news.ft.com By Canute James in Kingston Published: February 10 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: February 10 2003 4:00 Trinidad and Tobago is negotiating with several neighbouring countries the terms under which it will supply them with gas through a pipeline that it plans to construct.

The discussions are taking place with its immediate neighbours in the eastern Caribbean, and with the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, said Patrick Manning, prime minister. "We could supply about 70 per cent of their demand for natural gas," he said.

Officials say the gas-rich state also plans to use tankers to offer gas to countries in the northern Caribbean, such as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and eventually Cuba.

The country, located off the coast of Venezuela, has become one of the world's major producers of liquefied natural gas through investments of $3bn over the past four years by European and US companies.

The pipeline, the first phase of which is estimated to cost $500m, will provide a new market for the major players in the country's energy sector, including BP, British Gas and Repsol YPF of Spain.

While the gas pipeline will be mostly state-funded, financing agencies from several developed countries are willing to raise the additional funding, Mr Manning said. He estimated that the pipeline would be completed in about seven years.

The first phase of the venture will be a pipeline running northwards from Trinidad and Tobago, through Martinique and Guadeloupe, to Puerto Rico, with spurs supplying Barbados, Antigua, St Kitts and Dominica.

Feasibility studies indicate that the project will reduce energy costs to the region by as much as 30 per cent, said the prime minister.

A European consortium is finalising proposals to Trinidad's government for an almost five-fold expansion in the production of liquefied natural gas to 14.5m tonnes a year, with investments totalling about $2.5bn.

news.ft.com By Canute James in Kingston Published: February 10 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: February 10 2003 4:00 Trinidad and Tobago is negotiating with several neighbouring countries the terms under which it will supply them with gas through a pipeline that it plans to construct.

The discussions are taking place with its immediate neighbours in the eastern Caribbean, and with the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, said Patrick Manning, prime minister. "We could supply about 70 per cent of their demand for natural gas," he said.

Officials say the gas-rich state also plans to use tankers to offer gas to countries in the northern Caribbean, such as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and eventually Cuba.

The country, located off the coast of Venezuela, has become one of the world's major producers of liquefied natural gas through investments of $3bn over the past four years by European and US companies.

The pipeline, the first phase of which is estimated to cost $500m, will provide a new market for the major players in the country's energy sector, including BP, British Gas and Repsol YPF of Spain.

While the gas pipeline will be mostly state-funded, financing agencies from several developed countries are willing to raise the additional funding, Mr Manning said. He estimated that the pipeline would be completed in about seven years.

The first phase of the venture will be a pipeline running northwards from Trinidad and Tobago, through Martinique and Guadeloupe, to Puerto Rico, with spurs supplying Barbados, Antigua, St Kitts and Dominica.

Feasibility studies indicate that the project will reduce energy costs to the region by as much as 30 per cent, said the prime minister.

A European consortium is finalising proposals to Trinidad's government for an almost five-fold expansion in the production of liquefied natural gas to 14.5m tonnes a year, with investments totalling about $2.5bn.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.09.03, 6:10 PM ET NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - U.S. average retail gasoline prices made their biggest jump in 11 months during the past two weeks, as crude prices hit 26-month highs on fears that war in Iraq could upset Middle East oil supplies, according to a nationwide survey on Sunday. The national average for self-serve regular unleaded gas shot up 11.24 cents to $1.5975 a gallon in the two weeks ended Feb. 7, according to the Lundberg survey of 8,000 gas stations. New York crude oil futures jumped above $35 a barrel last week on concerns an attack on Iraq, the world's No. 8 oil exporter, could come before a strike ends in Venezuela, leaving supplies dangerously thin during the U.S. winter. "On top of the war premium already built into crude oil prices, the Venezuelan oil strike of Dec. 2 removed oil from world supply," said Trilby Lundberg, editor of the survey. "Also since then, war jitters have become war preparations." The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Friday the average price for U.S. crude oil is expected to stay above $30 a barrel this year, potentially hindering an economy struggling to rebound from recession. Fears of a shortfall in gasoline supplies ahead of the summer vacation driving season are rising as refineries in Venezuela, normally a big gasoline supplier to the United States, remain well below capacity because of the strike. Low supplies sent U.S. heating oil futures skyrocketing to $1.11 a gallon on Friday, a level not seen since December 1979, after rising 20 percent in the last week.

reuters.com Sun February 9, 2003 05:15 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that foes who tried to oust him through a two-month strike should be sent to prison and he threatened to close private television channels that backed the stoppage.

Since the opposition strike fizzled out a week ago, Chavez has been insisting on harsh punishment for those who organized and participated in the grueling shutdown, which has plunged the world's No. 5 oil exporter into an economic crisis.

"I am calling for jail for the saboteurs, the coup mongers, the terrorists ... they have done terrible damage to Venezuela," the left-wing former paratrooper said in a television and radio broadcast lasting five-and-a-half hours.

He said his government was investigating four private television channels which he said had supported the strike by broadcasting calls for protest and rebellion.

