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Clinton should pressure Opec to lower prices: Bush

MANCHESTER: Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the top Republican in the race for the White House, Wednesday said President Bill Clinton should urge Opec to produce more crude oil and drive world oil prices lower again.

Speaking during a debate among Republican presidential candidates, Bush said he supported a decision by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson not to draw down the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help cover market shortages and push prices lower.

But he said the real problem was production cuts agreed by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

"What I think the president ought to do is he ought to get on the phone with the Opec cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots," Bush said.

"The president of the United States must jawbone Opec members to lower the price. And if in fact there is collusion among big oil, he ought to intercede there as well," Bush said.

He said the president should use the United States' good relations with many Opec member countries to help pressure the cartel to lower prices.

"If the president does his job, the president will earn capital in the Middle East, and the president should have good standing with those nations," Bush said. "It's important for the president to explain, in clear terms, what high energy prices will not only do to our economy, but what high energy prices will do to the world economy."

He said it was in the best interest of Saudi Arabia and other Opec members "for the price of oil to mellow out. It's not only in our country's best interests. It needs to be explained to them, it's in their best interests."

Bush also said it was important for the United States to become less dependent on foreign crude oil, saying he supported exploration of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and exploration of natural gas.

The Clinton administration on Wednesday said it would postpone the delivery of five million barrels of crude oil into the SPR in a gesture aimed at easing a supply shortfall and addressing high oil prices, which have more than doubled from a year ago thanks mostly to Opec production cuts.

Crude and heating oil prices are running near nine-year highs, pricing West Texas Intermediate crude at nearly $28 a barrel.

The SPR emergency reserve already holds a vast 568 million barrels of crude in underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas. The reserve was created by Congress in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo.

Despite pressure from members of Congress and state governors, Richardson still refuses to recommend to President Clinton that oil be sold from the reserve to lower prices.

Richardson insists that the reserve be used only to handle a disruption in oil supplies, not as a way to control prices.-Reuters