by DantesPeak » Wed 18 Jun 2008, 21:38:23
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Drifter', '
')Regarding MOL, wasn't it mentioned here several times before that the MOL in the US was around 285 million barrels before gasoline shortages started showing up in the national system?
Yes, we would see local and then regional shortages before we hit the national MOLs. At the point national MOLs are reached, chaos develops and the entire distribution system becomes unstable.
Here are the official MOLs, which probably understate the actual MOLs due to increased suburbanization, more storage tanks, and more pipelines since the last report was issued.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')heck out this very long post I made on May 18, 2007 for the official US government figures on MOLs. It took me hours of research through obscure records to find. More details and further discussion at link below.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')’ve conducted some research on what the official US government guidelines on minimum operating levels of oil and gasoline are.
Apparently since 2004 the levels are 270 million barrels for oil and 185 million barrels for gasoline, according to a National Petroleum Council study on US petroleum inventory levels and refinery operations issued December 1, 2004 [note the study reaffirmed a prior gasoline inventory guideline level of 185 million barrels].
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s discussed in the 1998 NPC inventory study, U.S. petroleum inventories respond to both market and infrastructure changes in the supply system. A significant part of petroleum inventory is required to operate the product and crude supply systems and is not readily available to meet demand. In the 1998 study, the NPC redefined these inventories as “lower operational inventory” (LOI). The NPC defined LOI as the lower end of the demonstrated operating inventory range updated for known and definable changes in the petroleum delivery system. The LOI was introduced in the 1998 study in order to move away from the concept that there is some definable inventory level where supply system reliability becomes of greater concern. While generally not used by industry, the NPC recognizes LOI as a gauge to help the government assess current inventory levels.
Based on the observed crude oil inventory trends, the NPC concludes that the crude oil LOI should be a range of 260 to 270 million barrels, compared to the 1998 study conclusion of 270 million barrels. Since the 1998 study, crude oil inventory has been as low as 260 million barrels with no impact on crude oil supply to U.S. refineries. However, in September 2004, Hurricane Ivan had a significant impact on offshore oil platforms, pipeline movements, and oil imports. This created localized supply disruptions at a few refineries even though crude oil inventories were slightly above 270 million barrels. This reinforces the concept that the LOI is only one indicator of adequacy of supply and therefore a crude oil LOI range is recommended, rather than a single value, to better represent the degree of accuracy associated with the LOI methodology.
No change is appropriate at this time in the LOIs for gasoline or distillate fuel oil. Given the short time frame of this study, the potential impact of regulatory changes in diesel sulfur content on distillate inventory was not studied.