abcnews.go.com — By Jonathan Landreth

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday bolstered by fears that war in Iraq would cut world supplies already thinned by a Venezuelan strike and strong U.S. demand for winter heating.

U.S. data later on Wednesday is forecast to show that heating fuel stocks declined last week, reinforcing the impact of a bout of below-normal cold weather in the world's biggest energy consuming nation.

The data is expected to partly offset comments on Tuesday from Washington that it would quickly release strategic oil reserves if a war in Iraq disrupted supplies.

Oil markets fear a U.S. attack on Iraq, the world's eighth largest oil exporter, could slash oil shipments from the Middle East, which supplies about 40 percent of the global crude trade.

"The market expects a war sooner rather than later," said John Hirjee, senior energy analyst at Deutsche Bank in Melbourne.

U.S. light crude was up 22 cents at $36.28 a barrel at 2 a.m. EST, recovering some of the 42 cents lost in New York on Tuesday.

U.S. March heating oil, which rose to a record high of $1.18 a gallon on Tuesday, was up 0.98 cent at $1.1324 compared with New York's close.

New York oil prices have risen some 45 percent since November after a strike stunted exports from key oil supplier Venezuela and cold temperatures eroded domestic fuel supplies.

Iraq offered U.N. arms inspectors on Tuesday documents on past arms programs, but President Bush pressed his case for nothing less than full disarmament.

Bush emphasized he would bypass the United Nations and attack Iraq if necessary, saying approval of a new U.N. resolution was not essential.

U.S. government supply data is expected to show distillates stocks fell last week by 2.6 million barrels, or about 2.5 percent.

"Feeding supply fears is the cold weather in the United States," Hirjee said.

Heating demand could continue to bolster fears of supply shortages since temperatures in the U.S. Northeast, the world's biggest heating-oil market, are forecast to be below seasonal norms this week.

However, Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, said the U.S. would quickly release stock from its 600-million-barrel strategic oil reserve if supplies were disrupted by a war in Iraq.

"We will and can act quickly to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to fortify efforts by producers to offset any severe disruption, if it is needed," Abraham told lawmakers at a Senate Energy Committee hearing.

Wednesday's inventory report also is expected to show a small drop in gasoline supplies and a one-million-barrel rise in crude oil stocks.

www.nola.com Wednesday February 26, 2003 By Marty Mulé Staff writer

The college career of Hector Romero, the Sun Belt Player of the Year last season and one of the league's top scorers for a second straight year, has ended because of an injury suffered Sunday.

Romero, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the first half of last weekend's 68-63 loss at DenverThe injury is not likely to prevent Romero from pursuing professional basketball possibilities, the team physician said, but it ends his college career. From Our Advertiser

In his two seasons at UNO, Romero failed to score in double-figures only once -- in his last game. He averaged 20.2 points per game in 2001-02, second in the Sun Belt, and led the conference in rebounding with a 10.8 average.

This season, after going scoreless against Denver, he is second in the league in scoring (18.3) and third in rebounding (9.1).

Earlier this season, Romero became the 20th Privateer to score 1,000 points in a career and was named to the National Basketball Coaches Association's All-District 8 first team for the second consecutive season.

The Privateers play their first game without Romero tonight at Lakefront Arena against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (13-14), winners of three straight.

Three seniors -- Romero, center Nerijus Lisauskas and forward Jason Mann -- will be recognized before the game, UNO's last home game of the season.

Either Mann or sophomore Victor Brown will start in place of Romero, Coach Monte Towe said.

Dr. Vince Morelli, UNO's team physician, said that with surgery and rehabilitation, Romero could play basketball at a high level again. "Some guys can't because they have bad associated injuries," Morelli said. "Hector doesn't have these associated problems, so there's a good chance he can play again."

Once Romero recovers the range of motion in the leg, there will be surgery to reconstruct the ligament, Morelli said.

The injury occured when Romero caught a pass near the basket, spun, then came down awkwardly in the first half against Denver. He left the game, then returned briefly in the second half but had to leave again.

He said the injury seemed fine afterward and he was walking on it without pain. But on Monday the leg swelled. MRI tests revealed the extent of the injury.

"It's such a shame," Towe said. "Hector meant so much to our team, our program, really, it's hard to put into words. I told him this won't affect his chances for later on (professional basketball), and that's the good thing. The other side of it is we have to go on without him, and I don't mean we'll miss him just as a player."

As a player, Romero left a major imprint on UNO basketball and helped in getting Towe's program in place.

The paths of the two crossed almost a decade before, when Towe was coaching Marinos de Oriente in the Professional Basketball League of Venezuela. Romero, growing up in Barcelona and enchanted with the game, came to see Towe's team win the championship.

"I remembered that he won a lot of games," Romero said when he realized the Monte Towe who was trying to convince him to come to UNO from Independence (Kan.) Community College was the same animated coach he watched in Venezuela.

