Posted on 08/06/2004 3:23:27 PM PDT by ambrose
Aug. 6, 2004, 11:49AM
Bush adding more oil to U.S. petroleum reserve
Reuters News Service
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said today it was adding more oil to the U.S. emergency petroleum reserve, despite record high crude prices and strong oil demand.
The Interior Department said it awarded contracts to ChevronTexaco Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group's Shell Oil to deliver more than 100,000 barrels of crude a day to the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The oil will be delivered over a six-month period beginning on Oct. 1.
The administration is not buying the oil going into the reserve. The crude is coming from energy companies that turn over to the government a portion of the oil they drill on federal leases as royalties, instead of paying cash royalties.
The Bush administration has been criticized by energy experts and some politicians for taking oil off the market to put in the reserve at a time of high fuel prices and strong petroleum demand.
The campaign of Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry said on Friday it supports temporarily stopping oil shipments to the reserve while oil and gasoline prices are high.
"We believe we should suspend the fill of the reserve" at current prices, a Kerry spokeswoman said.
U.S. oil prices topped a record $44 a barrel this week at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Higher energy costs raise expenses for U.S. businesses and cut into the money consumers have to buy goods and services that help the economy grow.
The Bush administration said it was better to have a large stockpile of oil on hand to respond to any major supply disruption and the amount of crude going into the reserve will not have a big effect on prices anyway.
"Filling the reserve to ensure that America has a ready supply of crude to prepare for any major supply disruption is vitally important," said an Energy Department spokeswoman.
"Current deliveries to the SPR are a tiny fraction, only 0.15 percent, of global oil demand, and have very little impact on oil prices," she said.
The Interior Department said it was on track to fill the emergency reserve to its 700-million-barrel capacity by the middle of next year.
The stockpile, created by Congress in the mid 1970s after the Arab oil embargo, currently holds 665 million barrels of crude in underground caverns at four sites in Texas and Louisiana.
Bush wants to make sure the nation has a supply of oil in case of national emergency.
Kerry wants to stop stockpiling oil for political points.
The difference between the two can be summarized right there.
Ding ding ding!!!! We have a winnuh!
this is crazy.
exactamundo
sure, but if Bush isn't around when Iran's oil is disrupted - it won't matter much.
Hard to believe - but he may actually consider our national security more important than scoring some cheap political points.
Thank God the adults are in charge.
"The Interior Department said it was on track to fill the emergency reserve to its 700-million-barrel capacity by the middle of next year."
Bush is doing the right thing, it can't happen soon enough.
Didn't Clinton release some oil from the strategic reserves before the 200 elections to try to keep oil prices low, to bolster Gore?
Bush wants to make sure the nation has a supply of oil in case of national emergency.
Kerry wants to stop stockpiling oil for political points.
The difference between the two can be summarized right there.
if Kerry wins - we won't have any national security. that's the most important thing right now - stopping Kerry. aggravating already sky high oil prices isn't helping achieve that.
fill 'em to the brim..
Big Torch(es) may get lit soon..
There are economic consequences as well as a deficit impact for choosing to increase the strategic reserve while supplies are this tight and prices are this high. Gasoline refinement is continuing at summer pace and they haven't started diverting to refining home heating oil in the capacity they typically do by now. This will have an impact this winter as well. Try looking at the issue without any political blinders for a moment.
Maybe, just maybe, the price of oil has nothing to do with supply and demand .... how about the cost of oil transportation security and the 20% devaluation of the dollar?
What if these prices are cheap compared to what may come? We don't have enough info to know this. If Kerry wins the election over this, God help us all anyway.
I see, gamble the SPR just to score a few points with the short-term memory of a few swing voters so that we can have our pants around our britches when the Islamofascists hit the Mid-East petroleum infrastructure. Golly, why didn't I think of that.
Yes. Thats exactly what he did.
sure, let's toss a few more votes away. Bush is way ahead, isn't he?
Sorry - pants around our ankles.
there is no future past November 2nd if Kerry wins. that's the way we have to think. is that political expediency? you're damn right it is.
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