www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.26.03, 11:10 AM ET

In Porto Alegre, Brazil, story headlined "Chavez says Venezuela oil output at 1.32 bln bpd" ... Please read in headline ... "at 1.32 mln bpd" ... instead of "at 1.32 bln bpd" ...

In para 1, please read ... "currently at 1.32 million bpd" ... instead of ... "1.32 billion bpd" ... and ... "2.6 million" ... instead of ... "2.6 billion" Corrects figures to millions.

A corrected repetition follows.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday said the country's oil production was currently at 1.32 million barrels per day, but would rise to 2.6 million within one month to six weeks.

Oil production in Venezuela, the world's fifth-biggest exporter, has been disrupted by an 8-week-old strike to demand the leftist leader resign and early elections be held. The oil industry is operating far below its usual levels of about 3.1 million barrels per day.

Chavez was in this southern Brazilian city to attend a rally of support for his besieged government at the World Social Forum (WSF), a six-day meeting of leftist intellectuals, grass-roots social groups and nongovernmental organizations.

Chavez was scheduled to hold a news conference later Sunday.

www.timesdaily.com By STEPHEN IXER Associated Press Writer January 26. 2003 11:09AM

Sunday, Jan 26, 2003. Opponents of President Hugo Chavez renewed protests on a central Caracas highway after thousands slept under the stars to protest a Supreme Court decision suspending a referendum on Chavez's rule.

Opponents of President Hugo Chavez renewed protests on a central Caracas highway Sunday after thousands slept under the stars in a demonstration against a Supreme Court decision suspending a referendum on Chavez's rule.

Protesters who had set up tents and inflatable mattresses along 2.5 miles of asphalt stretched their limbs with early morning exercises.

Young and old danced to salsa music blaring from massive loudspeakers as countless red, blue and yellow national flags fluttered in the wind and a party atmosphere gripped the crowd.

The crowd's size, which fluctuated between 200,000 and 300,000 on Saturday, dwindled throughout the night, but tens of thousands were back on the highway Sunday morning and organizers said they would extend the protest.

More than 2000 soldiers, police and firefighters were on guard. Six people have been killed during protests since the strike began on Dec. 2.

The loosely grouped opposition is trying to recover from the blow of a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that indefinitely postponed a Feb. 2 referendum to ask Venezuelans whether Chavez should resign.

The president's opponents had gathered 2 million signatures to petition for the vote. They backed up their demand by launching the devastating strike and staging daily street protests.

Although the referendum wouldn't have been binding, opponents had hoped a negative outcome would have embarrassed Chavez into quitting.

Chavez harshly criticized his opponents Sunday after arriving in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for the World Social Forum, where he was to meet with sympathizers among the 100,000 activists gathered in the southern Brazilian port city to protest American-style capitalism.

"Our struggle against the terrorists and fascists has further strengthened the will of the Venezuelan people," Chavez said at the airport. "One thing is to try to get rid of me, and another thing is to succeed. I have the popularity to remain in power."

The 56-day-old strike is strongest in the oil industry, which provides half of government income and a third of gross domestic product. But production in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter is slowly picking up.

The government claims most of the 40,000 employees at the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., have returned to work and Chavez said Sunday that production was up to 1.32 million barrels of oil per day.

Striking executives put the production figure at 957,000 and deny most employees are back to work. Output was 3 million barrels a day before the strike. It reached a low of less than 200,000 last month.

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that no referendum or election can be held until it decides whether elections council member Leonardo Pizani is eligible to serve on the panel.

Members of Chavez's ruling party filed a suit arguing that Pizani couldn't serve because he resigned from the council in 2000, only to rejoin last November. Pizani insisted he could rejoin because Congress had failed to formally accept his resignation, as it was legally required to do.

Searching for a new strategy, the opposition Democratic Coordinator movement was gathering signatures to demand a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for early elections. The amendment would involve cutting Chavez's six-year term, currently due to run until 2006, to four.

Amending the constitution requires a popular referendum. Citizens can demand such a vote by collecting signatures from 15 percent of Venezuela's 12 million registered voters.

Chavez was elected in 1998 with promises to fight corruption and ease poverty, which afflicts 80 percent of the population. Opponents say his leftist policies have steered the economy into recession and taken unemployment to 17 percent.

www.kansascity.com Posted on Wed, Jan. 22, 2003 CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - The government plans to impose foreign exchange controls to keep the Venezuelan currency from plummeting further amid a general strike that has crippled the economy.

