The Republic is prepared to release some of its emergency stocks of oil in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Government indicated last night.
The Republic has emergency stocks of about 17 million barrels of oil and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is awaiting any requests from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which co-ordinates energy supply for industrialised economies.
A spokeswoman for the Department said that, if the IEA requested a release of stocks, it would meet a positive response. "If they ask for us to respond then of course we would," she said.
The department declined to comment on the amount of oil it might release into the market. Various EU governments yesterday said they would dip into their emergency stocks to help the US through an energy crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina.
France, Germany, Spain and Italy declared they were ready to send fuel across the Atlantic in an operation co-ordinated by the West's energy watchdog, the IEA said.
The Paris-based IEA announced its members would release two million barrels per day (bpd) of oil over an initial period of 30 days. About half that will be gasoline from European refiners that will roughly match output lost from the US gulf coast's battered refineries. The rest will be crude from US reserves.
Gasoline prices have soared by nearly a fifth over the past week and US president George W Bush has urged Americans to go easy on fuel. Unlike the IEA, the US has only emergency reserves of crude and a small stockpile of heating oil.
"It's self-evident that we support the American bid," German chancellor Gerhard Schröder told a news conference in Berlin.
France echoed Mr Schröder's remarks: "This request is consistent with efforts for solidarity with the American people," the industry ministry said in a statement. But Europe's pledge of gasoline may carry a political price for Washington. Differences over trade and foreign policy have strained relations between the US and some EU member states including Germany and France.
British foreign secretary Jack Straw said it was up to each country to respond to the best of its ability but he did not say how Britain would respond.
The IEA last dipped into its emergency reserves in 1991 when a US-led coalition ejected Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The agency, created after the 1973-74 oil crisis to protect consumers, must hold stocks of 90 days of net imports.
- (Additional reporting by Reuters)
