Trump’s Plan to Stockpile Oil Plan Has a Rotten-Egg Smell

Trump’s Plan to Stockpile Oil Plan Has a Rotten-Egg Smell

The U.S. shale oil industry may not benefit as much as President Donald Trump hopes from his plan to top up the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve as oil prices plunge to historically low levels.. About two-thirds of the spare capacity in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, is for sour crude - with a sulfur content of more than 0.5% - but the crude pumped from the shale formations of West Texas and elsewhere in the U.S. has very low concentrations of sulfur, if any at all.. The total capacity of the SPR is currently 275 million barrels of sweet crude and 479 million barrels of sour, with 250 million barrels of sweet crude and 385 million barrels of sour already in the caverns.. Much of the shale oil output would meet the density requirements, but have too little sulfur to permit it to be blended into the sour crude pool..