NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman Wednesday that the White House plans on tapping the nation`s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help refiners hurt by Hurricane Katrina.

Bodman said in interviews televised on CNN and other networks that officials have not determined the amount of crude oil that will be drawn from stockpiles, but that it would be a loan to refiners.

``The SPR was put in place specifically for this kind of an event,`` Bodman said in one interview. ``We now have, in some instances, problems with getting crude to some refineries.``

The reserve is the government`s emergency stockpile of crude oil, which is overseen by the Energy Department. The oil reserves are estimated at more than 700 million barrels stored in underground caverns in Louisiana and Texas.

U.S. crude oil prices dipped 25 cents to $69.56 following Bodman`s comments. Crude prices had risen over $70 a barrel Tuesday before settling up $2.61 at $69.81 a barrel in New York.

Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday, halting crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for roughly a quarter of U.S. oil output.

Nine refineries were also closed along the coast due to the storm, Reuters reported Tuesday.

An official announcement on the reserve release is expected later this afternoon, Bodman said