US Wants Oil Producers To Respond After Mideast Turmoil

US Wants Oil Producers To Respond After Mideast Turmoil
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Τρι, 22 Φεβρουαρίου 2011 - 16:24
The U.S. is concerned about the ongoing unrest across parts of the Middle East and North Africa and thinks oil producers need to respond, U.S. deputy secretary of energy Daniel Poneman said Tuesday.
The U.S. is concerned about the ongoing unrest across parts of the Middle East and North Africa and thinks oil producers need to respond, U.S. deputy secretary of energy Daniel Poneman said Tuesday.

"We are obviously watching these developments with concern...oil producers need to respond," Poneman told reporters on the sidelines of a gathering of oil ministers in the Saudi capital.

Libya 's leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi violently crushed protests across Libya Monday--and his armed forces dispatched mercenary soldiers to the capital, Tripoli , to shoot protesters, witnesses said. Meanwhile military, police and diplomats abandoned government posts and swaths of the country's east fell under control of anti-regime forces.

Around 50,000 barrels a day of oil output from
Libya have been shut down due to the unrest there, David Fyfe, head of the Oil Industry and Markets Division at the International Energy Agency told a London conference Monday.

Libya , a member of the Organization of Petroeum Exporting Countries, pumped 1.6 million barrels a day of oil in January, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

Poneman, however, said the
U.S. didn't see any disruption in the market caused by the current Libyan crisis.

Earlier Tuesday, IEA head Nabuo Tanaka said that any small disruption in oil production as a result of ongoing unrest in
Libya could cause a spike in the price of oil, but that there are strategic stockpiles and OPEC is ready to use its spare capacity.

Shokri Ghanem, chairman of
Libya 's National Oil Corp. didn't answer questions in an email about how Libyan oil output had been affected by the recent unrest in the country.

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