Washington (Platts)--10Mar2008

Vice President Dick Cheney will bring the Bush administration's "message"
on energy to Saudi Arabia when he visits this week, White House Press
Secretary Dana Perino said Monday.

"I'm sure energy issues will come up," she said during the daily
briefing. But Perino denied that Cheney necessarily planned to ask the Saudis
to increase the kingdom's oil output in the face of record high crude oil
prices and soaring gasoline prices.

OPEC has rebuffed two previous requests by the Bush administration to
increase supply. Perino called the cartel's decision to not boost the output
targets of its members "disappointing," and reiterated the administration's
line that it would be in OPEC's best interest to help its largest customer
head off an economic downturn by decreasing energy prices.

The cartel has in part criticized the Bush administration's handling of
the dollar's exchange rate as being responsible for the country's economic
downturn, and said that oil supplies are adequate.

Perino signaled that Cheney did not plan to aggressively lobby Saudi
Arabia to increase production on its own. "Saudi Arabia will have to make that
decision on its own," she said.

--Jean Chemnick, jean_chemnick@platts.com