Got Oil?

Democratic (and Independent) Senators have sent a letter to President Bush, urging him to convince OPEC members to increase oil production and that they will block arms deals with the area if no change is made.

Their position is that while the US continues to supply the militaries of oil producing countries, the same countries have reduced their oil production, thus reducing the world oil supply.

For example, currently, Saudi Arabia is producing an average of 8,722,000 barrels of crude oil a day – in 2005 the average was 9,550,000.
 
Saudi Arabia’s current “spare crude capacity” (that is, the amount that could be, but isn’t, produced) is some 3,456,000 barrels per day; in 2006 it was 1,473,000 (BPD).

In addition to the demands for increased production, House Democrats have asked President Bush to halt the stockpiling of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told reporters that such a suspension would reduce gas prices between 5 and 24 cents per gallon.

Scott Stanzel, White House spokesman, stated that the reserve is a protection against supply emergencies and that “we don’t believe the fill rates have a meaningful impact on oil supplies.”

The amount of crude that is stockpiled is less than one percent of the nation’s daily supply.

Currently, the US holds over 700 million barrels of oil in reserve.