Fueling the military

[unhappycamper]

The military is looking to save as the price they pay for fuel has nearly doubled in the last fiscal year alone. Illustration by Stars and Stripes.


Fueling the military
By Teri Weaver and Jennifer Svan, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, October 19, 2008

TOKYO - When the USS Kitty Hawk retires in the coming months, the Navy’s annual fuel bill will drop by about 700,000 barrels of oil — nearly 2 percent of its overall fuel consumption per year.

Powering down the massive Kitty Hawk — the Navy’s last conventionally fueled aircraft carrier — is a substantial savings in a military that buys 130 million barrels of oil each year, an amount equal to the annual fuel consumption of Sweden.

But the military is looking to save as the price they pay for fuel has nearly doubled in the last fiscal year alone — from $91 a barrel in October 2007 to $171 a barrel in summer — though prices have declined globally this fall.

The Air Force, which uses half of the military’s fuel purchases, is working to cut flying hours by 10 percent.

The Navy, the next biggest user of military fuel, has installed drag-reducing metal flaps on the bottom of many of its ships, a move that cut the fuel bill by $11.5 million in fiscal year 2007.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58239



uhc comment: Hmmmmm.

That means one percent is 350,000 barrels per month and ae whole year's supply is 350,000 x 12 = 4,200,000 barrels per year. I posted a thread on 4.3.2008 where the military admitted using 1.2 million barrels a month in Iraq --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=13024

". . .the Navy’s annual fuel bill will drop by about 700,000 barrels of oil — nearly 2 percent of its overall fuel consumption per year." The article does not say if the 4.2 million barrels a year is the Navy's oil or all the oil used by the military.