President Hugo Chavez did not elaborate Wednesday on exactly what limits the government would impose on currency trade.

"We've made a decision that we didn't want to take," Chavez said. "But the situation is serious and there is a persistent speculative attack against the national currency."

The decision means that Venezuelans will be limited in the amount of foreign currencies they can buy per day. The decision is meant to stem a run on the bolivar, which has lost 25 percent of its value this year, atop a 46 percent decline in 2002.

Exchange controls will help protect the bolivar and the government's depleting foreign reserves. But it will hurt businesses that need dollars to pay for imported goods.

"This restriction is going to hurt businesses, which depend heavily on imports, especially industry," said Albis Munoz, vice president of the Fedecamaras business chamber.

Venezuela's economy largely relies on imports - about 50 percent of food is imported. Soft drink producers buy sugar abroad, newspapers import paper pulp and the automobile industry depends on foreign-made parts to keep assembly lines moving.

Ruling party member Rodrigo Cabezas, president of the legislature's finance committee, said any exchange controls would be temporary. The last time Venezuela imposed foreign exchange controls was in 1995 during an economic crisis. Those controls lasted two years.

Cabezas said a team of economists may fix a rate of 1,500 bolivars to the dollar. The fixed rate could go into effect next week. Before Chavez's announcement, the government had allowed the bolivar to float.

The bolivar reached a record low of 1,853 to the dollar Tuesday. Traders said the Central Bank has been injecting up to $70 million a day to protect the currency.

Business leaders, labor unions and opposition parties launched a strike on Dec. 2 to demand that Chavez resign or call early elections. The strike has slashed oil production by more than two-thirds.

www.zwire.com By:HAROLD OLMOS, Associated Press Writer January 26, 2003

Venezuelan leader says oil production boosted to 1.32 million barrels daily PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - Strike-paralyzed Venezuela is now managing to produce 1.32 million barrels of oil per day, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday.

Chavez, who is in Porto Alegre to participate in the World Social Forum, told reporters Venezuela should manage to boost production to 2.7 million barrels within a month. He said that amount is what OPEC has determined the country should produce.

The 56-day-old strike aimed at ousting Chavez has badly hurt the oil industry, which provides half of the government's income and a third of Venezuela's gross domestic product.

But production in the world's fifth largest oil exporter has been slowly reviving.

The government claims most of the 40,000 employees at the state oil monopoly, Petrels de Venezuela SA., have abandoned the strike and previously said output had reached 1 million barrels per day.

Striking executives put the figure at 855,000 and deny most employees are back to work. Output was 3 million barrels a day before the strike. It reached a low of less than 200,000 last month.

www.theaustralian.news.com.au By Robin Bromby January 27, 2003

OIL prices have soared to their highest level since the 1991 Gulf War, fuelling fears of a sharp shock to the struggling global economy. West Texas intermediate crude rose to $US35.08 a barrel on Friday night, and analysts suggested the commodity might soon approach $US40 a barrel, a price last seen in August 1990.

An International Monetary Fund study shows each $US5 rise in the oil price slices at least 0.25 per cent off world economic growth.

Modelling by Morgan Stanley shows that oil at $US40 a barrel would deliver a sharp shock to world growth.

More immediately, each $US1 rise in the oil price can also push Australian petrol prices up by 1c a litre. There is usually a lag of about two weeks between a rise in the oil price and a hit at the bowser.

Financial markets will not be reassured by the latest statements from Saudi Arabia which indicate the world's most influential producer has no immediate plans to pump more oil.

Its Petroleum Minister, Ali Al-Naimi, told the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland that there was plenty of oil available and there was no reason for prices to be where they were.

Crude oil prices have risen 55 per cent over the past year, largely due to the fear that there would be a war in Iraq.

To make matters worse, strikes in Venezuela have removed most of that country's three million barrels a day out put from the world market, and even now Venezuelan production is still well below one million barrels a day.

The Venezuelan Government has fired thousands of technical staff in the oil sector, and reports yesterday said it might be four months before the strike ended and full production was resumed.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said if Iraqi production was disrupted by war, it would knock another two million barrels a day off the world total.

Morgan Stanley chief economist Stephen Roach has said a $US40 price until the end of 2003 would knock 0.8 per cent off world growth and leave the global economy mired in recession.

A spike to that level for just two months would reduce growth by 0.4 per cent.

However, prices could drop to $US19 a barrel by the end of 2003 in the event of a "clean" war in which US forces seized the oil fields intact.