New
York: Oil prices experienced a sharp drop yesterday
as the international community agreed to release stocks
from reserves to help avert a fuel crisis threatening
the US.
The promise of fresh supplies from International Energy
Agency (IEA) countries, hit prices hard with US crude
falling by around US$2 a barrel to $67.30, well down on
the record high of $71.85 earlier in the week.
The pressure was also eased by the reopening of some of
the pipelines and ports along the Louisiana coastline.
Royal Dutch Shell said repairs were under way at its 225,000-barrel
refinery, and the plant might reopen next week.
Petrol pumps have been running dry and prices soaring
after Hurricane Katrina pummelled the Gulf of Mexico,
the most important oil and gas-producing region in the
US.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency, which coordinates
emergency responses to energy crises among its 26 member
states, said last night they had agreed to release 2m
barrels a day of crude from reserves for an initial 30
days. That is roughly equivalent to the output lost in
the Gulf of Mexico as oil platforms have been forced to
close. The agency has only once before organised a release
of oil, during the first Gulf war in 1991.President George
Bush said on Thursday that the US would release oil from
its own strategic reserves.
Economists fear that the rising price of oil could have
a devastating
impact on the American - and consequently the world -
economy. It will take around 10 days for the fuel to reach
the US from Europe.
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