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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (81290)	10/3/2006 12:31:13 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 360942

Some sceptics on the Oil Drum were thinking this might have something to do with the election. Of course, Marcus Antonio Ratticus pointed out to them that the honorable peeples running da show would never do that. They actually think "end of winter" means Nov. Imagine that. Strange folks, eh? U.S. delays buying emergency oil Move keeps more oil on the market through winter heating season. October 2 2006: 5:50 PM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Energy Department said Monday it will hold off buying replacement oil for the nation's emergency petroleum stockpile through the winter heating season in order to keep more supplies on the market. To help make more oil available for producing gasoline over the summer and help lower then-soaring pump prices, President Bush in April ordered the Energy Department to delay deliveries and purchases of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until this autumn, which began Sept. 22. Special Reportfull coverage U.S.: Gas prices lowest since February Oil slides below $60 U.S. delays buying emergency oil Texas tilts $10B toward wind power The department needs to replace some 11 million barrels of crude oil that it sold last year from the stockpile for $600 million to oil companies that needed help after Hurricane Katrina disrupted petroleum supplies. However, the department expects to delay buying that replacement oil during the winter, when demand for heating oil is strong, according to department spokesman Craig Stevens. "Right now, I think we're comfortable with that amount that's in the reserve. We certainly don't want to effect the market too greatly by doing anything [to reduce available winter supplies]," Stevens told Reuters. "Even if we started purchasing [the 11 million barrels] today, it would take us several months to take that kind of deposit. But there is no plan as of right now to begin that purchase," he said. The department has said it wants to wait until oil prices are much lower before it buys the replacement crude. The department also loaned oil refineries about 10 million barrels of reserve crude after Katrina. Most of that has been returned to the stockpile, except for about 1.7 million barrels that the department deferred for delivery until the April-June period next year. Supplies already appear plentiful heading into the winter. U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, not including what is held in the reserve, total about 325 million barrels, well above the upper end of the average range for this time of year, according to the latest data from the Energy Department. The reserve now holds about 688 million barrels of oil at four underground storage sites in Texas and Louisiana. That is equal to about 56 days of U.S. petroleum imports. The emergency stockpile was created by the Congress in the mid 1970s after the Arab oil embargo. Fluctuations in the amount of available oil on the market affects such refining companies as BP (down $0.20 to $65.38, Charts), ExxonMobile (down $0.10 to $67.00, Charts) and Royal Dutch Shell (Charts). money.cnn.com