Oil prices: Can US, UK, and France drive them down?  Oil prices
are so high that France is considering a release from its
strategic oil stockpile. But even in coordination with the US
and UK, a release is likely to have only temporary effects on
oil prices.  By , Correspondent    • close     France's
President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech at the Petroplus oil
refinery near Rouen, France, last month. On Wednesday, France
revealed it was in talks with the US and the UK to coordinate a
release of strategic oil reserves to bring down high oil prices.
View Caption  France is the latest nation to contemplate tapping
its strategic petroleum reserves, thus raising the possibility
that a joint release of oil with the United States and United
Kingdom could curb rising oil prices.   "It is the United States
which has asked, and France has welcomed favorably this
hypothesis," French Energy Minister Eric Besson said Wednesday.
Such a move, if implemented, could happen in a “matter of weeks”
French daily Le Monde