The stability of the United States economy is partially dependent on a general stability in oil prices. While the price of a barrel of crude oil may rise or fall throughout the year, this fluctuation does not endanger the economy. What would present a danger however, is if the steady supply of oil that companies such as Triple Diamond Energy Corp. provide were to suddenly stop due to political or natural forces.
The sudden shift in supply and demand would send energy prices soaring, and millions of people who depend on oil products to fuel their vehicles and heat their homes would be turned away as suppliers’ stores were tapped out. The United States received a taste of that in the 1970s when an oil embargo cut off the supply chain, and the resulting “energy crisis” was felt across the nation.
How The United States Is Protecting Itself Now
After the energy crisis, the government created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an underground storehouse housing nearly 600 million barrels of unrefined crude oil. Buried in salt caverns down by the Gulf of Mexico, this emergency supply is the country’s insurance policy against another energy crisis ever reoccurring in the future. Every year the government purchases additional supplies from energy companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corp. to increase the total supply.
And that supply is a safety net against the market-rocking power of oil shortages or unmanageable short-term spikes in the price of crude oil. When needed, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can be accessed to help keep oil prices stable and prevent shortages in fuel and heating oil. The caverns have a capacity of almost seven hundred million barrels, and are conveniently located near refineries to help get oil to market quickly if the need ever arises.
In fact, President Clinton signed a deal in 2000 that pulled as much as thirty million barrels out for a short-term attempt to stabilize oil supplies during the winter. Thirty million barrels may sound like a lot, but when you consider that Americans use almost twenty million barrels of petroleum every day, thirty million barrels seems dangerously low.
Triple Diamond Energy Corp. And Others May Answer The Call
At the rate our country consumes oil, over a billion barrels of oil would be necessary to create a comfortable 60-day window of protection against the effects of an energy crisis. With current reserves hovering around half that number, the United States government will have to put plenty of effort into sourcing the additional oil necessary to protect ourselves from the dangerous economic effects of an unforeseen supply chain interruption.
To accomplish this feat over the next decade and beyond, the United States government continues to earmark money for new crude oil acquisitions, it will be up to companies such as Triple Diamond Energy Corp and others to meet the needs of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.