Heating oil worries mount despite SPR release announcement.

US heating oil supplies remain a chief topic of concern, despite the imminent release of more crude oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The American Petroleum Institute says that US refineries are running flat out to ensure that consumers have a readily available heating oil supply this winter. And US rancor directed at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries over high oil prices notwithstanding, OPEC stalwart Venezuela has reiterated its pledge to help the US cope with the looming heating oil shortfall.

API comments

John Felmy, API's policy analysis and statistics director, said that, while the Clinton administration's release of …