Add blue collar people to the mix and it acts like a NIMBY rage multiplier. I'm picturing the movie plot now:
A bunch of gulf coast fisherman, effectively unemployed by Corona hatch a plan to make a buck by taking advantage of the negative price of oil futures. They pool their resources and somehow get their hands on a derelict Venezuelan tanker, cheap because of favorable exchange rates, in order to take delivery of some obscene amount of crude as part of a scheme to make money on futures. Being on a budget of course they crew the thing themselves, it's a ship after all, just a little bigger than the ones they usually handle. Things don't exactly go as planned when they travel to Venezuela to take possession of the ship. Their journey from there to the Port of Houston to pick up their cargo is mired by an incompetent coast guard, environmental activists and a vengeful ex-wife turned local politician.
Who does want a million barrels of crude in their back yard? As a very rough estimate, you'd have to stack them the better part of a mile high in mine.
I don’t think space is the issue. Shipping and safety (dealing with the one barrel that leaks) could easily eat $40/barrel if you’re not already set up for it.
I was wondering whether they couldn't rapidly build some new storage (cost-effectively), but probably the answer is no.