OPEC agrees to offer extra crude as storm triggers fears

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Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.

VIENNA, Austria -- OPEC agreed today to make 2 million extra barrels of oil a day available in an effort to reassure markets edgy over supplies for the winter and storms threatening refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said it would offer the extra oil for three months starting Oct. 1, but that its output ceiling would remain unchanged at 28 million barrels a day.

"We want to show everybody that we have the ability to provide oil in the future," said OPEC President Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah, who is also Kuwait's oil minister. He said the 2 million extra barrels represented the group's entire spare capacity.