Search The Oil Drum with Google
Recently on TOD:World
TOD:Local
- Home Buyers Demand Short Commutes, Efficient Homes (with Backyards, Parking, lots of Square Feet)
- Streets: Utilitarian Corridors or Livable Public Space
- Summer Streets a Success!
TOD:Europe
- IEA WEO 2008 - Fossil Fuel Ultimates and CO2 Emissions Scenarios
- The IEA WEO 2008: Will coal usage be phased out?
- Oilwatch Monthly - November 2008
TOD:Canada
- The Round-Up: October 24, 2008
- Compressed Air Energy Storage - How viable is it?
- Oil Megaproject Update (July 2008)
TOD:ANZ
Blogroll
Energy Sites
- The Coming Global Oil Crisis
- Die Off
- Dry Dipstick
- Energy Bulletin
- From the Wilderness
- Life After the Oil Crash
- Peak Oil Crisis
- Peak Oil News and Message Boards
- Powerswitch
- Rigzone
- Matthew Simmons
- Wolf at the Door
Environment & Sustainability Sites
- The Daily Green
- EcoGeek
- Eco Street
- Green Car Congress
- Green Options
- green.alltop.com
- Gristmill
- RealClimate
- Sustainablog
- Treehugger
- WorldChanging
Blogs
- The Big Picture
- Casaubon's Book
- Cleantech Blog
- Clusterf
k Nation (Jim Kunstler) - The Cost of Energy
- David Strahan
- The Energy Blog
- Entropy Production
- European Tribune
- GraphOilology
- jeffvail.net
- Mobjectivist
- Peak Energy (Australia)
- Peak Energy (USA)
- R-Squared
- Resource Insights
Finance & Economics Blogs
- Calculated Risk
- Ecological Economics
- Econbrowser
- Environmental Economics
- Infectious Greed
- The Mess That Greenspan Made
- Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Organizations
“Data always beats theories. 'Look at data three times and then come to a conclusion,' versus 'coming to a conclusion and searching for
some data.' The former will win every time.”
—Matthew Simmons, ASPO-USA conference, Boston, MA, October 26, 2006
User login
Contact
- Content: editors at theoildrum dot com
- Tech support: support at theoildrum dot com
Personnel
- Editors: Prof. Goose, Heading Out, Stuart Staniford, Nate Hagens
- DrumBeat Editor: Leanan
- Contributors: ace, Engineer-Poet, Gail the Actuary, jeffvail, JoulesBurn, Khebab, Robert Rapier
- TOD:Local: Glenn
- TOD:Europe: Chris Vernon, Euan Mearns, Francois Cellier, Jerome a Paris, Luís de Sousa, Rembrandt, Rune Likvern, Ugo Bardi
- TOD:Canada: benk, Libelle
- TOD:ANZ: Big Gav, Phil Hart, aeldric
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
GAIA Host Collective
Everyone seems kinda calm about not having gasoline. On a side not, I saw my first Valero gas station close in the KC metro area which surprised me since Valero specializes in refining sour crudes. I would think they would be doing the best in a sour crude world.
I see more and more gas stations closing around the metro. It's not a huge rush to close down, but one by one their numbers are diminishing.
Where you used to have two different stations across from each other, I'm starting to see only one. I have mentioned before that many BP stations had closed around the metro which does not surprise me since they are usually several cents more than the other stations.
A strange thought just occurred to me after reading your post and looking back at the lead comment with link to gas stations running out of gas...Do gas stations going out of business increase, decrease, or change the MOL? My first thought is that the MOL would be decreased by a tiny amount as you can't run a holding tank down to zero (or, it's uncouth to). So consolidating stations would seem to lower MOL. But more importantly, it will decrease storage capacity and increase the reliance on JIT fuel delivery, causing a decrease in resiliency in the system. i.e. since there is now only one station, with it's normal fuel supply, there is no other station to go to when the first station runs out.
I agree, I think that fewer gas stations will reduce the MOL by a small amount. This will be true up until we reach the point where it is actually hard to find a gas station. Then, if people have to go out of their way to get gas, our situation will be worse. We're nowhere close to that yet. At least here in Houston, it seems that there is a gas station on every block. Often, multiple gas stations are side by side or across the street, and most convenience stores sell gas as well.
You've made a reasonable argument but as we've often learned, reasonable arguments are often contradicted by fact. Want to do everyone some good deed? See if you can validate your argument from actual data. It's a good argument but basing conclusions from it is premature until we can validate it. Good luck!
Ghawar Is Dying
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. - Dr. Albert Bartlett
I think the oil shocks from the 70s provide some good data. Gas station closings and "out of gas" signs, coupled with rising gas prices, induce panic buying and hoarding, drawing down stocks faster, increasing the likelihood of dipping below the MOL.
Well, where is the data? Just because certain events occurred doesn't mean they were related unless we can show that. I'd love to see some correlation between these factors that looks reasonable so where is it?
Ghawar Is Dying
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. - Dr. Albert Bartlett
This is terrible: what is MOL? I'm hoping, hoping, hoping it's not too obvious.
You're better than me. I was afraid to ask.
Minimum Operating Level. The oil products (gasoline, etc.) required to keep the system operating. Pipelines full, barges of gasoline in transit from refinery to the filling station nearest you, quarter full tanks at the deport nearest you to fill up the gasoline tankers.
I THINK it also includes gasoline at the corner filling station as well (it should).
The minimum inventory required to prevent spot shortages.
Best Hopes for Spot Shortages and High Prices (except at harvest time),
Alan
Minimum Operating Level of the Distribution pipelines. It goes in one end, they take it out at the other. But the pipe has to be full to work. Last figure I saw was 185 million barrels. That's what's in the pipeline you can't take out. The minimum amount necessary to keep the fuel flowing through the pipeline. In other words, if you have 195 million barrels, you can only take out 10 million barrels.
How our distribution pipelines work.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/ulsd/pdf/appendix_c.pdf