Opec asks US to release emergency oil stocks

The president of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) on Wednesday urged the United States to release some of its emergency crude oil stocks.

“I am always asking them to do that,” Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters.

The statement came as dealers said crude oil prices retreated slightly in Asian trade after the world’s largest producer, Saudi Arabia, declared its readiness to boost output.

Yusgiantoro said there was no need for a formal request to the United States to release oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) but he had made his wishes known through the Opec secretariat.

“Basically, I have asked America to release (oil from the) SPR,” said Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia’s minister of energy and mineral resources.
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