IEA Says No Plan For Oil Stk Release Despite Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela

sg.biz.yahoo.com Friday March 21, 7:59 PM

PARIS (Dow Jones)--The International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog of the world's richest nations, said Friday it sees no reason to release emergency crude oil stocks, despite the situation in Iraq and civil unrest in Nigeria.

"There is no event in Iraq that makes us fear about a disruption in oil supply," IEA spokesman Pierre Lefevre said, noting that the outage in Nigeria wasn't significant in terms of volume.

Thursday, soon after the U.S.-allied troops launched an invasion of Iraq, the IEA said increased production from OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and key member Venezuela, combined with lower demand for heating oil in the U.S., helped to reinforce confidence demand would be met.

The IEA has said they will allow the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which has pledged to keep markets well supplied if there is any shortfall, to have first crack at supplying customers before the IEA takes a decision to release stocks.

Iraq's oil exports through the U.N. oil-for-food program, normally around 1.7 million b/d, are now virtually at a standstill following the withdrawal of U.N. staff from Iraq Tuesday.

To date ethnic clashes in the oil-rich Niger delta in Nigeria have disrupted over 250,000 b/d of the OPEC member's 2 million b/d output.

-By David Gauthier-Villars, Dow Jones Newswires; 33 (0)1 40 1717 40, david.gauthier-villars@dowjones.com