HERRINGTON SAYS HE MAY CALL FOR OIL TAX BENEFITS Energy Secretary John Herrington said he may recommend to the White House that the domestic oil industry be given tax benefits to help it produce more oil and head off increasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. He said also at a news conference that he would recommend to the White House that the fill rate of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve be increased from its planned 35,000 barrels per day. The oil reserve fill rate capacity is 100,000 barrels a day. Herrington said he had always advocated a greater fill rate for the petroleum reserve, but the rate had been kept down because of budgetary constraints. Herrington did not disclose what tax incentives he might advocate, but U.S. officials have shown interest in tax benefits for oil and gas exploration and for research and development into new ways to extract oil which is now considered uneconomical to produce. He made the remarks in conjunction with the release of the Energy Department's study on oil's impact on national security. Herrington said that before he disclosed what recommendations for tax benefits for the oil and gas industry he might make, he would raise the matter with the White House Economic Policy Committee to see if the proposals to increase oil production made good tax policy. He said he would like to increase U.S. production by one mln barrels a day. The report said that by the end of the century the United States may be relying on foreign sources for 50 pct of its oil consumption, posing a serious economic and national security threat.