OPEC asks US to use more oil reserves to cool price

JAKARTA, Indonesia – OPEC wants the United States to dip further into its strategic petroleum reserve to help reduce world oil prices, the cartel’s president said yesterday.

“We have asked them (the United States) to use their oil reserves to help cool down the prices,” OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia’s mines and energy minister, told reporters. He said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would discuss the issue further with the United States, but did not elaborate.He did not say whether the United States had responded to the request.The United States has just under 300 million barrels of crude in its emergency stockpile, and Washington’s move early this month to loan out 4,2 million barrels of it had no noticeable impact on prices.Purnomo also has asked OPEC members to increase production “to give a signal to the market that we aren’t short of supply.”Light, sweet crude for December delivery hit a record high of US$55,67 (N$351) a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange on supply concerns ahead of winter in the U.S.and continued healthy oil demand from China.Unrest in key oil producing countries has also fueled the rise in crude prices in recent months, which is underlined by limited excess capacity.It hovers about one per cent above the world’s daily consumption of 82,4 million barrels per day, leaving little wiggle room if there is a production outage.-Nampa-APHe said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would discuss the issue further with the United States, but did not elaborate.He did not say whether the United States had responded to the request.The United States has just under 300 million barrels of crude in its emergency stockpile, and Washington’s move early this month to loan out 4,2 million barrels of it had no noticeable impact on prices.Purnomo also has asked OPEC members to increase production “to give a signal to the market that we aren’t short of supply.”Light, sweet crude for December delivery hit a record high of US$55,67 (N$351) a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange on supply concerns ahead of winter in the U.S.and continued healthy oil demand from China.Unrest in key oil producing countries has also fueled the rise in crude prices in recent months, which is underlined by limited excess capacity.It hovers about one per cent above the world’s daily consumption of 82,4 million barrels per day, leaving little wiggle room if there is a production outage.-Nampa-AP