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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

OPEC are a bit of a dead letter. Two of the key members (Iran and Saudi) are at war with each other!

If anything prices are being kept artificially _low_ by the US withdrawing from the strategic petroleum reserve, and similar (unquantified) actions being taken by the Chinese government. We'll have to see how the situation changes after the US midterms.

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The strategic petroleum reserve which is empty, and threatening to physically collapse as they withdraw the sludge below the 0% mark?

You mean at 50% drawdown? Easy on the hyperbole.

How much more do you think can be released before hitting the operational floor? Your comment implies you can go to 0%, which is not my understanding.

Well if you are sitting at 40-50% and you actually still get oil from a lot of different countries it isn't a dire situation at all. Its not like all of a sudden we aren't getting oil from a variety of other countries. Its more like a slow drain on reserves while other sources start producing. I would also wager that its just price suppression before midterms.

OP's comment was that we are at 0 and nothing left. I pointed out that they were being hyperbolic or that they don't understand the strategic reserve (or both).

No one said global oil supply is going to 0; everyone understands it's a global market. It seems like you're unaware that the practical limit of what's available in the SPR is not 0%. That's why I asked where you thought the limit was, because the implication of your comment was 0%. I'm genuinely curious how much you think is safely available. It's obvious that the whole point of the release is to reduce prices, but that's why it's telling that even as domestic gas prices have gone up by ~10% in the last month they've dropped the withdrawal to the lowest point since they started the drawdowns.

I was responding to the OPs comment that was needlessly hyperbolic. I don't think you are posting with good intentions or limited thought got put into it.

I doesn't matter where the operational band is - if at about 280 M barrels - they have a reasonable amount of runway before they start hitting hard technical barriers per OP comment especially with oil flowing into the country from other sources.

I've asked twice, in good faith, how much further you think the SPR can be drawn down and you've refused to answer both times. Still, in good faith, wondering what your answer is in case I'm missing something.

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