MEXICO CITY — Growing concern over soaring oil prices prompted Mexico on Tuesday to urge a boost in world production, and President Clinton said he is prepared to release crude oil from the nation's strategic reserves.
"I have not closed off any options. I'm monitoring this on a daily basis. It's a deeply troubling thing," Clinton told reporters in Washington.
U.S. crude oil futures on Tuesday briefly hit a nine-year high of $30.45 a barrel, but eased to close at $30.06 after Clinton's remarks.
The government of Mexico, a major oil exporter that helped engineer the sustained oil price rise over the last two years, declared that current prices could damage the world economy and backfire on oil-producing nations.
Mexico has become a major strategic player in global oil strategies, and its change in position is seen as an important development as industrialized nations voice increasing concern about the price of oil.
Energy Minister Luis Tellez noted that benchmark oil prices have reached the highest level since the 1991 Gulf War and are triple the $10 level of less than two years ago.
"In my opinion, this is too high a price," Tellez said.
Tellez said he will call for global oil production hikes to replenish stocks when he meets March 2 with oil ministers from other key oil producers, including the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
OPEC itself next meets March 27, four days before its current production quotas are to expire.
The crude oil price surge has pushed retail heating oil prices above $2 per gallon, roughly double the year-ago price, and gasoline prices to an average $1.356 a gallon nationwide, the highest since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, according to U.S. government data.
This has raised political pressure on the Clinton administration to act. It has also raised fears of inflationary pressures that could derail the nation's economic boom, although the economy has so far absorbed the sharp oil hikes with little apparent damage.
Mexico, the world's eighth-largest oil producer, is not a member of OPEC and in the past avoided becoming entangled in the cartel's decisions.
That changed dramatically in March 1998. With oil prices plunging below $10 a barrel, Mexico initiated accords on production cuts with OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and non-OPEC nations such as Norway.
