www.chron.com Jan. 24, 2003, 10:42PM Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle News Services

To keep oil flowing to U.S. refineries and consumers at the gasoline pump, the Bush administration will likely approve requests from energy companies to postpone scheduled deliveries of crude owed to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Energy Department officials said on Friday.

The department has been talking with oil companies about delaying up to 4.4 million barrels of crude to the stockpile and will likely approve requests from firms that want to defer March shipments, the officials said.

An announcement on delaying any March crude deliveries could come as early as next week.

In New York Friday, crude oil futures rallied above $33 a barrel amid fears that Saddam Hussein may destroy Iraqi oil fields in the event of a U.S.-led attack.

Concern about Iraqi oil supplies comes at a time when Venezuela's crude remains largely off the market. A strike that began in early December has severely disrupted Venezuela's oil industry.

Also Friday, OPEC said it could do no more to rein in runaway world oil prices. Alvaro Silva, secretary-general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the group already was pumping enough but could not counter the impact of the threat of war on oil prices.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude for March delivery jumped $1.03 to $33.28 a barrel.

February heating oil rose 3.49 cents to close at 95.02 cents a gallon. February gasoline ended at 92.25 cents a gallon, up 2.44 cents.

In London, March Brent rose 77 cents to close at $30.49 a barrel.

February natural gas rose 6.6 cents to $5.524 per thousand cubic feet in New York trading.

www.samoaobserver.ws By Terry Tavita 23 January 2003

A warning on defective tires issued by the Department of Trade, Commerce and Industry has been questioned by a local tire dealer. “How can you warn consumers on buying new wheels when many cars here are running on bald tires?” he asked.

TCI yesterday issued a press release signed by the Secretary, warning consumers not to purchase tire models Bridgestone/ Firestone R4S, R4SII and A/T Tires. The reason given is that the US.

Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the compatibility of these tires.

It goes further to say that the models have been banned in Saudi Arabia, and is been looked at in Venezuela, Mexico and South Africa.

The tire dealer pointed out that cars in these countries travel at 200 km per hour on the highway, “you can’t compare that to the slow traffic in Samoa.”

“Since cars travel so fast there, any slight defect is looked at carefully. “You put out public notices based on conditions here, not because you read something on the Internet that says so,” said the dealer.

“Most dealers in Samoa import second hand tires from mainly Hawaii and California which are still in good condition, compatible with our roads and driving conditions.”

“The prices are also very affordable for car owners.”

The average second hand tire, he said, costs $70. A new tire of the models in question is sold by a local motor company at $250-$500 depending on the size.

“If TCI is serious about fair trading, then that is a fair trade.

“I’m sure those people at TCI have better work to do than waste time on such mundane issues,” he concluded.

By Terry Tavita 23 January 2003

A warning on defective tires issued by the Department of Trade, Commerce and Industry has been questioned by a local tire dealer. “How can you warn consumers on buying new wheels when many cars here are running on bald tires?” he asked.

TCI yesterday issued a press release signed by the Secretary, warning consumers not to purchase tire models Bridgestone/ Firestone R4S, R4SII and A/T Tires. The reason given is that the US.

Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the compatibility of these tires.

It goes further to say that the models have been banned in Saudi Arabia, and is been looked at in Venezuela, Mexico and South Africa.

The tire dealer pointed out that cars in these countries travel at 200 km per hour on the highway, “you can’t compare that to the slow traffic in Samoa.”

“Since cars travel so fast there, any slight defect is looked at carefully. “You put out public notices based on conditions here, not because you read something on the Internet that says so,” said the dealer.

“Most dealers in Samoa import second hand tires from mainly Hawaii and California which are still in good condition, compatible with our roads and driving conditions.”

“The prices are also very affordable for car owners.”

The average second hand tire, he said, costs $70. A new tire of the models in question is sold by a local motor company at $250-$500 depending on the size.

“If TCI is serious about fair trading, then that is a fair trade.

“I’m sure those people at TCI have better work to do than waste time on such mundane issues,” he concluded.

www.chinapost.com.tw 2003/1/25 DAVOS, Switzerland, Agencies

The secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Friday he believed the world was not on the verge of an oil crisis but the threat of a U.S.-led war on Iraq could change that.

"We are in a transitory situation and not on the edge of an oil crisis," Alvaro Silva-Calderon told the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Asked what would happen to global oil prices if the United States launched military strikes against Iraq, Silva-Calderon said: "We don't know. It's out of our control."

OPEC agreed on Jan. 12 to increase oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in a bid to curb price surges triggered by a strike in Venezuela and the threat of war on Iraq, which has the second biggest known oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.

The move will raise the oil cartel's output to 24.5 million bpd from 23 million bpd starting on Feb. 1. But the promised output hike so far has failed to contain prices, which OPEC aims to keep within a price band of between US$22 and US$28 a barrel.

The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for March delivery stood at US$29.80 per barrel in midday trading on Tuesday. In New York, light sweet crude March-dated contracts closed down 60 cents at US$31.90 per barrel.

