Oil release may not cut petrol prices

FEARS are mounting that Europe and America face a long period of high petrol prices after it was revealed that a release of emergency fuel stocks would contain only small quantities of petrol, insufficient to make up the supply shortfall caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) disclosed yesterday that a planned release over one month of 2.1 million barrels a day of oil products from the emergency stocks of its member countries would include only 369,000 barrels of petrol. The total amount of extra petrol that the IEA is offering the market, worth about 11 million barrels, is little more than America consumes in one day.

Times Online