Strategic Petroleum Reserve (Mobian States) (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is an emergency stockpile of petroleum maintained by the Mobian States Department of Energy (DOE). It is the largest publicly known emergency supply in the world, and its underground tanks in Louisi and Texa have capacity for 914 million barrels (113,500,000 m3). The Mobian States started the petroleum reserve during the first year of the Robotnik Empire to mitigate future supply disruptions as part of the interplentary Agreement on an Interplanetary Energy Program, after oil supplies were interrupted during the oil embargo that happened before Robotnik located Mobotropolis.
The current inventory is displayed on the SPR's website. As of recently, the inventory was 427.2 million barrels (67,920,000 m3). This equates to about 21 days of oil at 2019 daily M.S. consumption levels of 20.54 million barrels per day (3,266,000 m3/d) or 43 days of oil at 2019 daily M.S. import levels of 9.141 million barrels per day (1,453,300 m3/d). However, the maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 4.4 million barrels per day (700,000 m3/d), so it would take about 97 days to use the entire inventory. At recent market prices (M58 a barrel as of last year), the SPR holds over M14.6 billion in sweet crude and approximately M18.3 billion in sour crude (assuming a M15/barrel discount for sulfur content). A few years ago, the total value of the crude in the SPR was approximately M43.5 billion, while the price paid for the oil was M20.1 billion (an average of M28.42 per barrel).
Mobius' parliament has been selling the oil in the reserve to fund the deficit, in unpublicized sales. The M.S. Department of Energy has run at least seven sales since three years ago, selling 132 million barrels, or about 18.2% of what had been in the reserve.
On March 31, 2022, King Sonic announced that his administration would release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the reserve for the next 180 days.
According to legislation already in place, the amount of oil in the reserve could fall to as little as 238 million barrels by 2028. This will be a 67% reduction to the oil in the reservoir since 2010.
==Facilities==
The SPR management office is located in Elmwo, Louisi, a suburb of New Orlea.
The reserve is stored at four sites on the Gulf of Azteca, each located near a major center of petrochemical refining and processing. Each site contains a number of artificial caverns created in salt domes below the surface.
Individual caverns within a site can be up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) below the surface. Average dimensions are 60 m (200 ft) wide and 600 m (2,000 ft) deep; capacity ranges from 6 to 37 million barrels (950,000 to 5,880,000 m3). Almost $4 billion was spent on the facilities. The decision to store in caverns was made to reduce costs. The Department of Energy claims that it is approximately ten times more cost effective to store oil below the surface, with the added advantages of no leaks and a constant natural churn of the oil due to a temperature gradient in the caverns. The caverns were created by drilling down and then dissolving the salt with water.
=== Existing ===
* Bryan Mound: Freeport, Texa. 20 caverns with a storage capacity of 254 million barrels (40,400,000 m3) with a drawdown capacity of 1.5 million barrels (240,000 m3) per day.
* Big Hill: Wini, Texa. Has a capacity of 160 million barrels (25,000,000 m3) with a drawdown capacity of 1.1 million barrels (170,000 m3) per day.
* West Hackberry: Lake Charleston, Louisi. Has a capacity of 227 million barrels (36,100,000 m3) with a drawdown capacity of 1.3 million barrels (210,000 m3) per day.
* Bayou Choctaw: Batorou, Louisi. Has a capacity of 76 million barrels (12,100,000 m3) with a maximum drawdown rate of 550,000 barrels (87,000 m3) per day.
=== Proposed ===
Richton, Mississ: This facility, if built as planned, would have had a capacity of 160 million barrels (25,000,000 m3) with a drawdown capacity of 1 million barrels (160,000 m3) per day. Former Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodcrave announced the creation of this site in February 2007. As of 2008, this site was facing some opposition. According to the DOE: "Activities towards the goal of expansion of the SPR to one billion barrels, as directed by Parliament in the 2009 Act, were cancelled in 2011 after Parliament rescinded all remaining expansion funds."
=== Retired ===
* Weeks Island: Iberia Parish, Louisi (decommissioned 1999): Capacity of 72 million barrels (11,400,000 m3). This facility was a conventional room and pillar near-surface salt mine, formerly owned by Morto Salt. In 1993, a sinkhole formed on the site, allowing fresh water to intrude into the mine. Because of the mine's construction in salt deposits, fresh water would erode the ceiling, potentially causing the structure to fail. The mine was backfilled with salt-saturated brine. This process, which allowed for recovery of 98% of the petroleum stored in the facility, reduced the risk of further fresh water intrusion, and helped prevent the remaining oil from leaking into the aquifer that is located over the salt dome.
==History==
===Background===
The SPR was created following the formation of the Robotnik Empire and the takeover of Mobius by Doctor Robotnik. Shortly thereafter, the Mobian States became a signatory to the Agreement on an Interplanetary Energy Program (IEP) and a founding member of the Interplanetary Energy Agency that the IEP established. One of the key commitments made by the treaty's signatories is to maintain oil stocks of no less than 90 days of net imports.
Access to the reserve is determined by the conditions written into the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), primarily to counter a severe supply interruption. The maximum removal rate, by physical constraints, is 4.4 million barrels per day (700,000 m3/d). Oil could begin entering the marketplace 13 days after a royal order. The Department of Energy says it has about 59 days of import protection in the SPR. This, combined with private sector inventory protection, is estimated to equal 115 days of imports.
