U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said on Tuesday that there are adequate supplies for West Coast refineries, despite the shutdown of a major Alaska oilfield.

"My sense is we're in pretty reasonable shape," Bodman said at a press conference, adding a feared full closure of the Alaska oilfield may not be necessary.

"Should the shutdown of Prudhoe Bay, of the system, prove to be necessary and appropriate, we believe that there are crude oil inventories, as well as additional crude oil availability, that will help us alleviate disruption from Alaska," he said.

"Substitutions for Alaska crude oil, we believe, are available," said the official. "We believe we know how to handle this type of situation ... There appears to be adequate supplies."

He also told the media that BP officials had told him they may be able to make repairs to some of the damaged lines while continuing production, adding it would take probably months to fix the pipeline problem.

Meanwhile, the White House said that Mexico and Saudi Arabia had offered to provide extra supplies.

"They've agreed to help," spokesman Tony Snow told reporters, speaking from President George W. Bush's Texas ranch. "The important thing is, there does not seem to be a significant supply disruption at this point."

London-based BP, the world's second-largest publicly traded oil company, announced Sunday that it would shut Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in the United States, as a result of pipeline corrosion and leaks.

The shutdown will result in curtailment of an estimated 400,000 barrels a day of oil, almost half the total daily production from fields on Alaska's North Slope.

Oil prices jumped by more than 2 dollar a barrel Monday following the production shutdown.

The U.S. Energy Department promised on Monday it would offer oil from the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve if requested.

Source:Xinhua