U.S. lawmaker says SPR prepared to release oil

www.forbes.com Reuters, 03.17.03, 10:21 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee said on Monday that the Energy Department has told him that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is ready to release oil to counter a disruption in supplies. But the U.S. Energy Department said the Bush administration has not made a decision to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The administration is prepared to use the reserve in a supply emergency, an Energy Department spokesman told Reuters. "But at this point we have not made a decision to move on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," she said. "We are monitoring the situation very carefully," the spokeswoman said. "Our review with the Department of Energy has convinced me that the SPR is fully operational and capable of releasing crude oil within the parameters required to prevent interruptions in crude oil deliveries to the market," Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin said in a letter to fellow lawmakers. "The SPR has, for some time now, transitioned from the 'fill' mode to the 'flow' mode and is prepared to flow upon orders from the President," Tauzin said. With a possible war with Iraq looming, supply disruptions in Venezuela and skyrocketing oil prices, Tauzin made his comments in a letter to lawmakers urging their support to expand the reserve to 1 billion barrels from its current capacity of 700 million barrels.