W.House says won't veto bill to halt oil storage

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that President George W. Bush would not veto a final bill from Congress that orders a halt to filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while oil prices are very high.

The Senate late on Wednesday approved a measure previously cleared by the House of Representatives that would stop deliveries of crude to the U.S. emergency petroleum stockpile until the price of oil fell below $75 a barrel.

U.S. oil was trading around $126 a barrel on Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Supporters of the legislation said the average 70,000 barrels of oil a day going into the reserve should instead be put into the market to help lower record oil and gasoline prices. However, many energy experts believe the extra supplies would have little effect on cutting fuel costs.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Walter Bagley)