"I don't want to shut down any channel, but if they don't change their ways, I'll have to," he said, speaking during his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.

Chavez's attitude appeared to offer little hope for a peace deal with his political foes, who had failed to force him through the strike to agree to early elections.

His opponents, who include private sector business leaders, anti-Chavez union bosses and rebel military officers, say the populist president is bent on taking revenge against them.

They accuse him of ruling like a dictator, ruining the economy with anti-capitalist policies, threatening media freedom and trying to make Venezuela a copy of communist Cuba.

Chavez rejected opposition calls for the return to their jobs of 9,000 striking executives and employees of the state oil giant PDVSA who have been sacked by the government.

"SHOULD BE IN JAIL"

Opposition leaders demand the reinstatement of the PDVSA strikers as part of any deal with the government on elections. More than 100,000 foes of the president held a big rally in Caracas Saturday in support of the oil industry strikers.

"Sacking them is not enough. Many of them should be in jail for sabotaging the Venezuelan economy," Chavez said.

He read sections of the country's penal code and said the strikers, if convicted, could face prison terms of up to six years for interfering with national energy supplies.

The strike, which slashed oil exports providing around half of state revenues, forced the government to prune budget spending and introduce strict foreign exchange controls to halt capital flight and a slide in the local bolivar currency.

But no criminal convictions against the strikers have been reported so far and Chavez suggested some of the country's judges should be investigated too for failing to do their job.

Opposition leaders, who have pledged to continue a campaign of street protests, reacted angrily to Sunday's tirade against them by Chavez, who survived a short-lived military coup last year. He had staged his own botched coup bid in 1992, six years before winning a landslide election.

"You're a disgrace to this country and the world ... get out once and for all," anti-Chavez union boss Carlos Ortega told Globovision television, which is one of the private channels being investigated by the government.

Chavez said oil production had recovered to close to two million barrels per day (bpd), two thirds of pre-strike levels. But oil strikers put oil output at around 1.3 million bpd.

The president described the currency controls as "a counter-attack" against his foes, whom he portrays as a rich, resentful and privileged elite trying to overthrow him.

"We have to direct the sale of dollars to areas vital for national development," he said, adding the government would concentrate on buying food, medicine and essential imports.

europe.cnn.com Sunday, February 9, 2003 Posted: 2149 GMT President Hugo Chavez threatened Sunday to jail thousands of oil workers fired for leading a two-month strike against him.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez threatened Sunday to jail thousands of oil workers fired for leading a two-month strike against him.

"Fired is nothing! Many of them should go to prison for sabotaging the Venezuelan economy," Chavez said of the more than 9,000 workers dismissed from the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.

His threats came one day after more than 100,000 Chavez opponents protested in Caracas in support of the fired oil workers.

The opposition planned a similar protest Sunday in the state of Carabobo, 66 miles west of Caracas, and held a bicycle protest in the capital.

The nationwide strike was called December 2 to demand Chavez's resignation or early elections. But its leaders -- business groups, labor unions and leftist and conservative politicians -- agreed to end the protest last week in all areas but the crucial oil industry.

Chavez on Sunday called the strike an "oil coup" aimed at unseating him by paralyzing the oil industry, which provides half of government income. He has also accused his opponents of waging an "economic coup" which he blames for Venezuela's deteriorating economy.

The strike cost Venezuela over $4 billion, the government estimates.

Chavez claims most of PDVSA's 40,000 employees have returned to work. Strike leaders deny this, saying thousands refuse to return

until the president rehires the 9,000 fired and agrees to an early vote on his rule. Another 900 oil workers were fired over the weekend, the newspaper El Universal said Sunday.

Still, the oil industry -- the world's fifth-largest supplier before the strike -- is slowly recovering. Chavez, who spoke at the El Palito refinery in western Venezuela, said production is at 1.9 million barrels a day. This compares to over 3 million barrels a day before the strike and just 200,000 at the height of the strike.

Dissident executives say production is nearer 1.3 million barrels a day, and gasoline shortages continue. Motorists wait hours outside the few stocked service stations, while many citizens have taken up cycling to save on fuel.

Several thousand Chavez foes rode bicycles around Caracas on Sunday in support of the fired oil workers. Many wore red, yellow and blue clothes -- the colors of Venezuela's flag.

The president also threatened to use newly imposed currency controls against his opponents. Controls were imposed last week to shore up the weak bolivar and to slow capital flight. The bolivar was fixed at 1,600 per U.S. dollar and a currency administration office was set up to distribute dollars.

Critics say the controls are Chavez's latest attempt to restrict freedom in Venezuela. They fear dollars will only be available to government sympathizers and not to the opposition.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who led a failed military coup in 1992, was elected to power in 1998 and re-elected in 2000. He promised to wipe out the corruption of previous governments and redistribute the country's vast oil wealth to the poor majority.

But after four years in power, unemployment is approaching 20 percent and inflation has soared over 30 percent.

Peace talks organized by the Organization of American States have failed to end the bitter standoff between the government and opposition.