There was sound logic in their reasoning, as the country that uses up to a quarter of the world’s produced crude is being serviced by refining industry that is increasingly inadequate for the massive demands being placed on it.

As such the U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has finally organised an oil industry panel to assess nationwide refining capacity and crude oil stocks to see if steps can be taken to boost U.S. energy supplies.

"There is no question that one of the significant energy challenges we face is insufficient refinery capacity," Abraham said at a meeting of the National Petroleum Council.

The Energy Secretary has secured the services of a number of oil and natural gas industry executives to study U.S. refining capacity and current assumptions about adequate U.S. crude oil inventories.

Currently the industry uses a threshold of 270 million barrels to determine whether supplies are adequate or not, but Abraham questioned whether that assumption is "still appropriate."

"It's obvious that inventory levels are one of the things the market watches very closely, and they play a role in setting prices," Abraham said.