White House may release oil from stockpile

The White House said Monday it was willing to use the government’s emergency oil stockpile to help refiners hurt by Hurricane Katrina’s rampage through the Gulf of Mexico, but that it was too early to decide if or how much crude should be released.

The storm slammed into New Orleans on Monday with winds of 135 mph (216 kph), shutting at least half of the Gulf Coast region’s crude oil production.

…”It’s refining capacity that’s the biggest problem right now and they don’t have any of that in the SPR,” Kleinman said.

Reuters