U.S. to Keep Oil Lanes Open, Hodel Declares
The United States will not permit strategic Persian Gulf oil shipping lanes to be closed despite an intensification of the Iran-Iraq War, U.S. Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel said Monday.
Hodel said Washington has the means and will to keep the shipping lanes open and would take “steps available” to do so if warranted.
Hodel, at a luncheon meeting, said that in the event of a disruption of oil supplies, the United States would immediately draw on its strategic petroleum reserves.
This would be a move to protect the country against an interruption of oil supplies and would not be an effort to manipulate the market, he said.
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