Oil meant for reserve may divert

www.chron.com Jan. 24, 2003, 10:42PM Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle News Services

To keep oil flowing to U.S. refineries and consumers at the gasoline pump, the Bush administration will likely approve requests from energy companies to postpone scheduled deliveries of crude owed to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Energy Department officials said on Friday.

The department has been talking with oil companies about delaying up to 4.4 million barrels of crude to the stockpile and will likely approve requests from firms that want to defer March shipments, the officials said.

An announcement on delaying any March crude deliveries could come as early as next week.

In New York Friday, crude oil futures rallied above $33 a barrel amid fears that Saddam Hussein may destroy Iraqi oil fields in the event of a U.S.-led attack.

Concern about Iraqi oil supplies comes at a time when Venezuela's crude remains largely off the market. A strike that began in early December has severely disrupted Venezuela's oil industry.

Also Friday, OPEC said it could do no more to rein in runaway world oil prices. Alvaro Silva, secretary-general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the group already was pumping enough but could not counter the impact of the threat of war on oil prices.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude for March delivery jumped $1.03 to $33.28 a barrel.

February heating oil rose 3.49 cents to close at 95.02 cents a gallon. February gasoline ended at 92.25 cents a gallon, up 2.44 cents.

In London, March Brent rose 77 cents to close at $30.49 a barrel.

February natural gas rose 6.6 cents to $5.524 per thousand cubic feet in New York trading.