Following Wednesday’s news that millions of barrels of oil released from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves were shipped overseas to China, India, and Europe, it has been revealed that nearly one million barrels of oil were sent to a Chinese energy company in which President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, had a stake as recently as 2015.
On Wednesday, Reuters revealed that more than five million barrels of crude oil that were expected to be put into use in the US to bring down skyrocketing prices at the pump were instead sent to European nations, India, as well as China.In April, the Biden administration announced that 950,000 Strategic Petroleum Reserve barrels would be sold to Unipec, the trading arm of the China Petrochemical Corporation. Commonly known as Sinopec, this company is wholly owned by the Chinese government, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The sales of these barrels, as well as others as part of the sales of 30 million barrels in total, “will support American consumers and the global economy in response to Vladimir Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine,” the Department of Energy said in a statement, as well as “address the pain Americans are feeling at the pump as a result of Putin’s Price Hike and to help lower energy costs.”We were assured Biden was releasing this oil to America so it could be refined for gasoline to drive down prices at the pump. So right off the bat, they’re just lying to the American people,” Turner told the Washington Free Beacon. “What they’re saying they did and what they did are not remotely related.”
Turner noted that the decision to sell to Unipec highlights the Biden family’s “relationship with China.”
In 2015, a private equity firm cofounded by Hunter Biden, Bohai Harvest RST, previously owned a stake in the Sinopec Marketing valued at $1.7 million.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, “Sinopec went on to enter negotiations to purchase Gazprom in March, one month after the Biden administration sanctioned the Russian gas giant.”
In addition, Unipec has stated it would purchase “no more Russian oil going forward” once “shipments that have arrived in March and due to arrive in April” were fulfilled, but it was revealed that in May, the company “significantly increased the number of hired tankers to ship a key crude from eastern Russia,” according to Bloomberg.
Speaking with RealClearPolitics, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy defended the final destination of some of the barrels released from the Strategic Reserves, saying that energy markets are international, and that the department couldn’t dictate what happens within these markets.
“Oil is a commodity traded on the global market, and while the United States government does not control oil and gas companies, the commodity the industry sells or the market, the SPR remains a critical energy security tool to address global crude oil supply disruptions,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
They added that the emergency release from the Strategic Reserves had helped “keep our economy running and mitigate the pain Putin is causing at the pump.”
The spokesperson noted that domestic oil and gas companies “are eligible for sales and exchanges from the SPR and have benefited from the releases to date.” Recent reports have revealed that foreign companies benefit as well.
RealClearPolitics reported that “In the face of such criticism, administration officials continued to insist that they can’t control what private companies do, and the oil that went overseas appears to be a small fraction of the total released from the national reserve thus far.”
“Once oil is released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, current US law allows for companies that are registered to purchase it to then sell it on the market, including to adversaries like China,” Heritage Foundation energy analyst Jack Spencer told RealClearPolitics.
Spencer noted though that “Americans are absolutely justified in asking why these valuable reserves, ostensibly for use in US national emergencies or to advance US national security interests, are going to unfriendly countries.”
“Releasing oil from the SPR does not address the fundamental supply problems caused by Biden’s policies, and the market knows it. Similar to other gimmicks like suspension of the gas tax, it will have no sustainable market impact,” Spencer concluded.
California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna has stated that he does “not understand” why the Biden administration has refused to stop oil exports as Americans face record-high prices at the gas pump.
According to Khan, U.S. energy producers are exporting 3.44 million barrels of oil per day.
“I don’t understand why we’re allowing the oil to be exported to countries like China when we need it here in the United States,” Khan said.
There is an excellent analysis of the origins and purposes of the SPR put together by the Congressional Research Service here:
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: History, Perspectives, and Issues
April 3, 2006 – December 28, 2009
https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33341.html
According to the IEA article “United States’ legislation on oil security
Part of Oil Security Toolkit” on 31 July 2020, in the wake of the 1973-74 oil crisis, which us older Americans remember quite well, the United States (US) Congress enacted the Energy Supply and Environmental Coordination Act of 1974 (ESECA) and the more comprehensive Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA) with the specific aims to fulfil the US’s obligations under the International Energy Programme (IEP), to provide for the creation of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
There is where things get murky as to where that oil is to go.
However, the purpose of the IEA is to coordinate oil releases by all member countries, which include China but not India.
