Bush reelection – oil prices rise

&to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/14250_Chavez.html ' target=_blank>Oil prices surged more than $1 on Wednesday as the re-election of President Bush countered the impact of a big increase in spare oil supplies ahead of winter.

Crude dealers said Bush's victory over Democrat &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/14242_Kerry.html ' target=_blank>Senator John Kerry could bolster U.S. fuel demand and underscore anxiety over the security of Middle East oil shipments.

U.S. light crude settled up $1.26 to $50.88 a barrel, climbing back over the psychological $50 mark after settling below it for the first time in a month on Election Day. Brent crude was up $1.01 to $47.56, informs Reuters.

"A &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/politics/2000/11/08/777.html ' target=_blank>Bush victory implies that the government will continue to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," said Jim Steel, director of commodity research at Refco Inc. in New York. "There will surely be no decline in the reserve, which would have been likely if Kerry had won." The U.S. reserve has 670.7 million barrels of oil stored in salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas and Louisiana. That's a 22 percent increase since Bush decided three years ago to fill the reserve to its capacity of 727 million barrels.

While Kerry said that additions to the reserve should be suspended, some Democrats in Congress had said that a drawdown of the reserve would be appropriate to ease prices. The Bush administration has ruled that out, saying the reserve is for significant supply disruptions and not to manipulate prices, reports Bloomberg.