China accumulated huge oil reserves before the war in Iran

The part I really don't understand is why did DJT not fill the reserve before declaring war? I would think slowly and with a level of stealth fill it to the brim.

Because it collapses. The SPR is not a normal storage system, but rather a series of salt dome storage fields. When a significant portion of the reserve is withdrawn. The roofs collapse, reducing the capacity and requiring remediation before it can be refilled fully again.

wait so if you decrease demand you impact price?? whaaaaat??? nawwwww demand and supply have nothing to do with each other, duh! its vibes yo, NFTsssssssss/crypto etc!!!!

Seems simple enough. Why didn't the stable genius just do that?

Same reason the Heer didn't need Winter uniforms in Operation Barbarossa--the war was going to over by October, and anybody who dissented from that conclusion was a "defeatist."

They were then going to swing over to Cuba.

3 day special military operation. It'll be quick, don't even need to go to congress.

Trump has learned so much from his friend Putin! Here he is following the 3-day-Ukraine-war playbook.

Its not just that he had the choice - filling up the reserves were part of his election promise

Wouldn't be surprised if China doubled down on filling the tanks while Trump was busy getting his navy in place. Banking on the moron in chief demonstrating why he's the moron in chief seems a solid bet.

Ironically Trump spent much of the election whining about Biden depleting the reserve by releasing half of it in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine when energy prices spiked to keep prices low for Americans until energy markets normalized. He kept saying refilling the strategic reserve would be one of the first things he would do. And then never did it, despite rock bottom oil prices the entire first year of his second term.

Pretty sure that was sarcasm.

I think Russia's official name is now China Presents: Russia

You think it’s possible that they infiltrated Hegseth’s Facebook marketplace strategic planning group?

Probably they were part of a signal chat !

While true, its use of oil has also increased over the same period. They are just using more of everything, not cutting their dependence.

Yeah because we are a world supplier of oil China isn’t.

Yeah it's a recurring annoying thing that people repeat that the US isn't prepared with oil.

That doesnt matter now becuse the US is the world leader in oil producer

Sure it is, but it was like 1/3 full when he started this war.

> Refineries run on a mix of crude oils in order to run efficiently and maximize outputs. Nearly 70% of U.S. refining capacity runs most efficiently with heavier crude. That is why 90% of crude oil imports into the United States are heavier than U.S.-produced shale crude. https://www.afpm.org/newsroom/blog/whats-difference-between-heavy-and-light-crude-oils-and-why-do-american-refineries > The Middle East Gulf was source for 8% of 2025 U.S. crude oil imports... > In 2025, the United States imported an average of 490,000 barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil from the Middle East Gulf region—Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Crude oil imports from the region are primarily medium sour grades of crude oil and flow mainly into the West Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67407 > In 2023, the United States consumed an average of about 20.25 million barrels of petroleum per day, or a total of about 7.39 billion barrels of petroleum. https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=33&t=6

Because it was very c**** before, and an attack on Iran was certain to make prices skyrocket. Even though the US is a net exporter, it isn't immune to the effects of supply and demand for a global product. Instead of concentrating profits to oil companies (not even the US government), the price impact to consumers could have been partially mitigated with even minimal foresight.

During the same period the oil use has only increased. They are drawing more from every available technology, but have not reduced their oil reliance.

China is uniquely good at mega-projects. If it became a necessity it would probably done way faster than anyone could imagine it happening.

They wouldn't bother. They would just buy/take it from Russia to the north.

Past dynasties have collapsed due to a combination of disasters + lack of reserves. It will be stupid for them not to learn from history.

before the cold war, people were debating which is better, dictatorial communist or democratic capitalist after the cold war, it became obvios that democratic capitalist is better nowadays, seems like people are finding out dictatorial capitalist is the best?

I mean, if we were really 'bout it 'bout it we'd just tariff anyone buying Russian oil or something.