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Strategic Petroleum Reserve I have wondered if any single Representative in Congress could possibly be as dumb as all of them. Every once in a while I get my answer and the answer is yes. I have listened to the Democrats inform us that increasing the supply of oil by drilling will not alleviate the problem of high energy cost. I hear them expound relentlessly why building more refineries will not be helpful. Nuclear energy is out of the question they preach. Wind power might be acceptable as long as Senator Kennedy can’t see them. Some insist energy prices are...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 07/10/2008 Pelosi to Bush: Free Our Oil Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic leadership today held a news conference reiterating Democrats’ call for the President to immediately release a small amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce energy prices for American consumers. Below are the Speaker’s comments on her call to the President: “The fact is that the Bush Administration is sitting on 700 million barrels of oil, purchased with our tax dollars, in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That oil was purchased for...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked President Bush on Tuesday to draw down a portion of the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a way to reduce crude prices and help motorists who are suffering from the rising cost of gasoline. The House Republican leadership responded to Pelosi's proposal by noting that she was supporting a supply increase — something the Republicans have rallied behind in the form of increased offshore drilling, which the Democrats oppose. Pelosi's proposal, contained in a letter to President Bush, comes as Americans continue to face average unleaded gas prices over $4 a gallon. The increases have...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil climbed back above $62 on Tuesday after the International Energy Agency said it saw no lasting damage to demand that has pushed producers and refiners to the limit and could lead to fuel shortages this winter. There have been signs recently that persistent high prices are taking their toll on the economies of the world's big consumers. Hurricanes that battered U.S. Gulf rigs and refiners catapulted oil to new record highs, finally crimping fuel use. But the IEA, adviser to 26 industrialized nations, forecast demand growth would quicken to 1.75 million barrels per day next year...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for a fifth day on Thursday, dipping to their lowest level in two months after U.S. government data showed a drop in oil demand in the world's largest consumer. U.S. crude futures for November slid 19 cents to $62.60 a barrel, having earlier traded as low as $62.23. London Brent crude was down 32 cents to $59.80. Oil prices have fallen sharply from their August 30 record high of $70.85 on signs that soaring costs are eroding demand, offsetting fears over tight supplies in the wake of hurricanes that toppled production platforms and shut...

SINGAPORE -- Oil prices slipped Tuesday after the U.S. government indicated it might release emergency stockpiles of heating oil to combat supply disruptions from recent hurricanes. But energy futures were not expected to continue their retreat for long, analysts said, because a U.S. petroleum inventories report due later in the week was likely to show that Hurricane Rita hurt supply ahead of the coming Northern Hemisphere winter. Midmorning in Singapore, light, sweet crude for November delivery fell 16 cents to $65.31 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 77 cents to settle...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil held firm above $66 a barrel on Thursday stoked by fears that hurricane-wrecked U.S. refineries would be unable to churn out ample heating fuel to warm American consumers this winter. But Europe was riding to the rescue again, booking tankers of gasoline and heating oil to move transatlantic to help prevent a full-blown fuel crisis in the world's biggest oil consumer. Strikes in France, a leading U.S. oil products supplier, meant French refiners might sit on the sidelines. U.S. crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 6 cents at $66.41 a barrel by 1000...

U.S. President George Bush said Monday he will release supplies from the nation's strategic oil reserve to deal with hurricane-related fuel shortfalls. Speaking at the Department of Energy, Bush said Hurricane Rita's strike Saturday missed much of refining capacity along the Texas coast, but that the effect of it following last month's Hurricane Katrina was bound to affect supply. There was about 5.4 million barrels per day that were shut in as a result of Rita and Katrina, Bush said. A million of it is back up already, and we expect another 1.8 million barrels a day to get back...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil raced toward $68 on Thursday as Hurricane Rita bore down on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production and forced six refineries in Texas to shut down. Companies scrambled to close facilities and evacuate staff as Rita, now a maximum Category 5 storm, aimed her 175 mph (280 kph) winds on Texas, home to a quarter of U.S. refining capacity. It is expected to hit land by early Saturday. "Rita will remain the market's focus ... unless it unexpectedly breaks apart. But with it being such a fierce storm we wouldn't play the short side of...

 SYDNEY (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed more than 1 percent on Monday as a new storm system appeared to be headed for the U.S. Gulf Coast, and as OPEC ministers appeared to favor leaving crude output unchanged for now.U.S. light crude rose 78 cents to $63.78 a barrel as the season's 17th tropical storm formed near the Bahamas and OPEC members leaned toward taking no immediate action on extra supply. London Brent crude jumped 93 cents to $62.74 a barrel. Those gains helped prices rebound from a near $2 fall on Friday, which took oil to its lowest close in...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil eased further below $65 on Friday on fears that record high prices are undermining global demand, overshadowing nagging worries about refined fuel supplies in the United States, the world's top consumer. U.S. light crude was trading down 26 cents at $64.49 a barrel by 0515 GMT, extending a loss of 34 cents on Thursday. London Brent crude slipped 16 cents to $63.50 a barrel. U.S. prices have fallen sharply from a record high $70.85 on August 30, just a day after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, toppling oil platforms and shutting down refineries. Oil's...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices slid in post-holiday trade on Tuesday, while Brent crude was steady as industrialised countries began to release oil from emergency stocks to make up for U.S. output disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. Fears that the aftermath of the storm could dent consumer confidence and trim U.S. economic growth also weighed on prices, while battered Gulf of Mexico refineries began to restart. U.S. light crude fell $1.03, or 1.5 percent, to $66.54 a barrel by 0508 GMT, following London Brent crude's $1.22 losses on Monday when U.S. trade was closed for a holiday. Brent crude edged...

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...

<p>CRUDE-COLLECTION FACILITY: The St. James Terminal, a distribution point for crude oil near Baton Rouge, La., feeds a pipeline to underground storage in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has a capacity of 700 million gallons.</p> <p>Those who oppose continued stockpiling say taking the oil out of the market causes prices to rise. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., last year argued for halting the flow. "This administration's actions to fill the SPR regardless of the price of oil or the amount of oil available to the commercial sector is a major reason for these high (crude) prices," wrote Levin, senior Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee.</p>