WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Department of Energy will delay purchasing oil to fill the nation's strategic petroleum reserve until at least after the winter heating season, a spokesman said Monday.
Earlier this year, President George W. Bush ordered the department to halt filling the reserve ahead of the summer driving season, when gas prices edged up to nominal highs.
Last year, the government sold crude from the reserve -a 727-million-barrel federal oil depository designed to cushion the country against supply disruptions and subsequent petroleum price rises - to meet emergency demand in the wake of a nasty hurricane season.
In June, the reserve held almost 688 million barrels of oil.
Department spokesman Craig Stevens said the department had agreed to hold off collecting 1.7 million barrels still owed to it from oil companies until the second quarter of 2007. Furthermore, given that the department is "satisfied with the current level in the SPR," and it was wary of affecting the market ahead of the high-demand winter heating season, "we have no plans currently to use the $600 million (from last year's oil sale) to fill the reserve," he said.
He said once the department did decide to start buying crude for the reserve, it would be done over a period of months in order to minimize the impact on the market.
Source: Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com