As I understand it, 41 days is how long inventory would hold out if all incoming shipments stopped today. It’s not the same thing as saying “The US is 41 days away from running out.”

That said, it’s also not clear if this figure is “total supply” or “usable supply.” The phrasing in the article suggests the former, but not explicitly. Basically in order to actually move crude from ships to refineries and so on, there’s a certain level of pressure you need to maintain in the pipelines. Without that, everything stalls. The point at which oil functionally runs out is well before the tanks run dry, because after a certain point you can only move it by truck and train, which basically grinds the whole system to a halt.

@CombatWombat Ok, I will remind you on Sunday Oct 4, 2026 at 3:36 PM UTC.