White House denies report on oil reserve release ( CLJ2 ) (by Greg Robb)
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The White House on Thursday denied a report that Britain and the U.S. have decided to cooperate in an agreement to release strategic oil reserves. The report had pushed crude-oil futures lower. While President Barack Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron did discuss energy issues, including the rise in the price oil, during their meeting at the White House on Wednesday, no deal was agreed to, White House spokesman Jay Carney said at the daily briefing. "I can say very clearly that the report suggesting that any kind of agreement was reached on a course of action with regard to those energy issues, that any agreement was reached with a timetable associated with it, that report is false, it is not accurate," Carney said. The report from Reuters Thursday said that the U.S. was going to make a formal request to the U.K. to join forces in a release of oil from government-controlled reserves and said Britain was expected to respond positively. Crude-oil futures for April delivery (clj2) traded flat at $105.46 a barrel; they had fallen to $103.78 after the Reuters report.