Opec members could reschedule refinery maintenance or release products from commercial stocks to help ease supply problems caused by Hurricane Katrina, Acting Secretary-General Adnan Shihab-Eldin said today.
"Some Opec countries that have export refineries like Kuwait ... and others are looking (at) if they can help ... maybe (by) operating their refineries at full capacity, rescheduling their maintenance programme, if they have some products stored in commercial inventories that may be made available," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference in Italy. "I know for sure Kuwait is looking at that ... I'm sure (Venezuela) is looking at what else they can do in this respect," he added.
Opec said on Friday it was considering further measures to help ease problems caused by Hurricane Katrina, which hammered the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast on Monday, cutting out some 2 million barrels a day of refining capacity there.