A similar light had earlier registered for Towe when he ran across Romero's name while scanning a recruiting list. "The name seemed familiar, and it was," Towe said. "It was on all the junior college evaluations. We looked into it."

Going after Romero may have been the best move Towe made in his two-year major college head coaching career, and coming to UNO was a good decision for Romero. He became the platform on which Towe built his program.

"It's almost over now, and that's a little hard to believe," Romero said last week. "It's gone by so fast. I remember when (the athletic department) put my picture on posters, on programs, how surprised I was. My jaw dropped I was so stunned. It touched me because it's good to know people appreciated you.

"But UNO gave me an opportunity, and that's what I came here for."

UNO basketball would certainly have been different without Romero, who had 28 double-doubles (scoring and rebounding) in his 54-game career.

In his first season at UNO, Romero became the first Privateer to rank in NCAA's top 50 in both scoring (20.2, 36th) and rebounding (10.8, ninth) in the same season.

After Romero scored a game-high 29 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in a game at Florida, a top 10 team, Gators coach Billy Donovan offered an unsolicited opinion: "Hector Romero was the best player on the court today."

"Hector was probably better than any of us could have thought," Towe said. "He fit right in, performed at a high level and helped lift his teammates. I'm glad we didn't have to go through (that first season) without Hector."

Towe said Romero's presence gave him a leg up on his long-range plans for the program. UNO stumbled out to a 5-11 start last season before winning 10 of their final 12 games, finishing 15-14.

"It wasn't an eye-catching record," Towe said, "but it was important because we were really playing well at the end. We really were a year ahead of time, because at the start I don't think anyone predicted that for us."

This season the Privateers are 14-12.

Towe said Romero's success could have been from being in the right place at the right time. "He could have gone to other places, Manhattan or Charlotte. But at those schools he might not have played right off, and he might not have developed as quickly. We needed him, and we benefitted from Hector coming here. But Hector benefited from being here, too."

Romero's statistics aren't the most telling sign of his contributions to the rebuilding of the UNO program, said Towe, who remembered point guard A.J. Meredith hugging Romero after a game during the Privateers' stretch run a year ago.

"A.J. grabbed Hector and said, 'We love this guy,' " Towe recalled.

"And you know, it's hard to just walk into a program, with guys who were already here, and be the loved one."

. . . . . . Marty Mulé can be reached at mmule@timespicayune.com. or (504) 826-3413.

www.nola.com Wednesday February 26, 2003 By John M. Biers Energy writer

For the second day in a row, spot prices for natural gas soared to historic highs on Tuesday, jumping almost 50 percent in what one trader called panic buying to close at $19.38 per million Btu on Louisiana's benchmark Henry Hub exchange.

The price spike has been prompted by the latest stretch of cold weather in the Northeast and Midwest, which is expected to continue a brutally cold winter that already has diminished natural gas supplies. Despite the cold weather and low supplies, the energy industry has been slow to pick up natural gas drilling this winter.

Gas-shortage fears spread through the market this week, as utilities and other buyers purchased their gas for the upcoming month, said Dan Pickering, an analyst for Simmons & International, a Houston investment bank specializing in energy.

"It's obviously panic buying driving this thing and there are some guys hung right now and nobody seems to want to sell it," Brad Florer, a trader for APB Energy in Louisville, told Bloomberg News.

The spike is even more dramatic than the jump two years ago, when prices jumped above $10 per million Btu.

A top regulator with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Tuesday he will review recent trading of natural gas futures, Bloomberg News reported.

Natural gas, widely used for home heating, normally sells for roughly $2 to $4 per million Btu. In recent weeks, however, prices had climbed to the $5-$6 range.

Only about 5 percent of the nation's natural gas is bought on the spot market. Most gas is bought on monthly contracts for future delivery. Futures prices were high Tuesday, but not nearly as dramatic. On Tuesday, the March price was $8.90, while April was $6.40 and May was $5.70. This decline suggests the market anticipates the price spike will be short-lived, Pickering said.

Locally, the price spike is expected to have a limited effect on utility bills -- as long as it is short-lived.

Natural gas prices have been trading well above historical levels this winter. Many locals were shocked at their February heating bills, which were more than double the amount some customers paid in January.

Entergy spokesman Chanel Lagarde said the effects of this week's price surge are "minimal."

"The recent increase in the price of natural gas will affect the gas adjustment of customers' bills," Lagarde said. "However, the increase will not be as dramatic as the increase in the spot market."

Citing proprietary concerns, Lagarde declined to give specifics on Entergy, but said the company purchases "very little" of its gas on the spot market. About one-third of Entergy's gas was bought last summer under a hedging program, in which prices were locked in at then-prevailing rates. Most of the remaining two-thirds was bought under monthly contracts for delivery in early February, when prices stood in the $6 range.

But if the prices stay lofty, much higher natural gas bills eventually would result.

