With Today's Oil Prices Nearing $71 a Barrel

[Annie]

Looks like they may hit reserves:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2005-08-28-oil-katrina_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

Bush may tap strategic oil reserve as prices soar
From wire reports
NEW YORK — The Bush administration said Monday that it would consider loaning crude oil from the government's emergency stockpile, if requested by U.S. refiners facing delayed shipments due to Hurricane Katrina.

"Certainly that option is on the table and it is a possibility based on what we have done in the past with other hurricanes," an Energy Department spokesman said.

However, the Energy Department has not yet received a formal request for loans from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), a crucial administrative step that starts the decision-making process, the spokesman said.

"There hasn't been a request yet, and we aren't going to make a decision before there is a request."

Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast Monday in a blow aimed at the heart if the U.S. oil patch.

"We are in contact with individuals down at the SPR, and also with oil producing companies and refiners," the spokesman said. "We'll have more information in the next 24 to 48 hours on which we can base any kind of recommendation or decision."

An estimated 633,000 barrels of daily crude oil production, 42% of the daily average output from the Gulf Coast, was halted as of Sunday because of Katrina....

 

[no1tovote4]

The reserves are held for just such an emergency... Thankfully the current Administration had the foresight to save it for an actual emergency rather than simply opening the reserves every time the price went up as I have heard called for every single time it happens, usually by those on the left.