"President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he is concerned about oil output around the world as gasoline prices soar and is looking to ease bottlenecks at U.S. refineries to help ease prices at home."

"Republicans have slammed Obama for oil prices that are trading at more than $100 a barrel in New York ahead of November's presidential election, saying he needs to open up more domestic drilling.

"We are concerned about what's happening in terms of production around the world, it's not just what's happening in the Gulf," Obama said at a White House press conference. He was concerned about oil supply outages in South Sudan and other places, he added.

Last week a U.S. Energy Information Administration report on sanctions on Iran said outages in Yemen, Syria and the North Sea have tightened oil markets over the last two months."

Timothy Gardner and Matt Spetalnick report for Reuters March 7, 2012. [2]