by Calculated Risk on 9/02/2005 04:28:00 PM

NOTE: I will be out of town over the next week (leaving tonight). I hope everyone has a good week ... and my thoughts are with the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The AP reports: Nations to Release 60M Barrels of Oil, Gas

Twenty-six countries in an international energy consortium will release more than 60 million barrels of crude oil and gasoline to relieve the energy crunch caused by Hurricane Katrina in the United States.
...
[Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman] said he had received indications from other IEA members that a significant part of their portion would be refined products, mostly gasoline, which will be released onto global markets.

"We have made it known that we are facing shortfalls in available supplies of refined products in our country as a consequence of this storm," Bodman said, expressing confidence the gasoline will find its way to the United States where prices are expected to remain high.

Already there are 20 ships carrying gasoline from commercial foreign stocks to the United States, he said. The supplies from government stocks would be in addition.

This is a short term (30 day) fix since these countries are drawing down reserves to help the US. OCT Crude Oil was down to $67.57 per barrel and unleaded gasoline (OCT) down to $2.18 per gallon on the news.