Mr Snow and his government colleagues in Washington are pleased that the International Energy Agency has agreed to release 60 million barrels of emergency oil and petroleum reserves.

Half of that will be provided by the US itself but European countries will help by shipping refined products which could start arriving here in about 10 days' time.

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Let me get this straight. Europe is bailing out the US economy by providing it with refined oil from our strategic reserves? Presumably the US is going to pay for this oil? I mean we aren't going to just give it to them gratis. But how will the price be set? By the market? And if so, why wouldn't the market be able to get oil to the US anyway?

Am I being naive here? Either the market has barrels of oil for sale and they cost X, in which case the US just needs to buy them. Or it doesn't, in which case, the US can't buy them. When Europe releases those barrels, shouldn't they go onto the market, which can then price them correctly?

Maybe, with the extra demand from the US, the price has just gone up further.

I suppose it's in our interest not to let the US economy go down the tubes? Has anyone sat down and done the calculations about that? Who made the decision?

Looks like more details available here