Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. won't ask the International Energy Agency for emergency fuel supplies to offset disruptions from hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, an Energy Department spokeswoman said.
Damages from the storms were ``far less severe than we thought,' spokeswoman Healy Baumgardner said today in a telephone interview.
Gasoline already is being exported from Europe to the U.S., Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the Paris-based IEA, said today in an interview in Dublin. The agency serves as an adviser to 27 oil and gas consuming countries and could ask nations to release crude and refined oil products to the U.S. if requested.
Hurricane Ike made landfall in Texas as a Category 2 storm on Sept. 13, less than two weeks after Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana. About 20 percent of U.S. refining capacity was offline because of the storms.
The Energy Department reported this morning that 10 refineries in Texas and Louisiana remain idle because of Ike. The refineries are capable of processing 2.4 million barrels of oil a day.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net.
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