And if we go to a Reuters article titled “IEA countries to tap 60 mln barrels of oil on top of U.S. release” by Timothy Gardner and Noah Browning on April 6, 2022, we have as follows:
WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) – International Energy Agency states agreed to tap 60 million barrels of oil from storage, the director of the group said on Wednesday, on top of a 180 million-barrel release announced by Washington last week aimed at cooling prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The move by the U.S.-allied IEA countries, which represent 31 mostly industrialized countries but not Russia, would be their second coordinated release in a month and would be the fifth in the agency’s history to confront oil market outages.
The United States will match the 60 million-barrel draw tapped by the other IEA countries in its 180 million-barrel draw from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve announced in March.
The timing of when the additional 60 million barrels from non-U.S. IEA countries would come to market was not immediately clear. Birol said details on specific contributions would be made public soon.
In the last three releases coordinated by Washington and its IEA allies, the United States provided half or a little less than the total volume.
end quotes
So if it was to be a “coordinated release” among all IEA members, why would China need our oil when it was supposed to be releasing its own from its own SPR?
Which question takes us to a White House press release on March 1, 2022 titled “Statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Coordinated IEA Release to Support Global Energy Security,” as follows:
Today’s announcement is another example of partners around the world condemning Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine and working together to address the impact of President Putin’s war of choice.
end quote
It is actually Joe Biden’s war of choice, not Putin’s.
Getting back to Jen, she goes on as follows:
President Biden was clear from the beginning that all tools are on the table to protect American businesses and consumers, including from rising prices at the pump.
end quotes
So how does sending OUR oil to China do anything to “protect American businesses and consumers?”
Getting back to Jen:
After intensive around-the-clock coordination and consultation by President Biden, the Administration and our Allies and partners, the International Energy Agency (IEA) Member countries, supported by the European Commission, agreed to a collective release of an initial 60 million barrels of crude oil from our strategic petroleum reserves.
As part of this agreement, President Biden will authorize the Department of Energy to release 30 million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
IEA Member countries also agreed to continue monitoring markets and consider further releases as necessary.
We are prepared to use every tool available to us to limit disruption to global energy supply as a result of President Putin’s actions.
We will also continue our efforts to accelerate diversification of energy supplies away from Russia and to secure the world from Moscow’s weaponization of oil and gas.
end quotes
So make of that what you will, keeping in mind that everything we hear from this Biden administration in political bull****.
And there are still Morons who will vote for this Democrat Anti-American Party again. They are truly pathetic.
But Trump was impeached for saying mean things!
First, let’s get up to date on the SPR releases:
Reuters
“Fourteen firms to get oil from U.S. strategic reserve in latest sale”
By Reuters staff
July 11, 2022
WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) – The United States on Monday said 14 companies had been awarded contracts for the latest sale of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to ease oil prices boosted by reactions to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The administration said in late March it would release a record 1 million barrels of oil per day of oil for six months from the SPR, held in hollowed-out salt caverns on the coasts of Louisiana and Texas.
Despite the historic release, Western sanctions on Russia, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, after its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine have helped keep crude prices stubbornly above $100 a barrel.
The high prices are a risk to President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats in the November elections as they seek to maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
end quotes
So that article confirms what we all already know, that is that Joe Biden, whose approval in one liberal poll dropped below 30%, is releasing that oil in a vain attempt to save his failing presidency.
END OF QUOTE – REPEAT THE LINE!
So, looking at this as an engineer would look at it, are there ramifications and repercussions to Joe Biden removing 1 million barrels of oil per day of oil for six months from the SPR, which oil is held in hollowed-out salt caverns on the coasts of Louisiana and Texas?
First of all, how do you remove any oil from the SPR?
And that answer, according to Energy.gov, is as follows:
The fact that oil floats on water is the underlying mechanism used to move oil in and out of the SPR caverns.
To withdraw crude oil, fresh water is pumped into the bottom of a cavern.
The water displaces the crude oil to the surface.
After the oil is removed from the SPR caverns, pipelines send it to various terminals and refineries around the nation.
end quotes
But, hey, all you grade school children out there – doesn’t fresh water dissolve salt?
So by continually pumping in fresh water to remove oil, won’t that damage the salt caverns?
For that answer, let’s go to a technical article from AAPG titled “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – The Strategic Petroleum Reserve” in December 2016 by Barbara Kutchko, where we learn as follows:
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is facing significant challenges related to the storage and availability of its crude oil resources.
end quotes
Keep in mind that this is now six (6) years later.
Going back to that article, it continues as follows:
Approved for construction by the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), the storage sites were envisioned to be needed for 25 years and are subject to an estimated five drawdown cycles (Shages, 2014).