Oil prices could soar further if there is a war in the near term because demand for heating is still high in the wintry northern hemisphere, the chief executive of oil giant Saudi Aramco, Abdallah Jum'ah, told the forum of political and business leaders in Davos.

Former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani said on Tuesday the price of crude could more than triple to 100 dollars a barrel if Iraq set oilfields ablaze in the event of a U.S.-led war.

And Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil warned on Wednesday OPEC would not be able to compensate an expected shortfall of supplies of around five million bpd in case of war on Iraq, because only two of the oil cartel's members °X Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) °X had genuine excess production capacity.

Jum'ah told the Davos forum that Saudi Arabia would "continue to have 1.5 to 2 million barrels per day in extra capacity" that it could put on the market "to temper prices."

OPEC has not yet decided whether to take further action to curb prices when it holds its next scheduled meeting on March 11, with the cartel's president saying "all options are open."

www.nytimes.com By JAMES DAO and JUAN FORERO

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell strongly urged the Venezuelan government and its opposition today to accept one of the two proposals offered by former President Jimmy Carter to end the 54-day-old strike that has filled Venezuela's streets with protesters, shut down businesses and paralyzed its oil industry.

As diplomats in Washington and officials in Caracas reported progress toward ending the impasse, several leaders of the opposition movement said they were prepared to begin negotiating on one of Mr. Carter's proposals — a referendum on President Hugo Chávez's rule.

The opposition's willingness to discuss the August referendum took some officials by surprise. Leaders of the opposition had said recently that they considered August too late. Some officials viewed this softening of their position as an indication that the opposition believes that its strike is losing steam.

In Washington today, the Venezuelan foreign minister, Roy Chaderton, also told reporters he believed the government had begun to break the strike at the state-owned oil company, asserting that oil production is expected to surpass a million barrels a day in the near future. Oil industry analysts have said the government exaggerated oil production during the strike.

Diplomacy to end the impasse moved to the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington today, as a new group calling itself the Friends of the Secretary General held its first meeting. The group, which consists of the United States, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Spain and Portugal, is intended to help César Gaviria, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, broker an agreement.

After a two-hour meeting, the Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Amorim, who was appointed coordinator, said he sensed a willingness on both sides to discuss Mr. Carter's proposals.

"I am more hopeful today than I was yesterday," Mr. Amorim said. "There is a beginning of an interest in the proposals."

In a statement to the friends group, Mr. Powell called Mr. Carter's proposals "the best path for Venezuelans."

"They offer a way out of the current impasse, and it is our job as the Friends of the Secretary General group to urge both sides to agree to one of them," he said.

Mr. Carter offered two proposals on Monday in Caracas. One would be the adoption of a constitutional amendment that would cut the president's term to four years from six, ending Mr. Chávez's term this year and leading to new elections. The second, one Mr. Chávez has publicly said he would support, would lead to a recall referendum in August that would ask people whether Mr. Chávez should be removed from office.

The opposition has long opposed the second proposal, saying August is too far off. But now, with Mr. Chávez's government slowly reactivating the once-moribund oil industry and many Venezuelans questioning the effectiveness of the strike, anti-Chávez leaders say they are open to Mr. Carter's proposals.

What has made the referendum idea more palatable, they say, is that it calls on the government to guarantee that the vote would take place no later than Aug. 19, while offering other assurances.

"With these proposals, we are disposed to negotiating," said Carlos Fernández, leader of the country's most influential business group.

There are still stumbling blocks, though. Opposition leaders said they expected the oil workers and executives who shut down the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, not to be fired or punished. Though the Carter proposal says workers exercising their "labor rights" should not be punished, analysts believe it is unlikely that Mr. Chávez will let top dissident oil executives have their jobs back.

In Washington, Mr. Chaderton refused to say whether the government would offer the workers amnesty. Instead, he complained bitterly about violence by the strikers and the harsh criticism of the Chávez government that dominates many newspapers and television stations.

In a meeting with reporters here, Mr. Chaderton was defiant, saying the Chávez government believed it should serve out its full term, scheduled to last until 2006, and had no plans to assist the opposition in either amending the constitution or scheduling an August referendum.

But he suggested that the government would not block a referendum, if the opposition collects the required signatures on petitions.

The shift in the opposition movement came after several leaders in the organization privately criticized those who insisted on continuing with a strike that has made life miserable for countless Venezuelans. The strongest proponents of the strike include Carlos Ortega, the labor leader, some big businessmen and owners of the steadfastly anti-Chávez media, said several members of the Democratic Coordinator, the leading opposition organization.

"They did not see the strike as an instrument for pressuring, but rather as a goal in and of itself," said Armando Díaz, general secretary of the left-wing Red Flag party and a member of the Coordinator. "We told them, `No government will ever fall because of a general strike.' "

A high-ranking member of the Coordinator said that earlier this month, opposition leaders realized that a February nonbinding referendum on Mr. Chávez's rule would most likely not happen. "So Carter's coming here was welcomed," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. "Even though it is the same as Chávez's proposal, it was positive because it came from Carter. That means there is hope."

Venezuela's President Reasserts Hard Line Against Strikers  (January 17, 2003)