US Senate Panel To Review Strategic Oil Reserve Policies

A U.S. Senate panel will next week review how the government uses the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a spokesman for the committee said Friday.

Some of the current administration’s policies for filling and using reserves from the SPR, an emergency crude stockpile, have come under harsh criticism from some Democratic leaders in Congress.

In particular, the Bush administration’s plan to fill the SPR at a time of record oil prices has prompted angry reactions from Capitol Hill.

Despite oil prices hovering in the $90-$100 a barrel range, hitting new nominal highs in the past week, the Department of Energy is planning diversion of 125,000 barrels a day of crude oil from the open market into the rainy-day stockpile at the May-September height of the peak summer oil-demand season.

Dow Jones Newswires