A barrel of oil is 42 gallons, a holdover from the 19th century despite the fact that most drums are 55 gallons today and that oil is often transported via other means, anyway.
The national strategic petroleum reserve currently holds 396.4 million barrels.
Regardless of how you want to conceptualize the volume — or what container it's in — you’d have a tough time keeping it at a self-storage facility east of Castle Rock.
However, that’s part of the confusion brought on by a popular internet personality who posted a video highlighting a federal contract worth more than a billion dollars awarded Thursday for the management and operation of the strategic petroleum reserve.
“Join me on a trip down this rabbit hole, because something very fishy is happening with the strategic petroleum reserve,” says Matt Randolph, who goes by the name “Mr. Global” on social media and runs accounts that seek to debunk misinformation about the oil and gas industry.
Over nearly four minutes, Randolph highlights the contract that was awarded to Strategic Storage Partners, LLC.
Now, whether the awardee was Strategic Storage Partners, LLC of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, or Strategic Storage Partners, LLC of Franktown, Colorado, is where the hubbub begins.
In the video, Randolph shares a screenshot from opengovus.com that shows the awardee as being the Colorado-based storage company, which the Colorado Secretary of State’s office lists as being registered by a Colorado lawyer. CPR News reached out to the law offices of the attorney for comment, but that person is currently out of the office and — if internet comments are any indication — likely to return to some confusing messages.
Randolph’s video, using social media accounts, highlights a handful of Coloradans by name who are connected to the Colorado storage company. At the end of the video, Randolph asks for the media to take a look into the story, prompting scores of social media comments calling for further investigations, theories and emails to CPR News and others.
However, the webpage regarding the contract on opengovus.com now lists the awardee as being the Louisiana company, one that appears to be a subsidiary of the company APTIM, also based in Baton Rouge. Further, the federal government’s official webpage for tracking contracts also lists the company as the Louisiana-based facility. Oh, and a U.S. Department of Energy press release from this week says the sites chosen for the contract are in Texas and Louisiana.
Randolph has since issued a follow-up video and says he regrets directing attention toward the Colorado storage unit community.
“The last thing I'd want to do is bring a bunch of attention to people that are innocent bystanders,” Randolph told CPR News in a phone call Friday, “and that's why I put out the videos this morning that it's, in fact, another company.”
Randolph said he’s still skeptical of the contract that’s been awarded, though he regrets the video implicated Coloradans who are unaffiliated with it.
“That's definitely something I probably would've done differently, for sure,” Randolph said.
