Congressman Says SPR Prepared to Release Oil

reuters.com Mon March 17, 2003 10:22 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the 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.

"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.