Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will need to pump more than the additional 500,000 barrels a day agreed in September to avoid tight crude and product inventory levels, the head of the U.S. Department of Energy's data section said Thursday. "If no additional supply by OPEC is agreed we will see a shortage in the first quarter of 2008 in inventories. We will see higher draws from inventories," Guy Caruso, who is administrator of the DOE's Energy Information Administration, told an energy conference in Dubai. "US stock inventories for the winter are going to be very tight," he added.

Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.