It would be the first time the government loaned oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in almost two years.

While analysts said the impact on red-hot energy markets would ultimately depend on the amount of oil made available, they expected the size of any loans - and the effect on prices - to be small.

"If there is any oil loaned from the reserve it will be minimal and certainly not enough ... to make up for oil production that continues to be lost on a daily basis or to kill the momentum of the current rally," said John Kilduff, senior oil analyst at Fimat USA in New York.

The government did not say which refiners made the requests or how much oil they sought to borrow. An Energy Department spokeswoman said the agency would negotiate with the companies to make "a limited quantity" available.

Light crude for November delivery rose 11 cents to $48.46 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, retreating from a high of $49. That was 24 cents below the Aug. 19 peak Nymex settlement price.

The possibility of the government loaning oil to refiners comes as oil production in the Gulf of Mexico continues to lag 27 percent below normal at 1.2 million barrels per day, according to the federal Minerals Management Service. The agency said 9.6 million barrels of oil have been lost since last Monday, when offshore producers began evacuating crews.

U.S. oil supplies typically grow this time of year as gasoline demand tapers off and refiners briefly shut down to do maintenance. But with 1.5 million more barrels per day of supply lost last week because of shipping delays, refiners have had to use oil in storage to produce gasoline, heating oil and other fuels.

While the Bush administration sought to help refiners, energy analysts and traders said any assistance would not undo the broader market trends that have kept prices high all year.