The US oil stash

29 August 2005 By Fiona Maharg-Bravo

Oil hit $70 after rigs in the hurricane hit Gulf of Mexico were evacuated, prompting calls on Bush to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The US doesn’t have a clear policy on when to use the SPR. But it doesnt look like now is the time to deploy it.

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Crude oil touched $70 a barrel in New York after Hurricane Katrina forced companies including Exxon Mobil and Chevron to evacuate rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, where 30% of US oil is produced.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy, which oversees the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), said it was monitoring the situation. The government has said in the past it would release oil from the 700millionbarrel SPR only during a serious supply disruption.

The US government drew down 4.5m barrels of the SPR during hurricane Ivan last year.

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