IEA extends releases from emergency oil reserves

The International Energy Association on Wednesday said that it is prepared to extend its releases of oil and gasoline reserves beyond the 30-day period it originally announced in order to help the United States while a portion of its oil production capacity is down due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

The IEA will release 2 million barrels a day, 1.289 million barrels of crude oil and 683,000 barrels of oil products, including 369,000 barrels of gasoline.

This helped crude oil prices lower again, even though supply concerns connected to further disruptions by future storms remained. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 48 cents to $65.48, while Brent crude October contracts on the International Petroleum Exchange lost 62 cents to $64.05 per barrel.

Nymex October gasoline futures, however, were up again at least partly on reports of a strike at Total’s French refineries, gaining 1.5 cents to $2.07 per gallon.

In the US, according to the US Energy Information Authority, consumers are paying an average of $3.069 per gallon, a spike of 45.9 percent in the retail price of gasoline and the largest one-week gain in history.

In addition, the IEA warned that heating oil prices will be 30 percent higher this winter as October Nymex heating oil futures fell 3.4 percent to $2.02 per gallon. Nymex October natural gas prices, meanwhile, fell 50 cents to $11.17 per million British thermal units.