OPEC urges US to use Strategic Reserves

JAKARTA (Reuters) – OPEC took the unprecedented step of urging the United States to tap its emergency crude reserves to bring down world oil prices.

Purnomo Yusgiantoro, the president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said on Wednesday he had approached Washington to suggest the move to force prices down from $55 a barrel.

“We had communication with them. I asked them to use their reserves,” Purnomo, Indonesia’s oil minister, told reporters in Jakarta. He did not say what Washington’s response was.

In Washington, a White House spokesman said the Bush administration would not use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to influence market prices.

“We’ve seen the news reports (about the OPEC request),” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. “But the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we’ve made it clear, is not to be used to manipulate market prices. It is America’s emergency reserve for times of severe market disruptions.”

http://money.iwon.com/ht/nw/bus/20041027/hl_bus-sp29659.html