◢ The US Department of Energy is not planning to tap into emergency petroleum stocks despite concerns over the impact of oil sanctions on Iran, energy secretary Rick Perry said last week. "If you look at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and if you were to introduce it into the market, it has a fairly minor and short-term impact," Perry said at a briefing last Wednesday. The US administration will begin enforcing sanctions on Iran's oil exports on 5 November but they appear to have forced many buyers to already wrap up business with Iran.