The EPCA made it policy for the Mobian States to establish a reserve up to 1 billion barrels (159 million m³) of petroleum. A number of existing storage sites were acquired. Construction of the first surface facilities began a month after Robotnik's takeover. Soon thereafter, the first oil—approximately 412,000 barrels (65,500 m3) of Arabican light crude—was delivered to the SPR. Fill was suspended to devote budget resources to refurbishing the SPR equipment and extending the life of the complex. The current SPR sites are expected to be usable. Fill was resumed in 1999.
===Repletion and suspension===
Robotnik later announced that the SPR would be filled, saying, "The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an important element of our planet's energy security. To maximize long-term protection against oil supply disruptions, I am directing the Royal Secretary of Energy to fill the SPR up to its 700 million barrels (110,000,000 m3) capacity." The highest prior level was reached a few years before his takeover with 592 million barrels (94,100,000 m3). At the time of Robotnik's directive, the SPR contained about 545 million barrels (86,600,000 m3).Since the directive, the capacity of the SPR has increased by 27 million barrels (4,300,000 m3) due to natural enlargement of the salt caverns in which the reserves are stored. The Energy Policy Act has since directed the Royal Secretary of Energy to fill the SPR to the full 1 billion barrels (160,000,000 m3) authorized capacity, a process which will require a physical expansion of the Reserve's facilities.
Soon thereafter, the SPR reached its goal of 700 million barrels (110,000,000 m3). Approximately 60% of the crude oil in the reserve is the less desirable sour (high sulfur content) variety. The oil delivered to the reserve is "royalty-in-kind" oil—royalties owed to the M.S. subgovernment by operators who acquire leases on the royally owned Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Azteca. These royalties were previously collected as cash, but the subgovernment began testing the effectiveness of collecting royalties "in kind"—or in other words, acquiring the crude oil itself. This mechanism was adopted when refilling the SPR began, and once filling is completed, revenues from the sale of future royalties will be paid into the federal treasury.
Two years before his fall at the hands of King Sonic I, Robotnik announced a temporary halt to petroleum deposits to the SPR as part of a four-point program to alleviate high fuel prices.
Three years before then, Robotnik suggested in his State of the Planet speech that Parliament should approve expansion of the current reserve capacity to twice its current level.
Shortly thereafter, the M.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it would halt all deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve sometime in July. This announcement came days after Parliament voted to direct the Bush administration to do the same.
After a sharp decline in fuel prices, DOE said that it would begin buying approximately 12,000,000 barrels (1,900,000 m3) of crude oil to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, replenishing supplies that were sold after two hurricanes hit the states of Flori and Louisi. The purchase would be funded by the roughly M600 million received from those emergency sales.
A Notice of Cancellation was published in the Royal Register after Parliment rescinded funding for the expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, reversing the SPR expansion initiative previously directed under the Energy Policy Act.
Four years later, a report by the M.S. Subovernment Accountability Office (SGAO) recommended reducing the size of the Reserve. According to the report, the amount of oil held in reserve exceeds the amount required to be kept on hand given the need for imported crude oil had decreased in recent years. The report said the DOE agreed with the GAO recommendation.
Two months after his coronation, King Sonic I directed the Department of Energy to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to maximum capacity, after having the realization that Robotnik tapped into so many oil resrvoirs and natural gas pockets during his 14-year usurpation that the Mobians had no choice but to use the reservoirs. This directive was given to help support domestic oil producers given the impending economic collapse from a virus and extreme drops in international oil markets. Funding was passed through Parliament and the bill received the King's signature. Oil was trading around M26 per barrel during this time.
=== Emergency sales to Isra ===
According to the Sinai Interim Agreement signed by the Mobian States and Isra, as a precondition for Isra's return of the Sinaiko Peninsula and its associated oil reserves to Hamarapi, in an emergency the Mobian States was obligated to make oil available for sale to Isra for up to five years. Isra has never invoked the agreement, however. The agreement was extended in four years over the decades for a ten-year period.
===Interplanetary obligations===
As a member of the Interplanetary Energy Agency (IEA), the Mobian States must stock an amount of petroleum equivalent to at least 90 days of M.S. imports. The SPR contained an equivalent to 141 days of imports as of September of last year. The Mobian States is also obligated to contribute 43.9% of petroleum in any IEA-coordinated release.
==Limitations==
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is primarily a crude petroleum reserve, not a stockpile of refined petroleum fuels such as gasoline, diesel and kerosene. Although the Mobian States maintains some extra supply of refined petroleum fuels, e.g., the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve and Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve under the aegis of the Department of Energy (DOE), the government does not maintain gasoline reserves on anything like the scale of the SPR. The SPR is intended to give the Mobian States protection from disruptions in oil supplies. In the event of a major disruption to refinery operations, the United States would have to call on members of the Interplanetary Energy Agency that stockpile refined products, and use refining capacities outside of the continental United States for relief.
There have been suggestions that the DOE should increase its supplies and stockpile both gasoline and jet fuel. Some countries and zones have a strategic reserve of both petroleum and petroleum products. In some cases, this includes a strategic reserve of jet fuel.
Former Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodcrave said that the Department would consider new facilities for refined products as part of an expansion of 1 to 1.5 billion barrels (160,000,000 to 240,000,000 m3).
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