In retrospect, the design has not matched actual use, and this has led to degradation of the SPR and impacted its ability to perform its function.
end quotes
Again, that is six (6) years ago.
Going back to the article:
The SPR stores crude oil (either sweet or sour) in 62 underground salt caverns located at four different sites in Texas and Louisiana.
The official storage capacity is 727 million barrels, based on sonic measurements.
A 2010 study concluded there was a significant mismatch in design and use of the storage caverns.
Instead of the initial estimated five large drawdown cycles, a large number of small drawdowns occurred over the previous 20 years.
From 1996 through 2014, there were 14 instances of oil removals less than 10 million barrels.
These multiple drawdowns have caused cavern deformation, salt falls and other damage to the cavern integrity.
end quotes
That was six (6) years ago, and this is six (6) years later, and now we have what are in actuality massive drawdowns compared to the past, which means massive injections of fresh water into the salt caverns, which again takes us back to the article, to wit:
In addition, these underground salt caverns are shrinking due to tectonic stresses.
The cavern shrinkage (aka closure) is estimated to be approximately two million barrels per year – but may be significantly higher.
Salt is a unique geologic material with complex mechanical properties.
It is often modeled as a non-Newtonian fluid.
At high temperatures and pressures salt behaves like a plastic.
It will behave more like a liquid in the sense that it flows even under small deviatoric stresses.
Salt domes make a perfect storage medium in that they do not react with the oil and are self-healing.
The plastic behavior of salt will cause it to naturally close fractures or gaps and prevent any leakage.
However, salt domes also are under constant geologic pressure (i.e. salt creep) and these stresses are causing the caverns to shrink (Shages, 2014).
The SPR attempts to manage the shrinkage by leaving a bed of salt brine at the bottom of each cavern and by keeping their caverns under a pressure of approximately 800 psi (personal communication, SPR personnel).
Salt leaching offsets some of the shrinkage.
Crude oil is extracted from the cavern by injecting fresh water or under-saturated brine down one well and produced in a secondary well.
The injection causes, for example, 15 barrels (2.38 m3) of salt to be dissolved for every 100 barrels of oil removed from a cavern.
end quotes
FOCUS ON THAT, people – FIFTEEN BARRELS OF SALT ARE DISSOLVED FOR EVERY 100 BARRELS OF OIL REMOVED FROM A CAVERN.
So by removing a million barrels of oil a day for six months, which was never envisioned in the original design of the SPR, isn’t Joe Biden going to cause some serious damage to the salt caverns?
Let’s go back to the article and see:
The mismatch between original design and actual utilization of the SPR’s caverns has led to the development of significant negative impacts to cavern integrity, wellbore integrity and the ability to maintain optimal mission readiness.
One operational limitation is that whenever work is done to the cavern or well, the caverns must be depressurized.
Removing cavern pressure causes the rate of shrinkage to increase rapidly.
Thus, the repeated removal of small volumes of oil over the life of a cavern has led to serious consequences on the shape and integrity of the caverns:
Dissolution of salt during a drawdown always begins at bottom of cavern.
If cavern is only partially emptied,the shape of cavern will become distorted with a bulge at the bottom.
Gravity puts stress on the overhanging salt formation.
Massive falls can occur and damage hanging steel tubulars.
Cavern deformation and shrinkage is damaging well casings and cement.
end quotes
So, people, to save his failing presidency by removing a million gallons of oil a day and replacing it with water, which dissolves the salt, is this moronic, knee-jerking idiot Joe Biden going to seriously **** up the salt caverns that hold the oil in the SPR?
Stay tuned is all I can say.
Why the price of gas is falling and it is because Joe Biden has wrecked our economy:
Rigzone
“Oil Slips to Lowest Level Since February”
by Bloomberg | Julia Fanzeres and Alex Longley
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Oil pared losses after dropping to levels not seen since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as record US inflation intensifies fears of a recession.
Oil futures have been in decline since early June on escalating fears the US may be pushed into a recession.
“Crude is in free fall as demand data is softer and macro risk factors completely overwhelm the fundamentally tight physical market,” said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Management.
There were signs that high US gasoline prices are starting to take their toll on consumption.
US gasoline demand fell to the lowest level for this time of year since 1996, even slipping below the same week in 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Joe Biden is telling us how much he did for us by reducing the price of a gallon of gasoline, thereby putting more money in our pockets, thanks to him.
Yesterday, I paid $4.95 a gallon for gas that cost me $5.25 the previous fill-up.
