OPEC asks U.S. to use oil reserves

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has asked the United States to use its strategic petroleum reserves to help reduce oil prices, the cartel's president said Wednesday.

Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's mines and energy minister, said OPEC would discuss the issue further with the United States. He didn't say whether Washington had responded to the request.

"We have asked them [the U.S.] to use their oil reserves to help cool down the prices," Purnomo told reporters.

Purnomo has also asked OPEC members to increase production "to give a signal to the market that we aren't short of supply."

Light, sweet crude for December delivery hit a record high of $55.67 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange on supply concerns ahead of winter in the U.S. and continued healthy oil demand from China.

Unrest in key oil producing countries has also fueled the rise in crude prices in recent months, which is underlined by limited excess capacity. It hovers about 1 percent above the world's daily consumption of 82.4 million barrels per day, leaving little wiggle room if there is a production outage.