Energy Dept. to delay oil purchases - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - The Energy Department will hold off purchases of oil for the government's emergency reserve through the upcoming winter, the department said Monday.
The department said it will not try to recover 1.7 million barrels of crude oil that it loaned refineries a year ago after Hurricane Katrina, nor would it seek to purchase additional oil for the reserve until next spring so as not to take oil off the market during the heating season.
Last April,
President Bush' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> President Bush ordered a delay in deliveries of crude oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve through the summer in an attempt to ease oil markets and dampen soaring gasoline prices. Analysts have said the decision probably had little impact on oil or gasoline prices since the amount of oil not being bought by the government was relatively small.
The United States uses more than 21 million barrels of oil a day.
Energy spokesman Craig Stevens said the department is confident the current amount of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is adequate to meet any emergency needs. The system of caverns in the Gulf coast currently holds more than 680 million barrels of crude oil.
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