So I am still paying essentially five dollars a gallon, regardless of how Joe Biden tries to spin things, and in the meantime, to make matters even worse than Joe had made them to date, the Democrats want to hand dictatorial powers to Joe Biden to declare a “climate emergency,” as we see in this Rigzone story titled “Democrats Urging Biden to Declare Climate Emergency” by Bloomberg and Ari Natter on July 19, 2022, to wit:
Senate Democrats are urging the White House to declare a “climate emergency” while dismissing any optimism that a climate change package could be moved swiftly through Congress in September.
“The potential to enact the legislation is dead,” Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday evening.
“This then frees up the president to use the full powers of the executive branch.”
“And those full powers certainly include a climate emergency.”
Such a move could give President Joe Biden broad executive authority to redirect funds for clean energy projects or restrict offshore oil drilling.
The president could even use the power to curtail the movement of fossil fuels on pipelines, trains, and ships.
end quotes
And yes, people, there is exactly what we need – our future placed arbitrarily and unilaterally into the hands of a senile, rug-chewing madman with no foresight, insight or any idea as to what it is he is doing.
It would be just like Joe Biden to flex his massive muscles as president and show us how powerful he is by restricting offshore oil drilling in the United States and curtailing the movement of fossil fuels on pipelines, trains, and ships.
Funk China Joe, Kamal-Toe and each and every one of you that voted for them.
REUTERS
“U.S. crude in SPR falls to lowest since May 1985”
By Reuters Staff
AUGUST 1, 2022
HOUSTON, Aug 1 (Reuters) – U.S. crude inventory in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell by 4.6 million barrels in the week to July 29, according to data from the Department of Energy.
Stockpiles in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell to 469.9 million barrels, according to the data, the lowest since May 1985.
The 4.6 draw million draw was the smallest draw since the end of April.
All the barrels released into the market in the week were sour crude oil.
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Timothy Gardner in Washington D.C.)
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-oil … SL4N2ZD36W
Talk about the Biden administration being incredibly shortsighted, here is another example of selling out tomarrow for political expediency today, and it also has to be kept in mind that to remove oil from the SPR, FRESH WATER (Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids) has to be pumped in, so to remove a million gallons of oil, it has to be displaced with a million gallons of FRESH WATER, which FRESH WATER will then begin to dissolve the salt formation that forms the storage for the SPR, thus damaging the SPR as was discussed above in @ JULY 12, 2022 AT 9:06 PM, where we learned that crude oil is extracted from the cavern by injecting fresh water or under-saturated brine down one well and produced in a secondary well, which injection causes, for example, 15 barrels (2.38 m3) of salt to be dissolved for every 100 barrels of oil removed from a cavern, to wit:
The Daily Caller
“‘Major Problems Down The Road’: Biden Drains Petroleum Reserves Of Crucial Type Of Crude”
Jack McEvoy
2 August 2022
President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy (DOE) is emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) of a crucial kind of oil that domestic refiners can easily process, which could cause oil prices to skyrocket, experts told the DCNF.
American refiners prefer medium-sour crude as they can easily process it into gasoline and other fuel products, according to Bloomberg.
The DOE released 4.6 million barrels of medium-sour crude oil from the SPR in late July, meaning that the reserve now has more light-sweet crude than sour — 235 million barrels to 234.9 million — which could raise fuel costs, experts say.
“It is going to cause major problems down the road,” Tracy Shuchart, a partner at Intelligence Quarterly, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Domestic refiners lack the ability to refine light-sweet crude, a different type of oil that has a much lower density and sulfur content, so sweet crude has to be refined overseas, according to Marketplace.
“As they deplete our stores, refineries will have to become dependent on those sources or make costly changes to their operations,” Institute for Energy Research Senior Vice President Dan Kish told the DCNF.
“Those changes also take a long time, idling U.S. capacity when they’re already running all-out,” he said.
Russia, the Middle East and Venezuela produce most of the world’s supply of medium-sour crude, according to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
Russian sour crude exports into the U.S. are currently sparse due to sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, exacerbating the ongoing energy crisis as other suppliers of sour crude have been unable to make up for the loss of Russian supplies.
Biden in March stated that he would release 1 million barrels per day over six months from the SPR to combat high gas prices caused by “Putin’s price hike.”
“The Biden Administration continues to ‘salt the earth’ to kill off any future for conventional energy, even as prices have skyrocketed,” Kish said.
The Biden Crime Family is just as corrupt as The Catholic Church and that is just about as corrupt as any organization can be.