacuum pumps use it the same way that freon is used in home refridgeration units except when you use He, you can get the temperature down to 9k or so and is used to trap gasses. Helium is great for fast cooling as it is a good conductor of heat. Liquid helium does a lot of weird stuff and basically ignores gravity. MRIs use liquid helium to cool superconductors. Seeing this stuff litterally go up in thin air via a child's balloon just makes me sick. It's really the only non-recoverable element on Earth as it just goes out into space.

 

Yup. You were right, should be full in a couple months..

 

FYI, the reserves haven't come close to being filled to max capacity since 2011

 

So enough reserves for the Department of Defense to last three years even if all US oil production went to zero. What circumstances would lead to US oil production dropping to zero? I think you will be ok