The high prices are also a burden for Louisiana's vast petrochemical industry, which relies on natural gas to run facilities and to serve as a feedstock in some operations. This winter's high prices are having a "very significant" impact, said David Brignac, spokesman for Shell Chemical Co. in Norco.

Natural gas represents more than 70 percent of cash costs for some commodity chemicals, such as ammonia, according to a Lehman Brothers report released Feb. 19 before this week's spike.

Pointing to "natural gas fever," Lehman Brothers chemical industry analyst Sergey Vasnetsov echoed other experts who have pointed to a new, higher "normal" range for natural gas in the $3.50-$4 range through 2006.

"We would love to see the price return to $3 or below, but should not count on relief given the tight U.S. supply and likely prospects of rising demand for natural gas," Vasnetsov said.

While this week's dramatic jump in natural gas prices may shock the public, energy analysts have predicted increased volatility for years, with some even speaking of a possible "train-wreck" this winter.

One central factor is the dilemma faced by energy companies, which encounter pressure from Wall Street to focus capital spending only on giant discoveries. The problem in the United States is that many of the fields already have been tapped, which requires companies to spend more money on lower-yielding fields.

This winter's high natural gas prices have been accompanied by lofty crude oil prices, which are socking consumers at the pump. Despite growing complaints from lawmakers, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham on Tuesday told a congressional hearing that the Bush administration would not release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve based on price fluctuations.

Spot crude prices dropped 74 cents Tuesday to close at $35.96 on benchmark west Texas intermediate. The high prices stem from a lengthy fuel interruption in Venezuela and anxiety over a possible war in Iraq.

. . . . . . . John Biers can be reached at jbiers@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3494.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.26.03, 2:07 AM ET By Jonathan Landreth SINGAPORE, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday bolstered by fears that war in Iraq would cut world supplies already thinned by a Venezuelan strike and strong U.S. demand for winter heating. U.S. data later on Wednesday is forecast to show that heating fuel stocks declined last week, reinforcing the impact of a bout of below-normal cold weather in the world's biggest energy consuming nation. The data is expected to partly offset comments on Tuesday from Washington that it would quickly release strategic oil reserves if a war in Iraq disrupted supplies. Oil markets fear a U.S. attack on Iraq, the world's eighth largest oil exporter, could slash oil shipments from the Middle East, which supplies about 40 percent of the global crude trade. "The market expects a war sooner rather than later," said John Hirjee, senior energy analyst at Deutsche Bank in Melbourne. U.S. light crude was up 22 cents at $36.28 a barrel at 0700 GMT, recovering some of the 42 cents lost in New York on Tuesday. U.S. March heating oil, which rose to a record high of $1.18 a gallon on Tuesday, was up 0.98 cent at $1.1324 compared with New York's close. New York oil prices have risen some 45 percent since November after a strike stunted exports from key oil supplier Venezuela and cold temperatures eroded domestic fuel supplies. Iraq offered U.N. arms inspectors on Tuesday documents on past arms programmes, but U.S. President George W. Bush pressed his case for nothing less than full disarmament. Bush emphasised he would bypass the United Nations and attack Iraq if necessary, saying approval of a new U.N. resolution was not essential. U.S. government supply data is expected to show distillates stocks fell last week by 2.6 million barrels, or about 2.5 percent. "Feeding supply fears is the cold weather in the United States," Hirjee said. Heating demand could continue to bolster fears of supply shortages since temperatures in the U.S. Northeast, the world's biggest heating-oil market, are forecast to be below seasonal norms this week. However, U.S. Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, said the U.S. would quickly release stock from its 600-million-barrel strategic oil reserve if supplies were disrupted by a war in Iraq. "We will and can act quickly to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to fortify efforts by producers to offset any severe disruption, if it is needed," Abraham told lawmakers at a Senate Energy Committee hearing. Wednesday's inventory report also is expected to show a small drop in gasoline supplies and a one-million-barrel rise in crude oil stocks.

pacific.bizjournals.com 7:24 AM HST Wednesday  Howard Dicus   Pacific Business News

Hawaii gasoline prices are on the rise again after pausing for a day or two in some locales. World oil output, meanwhile, has improved.

The American Automobile Association's retail price survey for self-serve regular unleaded, in postings for Wednesday morning, showed an average $1.84 a gallon in Honolulu, while the Hilo average rose to almost $1.98 and the Wailuku average topped $2.12. Some more remote locales had still higher prices.

But there was good news late Tuesday on world oil supplies when the Venezuelan state oil company announced that ChevronTexaco was to load 270,000 barrels of crude on a tanker at the western port of Bajo Grande this week. Until now only eastern port international loadings had been reported since the general strike began in Venezuela in December.

Venezuela, an OPEC member, supplies a large amount of the foreign oil used in the United States, and ChevronTexaco owns one of the two refineries on Oahu. Tesoro Corp. owns the other.