Europe may need to send oil stockpiles to US after Katrina damage - IEA's Mandil
08.30.2005, 03:10 AM
PARIS (AFX) - Europe will need to send some of its strategic emergency stockpiles of crude to the US if refinery damage caused by Hurricane Katrina proves severe, said International Energy Agency executive director Claude Mandil.
For now, however, the US, Europe and Japan have enough emergency stockpiles to wait a week to assess the damage before having to decide whether to release oil to damp prices, Mandil told the Financial Times.
The IEA, which co-ordinates the emergency inventories of the world's biggest oil consuming countries, also said in a statement issued yesterday that, although persistent high oil prices are a growing concern, the underlying supply and demand for oil are 'roughly in physical balance and should improve'.
Non-OPEC supply growth will accelerate in the second half of 2005 and will reach almost 2 mln barrels per day in the first half of 2006 - enough to cover projected world growth in oil demand.
But in order to promote robust markets for the future, the agency said companies and governments should ensure the investment climate and capital flows are sufficient to meet global demand for new oil production, storage, refining and transportation.
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