FRANCE: INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY REVIEWS ITS EMERGENCY OIL AID TO THE USA , FOLLOWING US CONFIRMATION THAT IT HAS FUEL TO RECOVER FROM HURRICANE

Record ID: 344999

  • Title: FRANCE: INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY REVIEWS ITS EMERGENCY OIL AID TO THE USA , FOLLOWING US CONFIRMATION THAT IT HAS FUEL TO RECOVER FROM HURRICANE
  • Date: 15th September 2005
  • Summary: (BN14) PARIS, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 15, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. IEA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CLAUDE MANDIL AT TABLE FOR NEWS CONFERENCE 2. JOURNALISTS NEWS CONFERENCE 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) IEA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CLAUDE MANDIL SAYING: "The decision taken early September was appropriate, timely, necessary, useful, and with the existing data it was necessary to implement it fully. You remember that the decision is to make available in the market 60 million barrels of crude and products. And we think that this decision has to be implemented." 4. REPORTER LISTENING 5. JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) IEA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CLAUDE MANDIL SAYING: "Any increase in OPEC production will be a good signal to the markets and will be welcome. That having been said, we all know that we will not be able to go very far in this direction because most of the incremental barrels that could be provided by the OPEC countries are heavy crudes which are not easy to sell on the market and which are not what is wanted by the refineries at the present time." 7. JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE 8. CLAUDE MANDIL LEAVES NEWS CONFERENCE 2.09 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVAAZSVRD91VJ8XOA733NAJQL83L
  • Story Text: Energy watchdog keeps to emergency plan aday after the
    U.S. says it has enough fuel oil to recover from Hurricane Katrina.


    The West's energy watchdog met in Paris on Thursday (September 15) to review its emergency oil aid to the United States, a day after the world's biggest consumer made clear it now had enough fuel to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

    The International Energy Agency (IEA) board of governors said it was sticking with its agreed plan to release 60-mil bbl of oil from emergency stocks and would re-evaluate the need for any further action in late September or early October.

    "The decision taken early September was appropriate, timely,
    necessary, useful, and with the existing data it was necessary to implement it fully," IEA executive director Claude Mandel said at a news conference following the meeting.

    The agency agreed on September 2 to release 60-mil bbl of oil over 30 days in response to supply disruptions caused by Hurricane Katrina, which blasted through the U.S. Gulf Coast on August 29, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Virtually all of the US's 1.5-mil b/d of Gulf of Mexico crude production was shut in and about 2-mil b/d of refining capacity put out of action.

    On September 7, the IEA's 26 member countries committed to provide a total 2.1-mil b/d of oil, broken down as 1.289-mil b/d of crude and 683,000 b/d of refined products. It agreed to convene its governing board Sep 15 to review the response.

    Mandil said that the representatives of the 26 member countries
    reaffirmed their commitment to fully implement the coordinated emergency response decision and confirmed the market-based approach as the most effective mechanism. In the meantime, the IEA said it would continue its communications with oil producing countries and OPEC as it reviews world oil market conditions in the wake of Katrina.

    The IEA stock release has helped bring oil prices down from all-time highs of more than $70/bbl reached in New York as Katrina wreaked havoc. At 1713 GMT on Thursday, U.S. light crude was trading at $64.30/bbl, down 79 cents. Mandil urged consumer countries not to react to high oil prices by cutting taxes.

    Any increase in OPEC production would send "a good signal to the
    market," Mandil said, though he acknowledged that any incremental OPEC
    output would consist largely of the heavier crudes that are less in demand than the lighter, sweeter grades which have a higher yield of light products.


    The oil producers' cartel meets next Monday and Tuesday in the Austrian capital and is expected to raise its current output ceiling by 500,000 b/d to 28.5-mil b/d. A Platts survey last week estimated that the 10 members with quotas under the current 28-mil b/d ceiling - Iraq does not have one - pumped an average 28.37-mil b/d in August. Most member countries are pumping close to their capacity limits apart from Saudi Arabia, which says it can bring on an additional 1.5-mil b/d on top of the 9.5-mil b/d it is currently producing.


    But the Saudis say there is no demand for these incremental barrels
    which are mainly heavy and sour. Earlier this week, the US Department of Energy said it had sold 11-mil bbl of crude from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of its commitment to provide 30-mil bbl - half of the 60-mil bbl pledged by the IEA. Of the 11-mil bbl sold, 10.8-mil bbl were sweet and only 200,000 bbl sour.

    Mandil, meanwhile, said he hoped for clearer information from OPEC in coming months regarding cartel members' plans for capacity expansion.

    The IEA rescue plan, launched to prevent a global energy crisis, is the first by the energy arm of the OECD since the 1991 Gulf War.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register