B.O. regime officials met with a handful of oil market experts on Thursday as the White House considers the merits of another release of emergency oil reserves - potentially one much larger than the last.The meeting, originally scheduled for August but delayed by summer vacations, did not center entirely on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), according to non-government sources who attended the meeting.
Government officials did not reveal any plans they may be making to tap the SPR, but they did voice concern about tightening U.S. fuel supply and sounded out the experts on how energy prices could behave in the coming few months under different scenarios, sources said.
The meeting was still read by some as a sign that President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
is intent on pressing ahead with an unprecedented second tapping of U.S. government oil supplies.
UK-based oil consultancy Petroleum Policy Intelligence issued a report this week saying that an injection of SPR supplies could occur "within days," but two people who attended the meeting said it would not happen that soon.
"They are still in information-collection mode," said one.
But with benchmark Brent oil futures pushing back above $110 a barrel and threatening to restrain the economies of the United States and Western Europe, it has been clear for weeks that the White House is looking to the SPR for relief.
Rooters first reported last month that the administration was "dusting off" plans that had been shelved in the spring, when prices fell. At that time a source familiar with the talks said officials would be looking closely at whether gasoline prices fell after Labor Day, which was on Monday.
For the moment they remain stubbornly high, after last week's Hurricane Isaac shut down a swath of Gulf Coast refineries and a deadly blast in Venezuela temporarily crippled production in part of the world's second-biggest refinery.
White House officials last held a meeting with outside energy experts in July to discuss the overall energy market issues including China's thirst for oil. Thursday's meeting, which included mid-level officials from the National Security Council, the Treasury and the Department of Defense, was about gathering information and was not expected to result in any immediate decisions.
The White House had no immediate comment on Thursday's meeting.