The White House said yesterday that President George Bush's decision on whether to use military force to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would not be influenced by the effect such an attack would have on the price of crude oil or on the American economy.
The comments came as oil prices rallied to their highest level in almost a year in London on the back of concerns that a US-led attack on Iraq is drawing closer.
"The president is not focused on this matter as a question of oil or a question of anything of that like," White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said when asked if Mr Bush believed a change in Iraq's leadership could be done without substantially affecting the price of oil and the US economy.
"The president is focused on this as a matter of the security of the American people and protecting the American people and preserving the peace," Mr Fleischer added.
Mr Fleischer urged Congress to pass a pending energy bill that the White House hopes would allowing drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
The Bush administration wants to tap the refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of oil to help reduce US reliance on foreign crude from unfriendly countries like Iraq.
"No matter what decision the president makes [on Iraq\], the United States will always be better off with a policy that provides more energy independence," Mr Fleischer said.
A military attack on Iraq would likely cause an immediate cut-off in the country's oil exports and at least a short-term rise in crude prices.
But the Bush administration believes other OPEC countries would open their spigots to make up the lost Iraqi oil.
Replacement oil to continue meeting world demand of about 76.4 million barrels per day may be easier to find, now that Iraq's production has declined recently.
The US Energy Department said Iraqi oil production during the second quarter of 2002 fell to its lowest quarterly output level since the beginning of 1998, averaging only 1.5 million barrels per day.
Iraq's oil exports have remained low in the past two months, averaging 910,000 barrels per day.
"Iraqi crude is finding fewer buyers due to Iraqi surcharges, retroactive pricing for European and American delivery and questions of reliability following the country's occasional export suspensions," the US Energy Department said.
American oil companies have scaled back their purchases of Iraqi oil, fearing a disruption in supplies from a US attack.
Iraqi oil exports to the United States averaged almost 800,000 barrels per day last year and reached one million barrels a day earlier this year.
