White House: Oil reserves eyed as oil prices rise

[March 07, 2011]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's chief of staff says the administration is looking at the nation's oil reserves as it considers options for dealing with the spike in gas prices.

The price of a barrel of oil has passed $100. In the U.S., gasoline is averaging $3.50 a gallon.

Those increases come amid unrest in the oil-producing Middle East, particularly as rebellion rages in Libya.

"We're looking at the options," including drawing on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, William Daley said. "It is something that only is done -- and has been done -- in very rare occasions. There's a bunch of factors that have to be looked at. And it is just not the price."

He told NBC's "Meet the Press" that "all matters have to be on the table when ... you see the difficulty coming out of this economic crisis we're in and the fragility of it."

The reserve contains 727 million barrels of oil.

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Online:

Strategic Petroleum Reserve:
http://tinyurl.com/6h3h5v5

[Associated Press]

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