Thursday, October 5 6:37 PM SGT

Japan,Europe Would Unlock Reserves If Oil Hits $50-60-Bbl By Peter Landers

TOKYO (DOW JONES)--Japan and European countries would be ready to release some of their strategic stockpiles of crude oil if prices rose to $50-60 per barrel, the Japanese trade minister told Dow Jones Newswires.

Takeo Hiranuma, the minister of international trade and industry, was elaborating on the results of a meeting Wednesday in Paris by the members of the International Energy Agency, a 24-nation group. Mr. Hiranuma's ministry also oversees energy policy.

"At this stage, we are not yet in a situation of releasing our oil," Mr. Hiranuma said. However, he went on, that could change if supply is cut off for some reason during the winter, when the U.S. faces its peak demand period for heating oil, and "if the price of crude oil, which has cooled down recently, rises above $50 to, say, $60" per barrel.

Under such circumstances, he said, IEA members "are ready to release the stockpiles that they each separately hold."

Specifically, he said Japan and European Union nations would be ready to do this "based on our common understanding" reached at the IEA meeting Wednesday.

Mr. Hiranuma said Japan has six months of oil supplies on hand.

Over the long term, Mr. Hiranuma said the ideal situation would be for oil prices to stay steady around $22-25 per barrel. This would benefit both oil producers and consumers by lessening uncertainty, he said.

On another issue of oil policy, Mr. Hiranuma said he is encouraging private Japanese oil companies to release surplus supplies of heating oil if that would help ease demand pressures in the U.S.

http://asia.biz.yahoo.com/news/asian_markets/article.html?s=asiafinance/news/001005/asian_markets/dowjones/Japan_Europe_Would_Unlock_Reserves_If_Oil_Hits__50-60-Bbl.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 05, 2000