Senate says halt oil reserve shipments

WASHINGTON. The Senate, in a direct challenge to President Bush, voted yesterday to temporarily halt the shipment of thousands of barrels of oil a day into the government’s emergency reserve.

Both Democrats and Republicans said such shipments make no sense when oil is costing more than $120 a barrel and could better be used to add supplies to a tight market and possibly lower prices.

The move came on the day that average at-pump prices hit $3.73 a gallon.

With Republicans joining Democrats, senators voted 97-1 to suspend the shipments — averaging about 70,000 barrels a day — until the end of the year.

Bush has been steadfast in continuing shipments of oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a system of underground salt domes on the Gulf Coast, arguing that the stockpile should be filled to its maximum capacity of 727 million barrels. It currently is 97 percent full at 701 million barrels, equal to two months of oil imports.

The reserve was created in the 1970s as a precaution against major interruptions of oil supplies.

Senators said the stockpile is big enough to meet any emergency.

“We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. “When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood.”

Dorgan acknowledged it was “a small step forward” as Congress grapples with ways to respond to soaring fuel prices that have pushed gasoline prices to nearly $4 a gallon.