Andrew Singh

Dr. Rosenberry

PHYS055

If a disaster caused a cut to the amount of crude oil available to the US to 10%, it will

cause many problems economically and socially. There would have to specific allocation of the

oil to be able to use it efficiently. Also, many changes in the environment and social norms will

have to be changed. Oil goes into important aspects such as products, transportation, industrial

manufacturing, and etc. On average the US imports and consumes around 6-7 billion barrels a

year. So the 10% of the crude oil , which is 725 million barrels, has to be distributed into

carefully in aspects of the US to be able to ration it.

Many problems can occur from the cut of oil in the US. First of all, many people in the

US drive cars, so the amount of gas that is in the US will have to be rationed throughout cars.

Unless the government makes a declaration that everyone should use electric vehicles. This

would take time, but if there was an order for everyone to use electric vehicles it will help ration

the amount of oil left and help allocate it to more things. Also, economically the cost per a barrel

will go up. As of today the oil price is around 78 a

barrel(https://www.macrotrends.net/2566/crude-oil-prices-today-live-chart), so the cut to 10%

will probably drive it over 200 a barrel. Which this will cause a high inflation in the US, because

as oil goes down the more chances that transportation will be scarred. This will cause a shortage

in goods in global trade, with delays or even less transporting of goods. Even though the amount

of oil is cut there will be less pollutants going into the air. Also, this will be beneficial for the

environment with less oil reserves. More and more habitats will grow. Before the disaster, 45%
of the US oil is refined into gasoline. This will have to be cut in order to be able to keep the US

in order. Efficient uses of the crude oil will have to be used in transportation widely and not just

in human transportation.

Allocation of the oil will cause many rational decisions to be sure that the oil is being

used to it’s greatest potential in this situation. Cars will have to use a significant amount. But if

more gasoline is used in public transportation, less have to be allocated to cars. More people in

cities have to use public transportation instead of cars. As an alternative people can use electric

cars, which is beneficial especially in this situation. The car uses energy instead of gasoline as

fuel, this would allow many people to be able to travel without using the ration of oil left.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, 20 gallons of gasoline and out of one

barrel of crude oil, which is 42 gallons.(https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=327&t=6).

Along with the allocation of the fuel into cars, there has to be fuel going into what transports our

goods. Such as planes and jets that help transport goods around the world. So more crude oil has

to be allocated into these planes and jets. Most transportation of goods happens with planes and

jets, so it would require a lot of the 10% to be able to keep the same amount of goods to be

transported. Jets do require a lot more gas than cars, but since there is more people in the world

driving cars more people should receive gasoline than jet fuel being distributed. Although, if

people can resort to electric vehicles and public transportation, less and less amount of the crude

oil has to be distributed for cars. Also, considering the amount of goods still have to distributed

in the world. Ships can also help keep the world’s goods being distributed at a steady rate with

this unfortunate event. Ships use gasoline so some of the crude oil will have to allocated to ships

to keep global trade afloat.

 Considering how much oil was used in the world before this tragic event. The right

amount of crude oil barrels has to be allocated to the right vehicles.