{"id":39558,"date":"2026-05-30T12:45:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/the-secret-of-the-american-underground-where-is-the-oil-hidden-for-times-of-crisis\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T12:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:45:32","slug":"the-secret-of-the-american-underground-where-is-the-oil-hidden-for-times-of-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/the-secret-of-the-american-underground-where-is-the-oil-hidden-for-times-of-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret of the American underground: where is the oil hidden for times of crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Two billion barrels stored in salt caves<\/p>\n

Along Interstate 10, which runs along the southern coast of the United States from Louisiana to Texas, the landscape is dominated by the oil industry. Drilling rigs on the horizon, refinery chimneys that light up the night, and tankers constantly moving in the Gulf of Mexico create the appearance of one of the world’s most powerful energy centers.<\/p>\n

But what is seen on the surface is only half the story. Deep underground, hidden within natural salt formations, are giant salt domes that stretch across Louisiana and Texas.<\/p>\n

Inside them are carved artificial caves, created in the late 1970s after the global oil crisis. It is these underground spaces that make up the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve, one of the world’s largest emergency energy storages.<\/p>\n

In places like West Hackberry in Louisiana, the above-ground infrastructure looks ordinary industrial. But hundreds of meters below there are giant reservoirs, where millions of barrels of oil are stored ready to be used in case of crisis.<\/p>\n

Currently, US reserves are calculated at about 374 million barrels of oil, while the maximum capacity reaches about 714 million barrels. This reserve serves as a security mechanism for the American economy and for the stability of global markets, being activated only in emergency cases.<\/p>\n

Its role has become even more visible in recent years. Tensions in international energy markets, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz for an extended period, have raised fears of supply shortages and rising global prices.<\/p>\n

In response, member countries of the International Energy Agency undertook a coordinated operation to use about 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves. The US contributed about 172 million barrels to stabilize the market.<\/p>\n

Globally, strategic oil reserves are estimated at about 2.5 billion barrels, with China holding the largest stockpile. These reserves have become a key element of energy security and an important geopolitical instrument.<\/p>\n

According to Scott Montgomery, a former petroleum geologist and lecturer at the University of Washington, the choice of salt as a storage medium is not accidental. The salt is impermeable to water and elastic enough to withstand the great underground pressure.<\/p>\n

“These are not big open caves” – he explains. “There are dozens of special reservoirs, with a diameter of about 60 meters and a depth of up to 610 meters,” the expert adds.<\/p>\n

He emphasizes that these structures function as giant underground “bottles” that keep oil isolated for decades. However, they are not infinite in use.<\/p>\n

According to Montgomery, salt caverns can withstand only a few cycles of oil extraction and recovery before they begin to degrade. “The geological reality is that, at some point, new structures will have to be built,” he declares.<\/p>\n

In a world where energy remains one of the most powerful instruments of the global economy and politics, these warehouses hidden under American soil continue to play the role of a silent guarantee of security for markets and states. square<\/p>\n

\n

Source: prizrenpost<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two billion barrels stored in salt caves Along Interstate 10, which runs along the southern coast of the United States from Louisiana to Texas, the landscape is dominated by the oil industry. Drilling rigs on the horizon, refinery chimneys that light up the night, and tankers constantly moving in the Gulf of Mexico create the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[666],"class_list":["post-39558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-brief"],"views":10,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39560,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39558\/revisions\/39560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}