www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 14, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

The Venezuelan government has ordered the Armed Forces (FAN) to boost its military presence along the 1,400 mile border with Colombia following accusations from some Colombian government representatives that Colombian guerilla groups are using Venezuelan territory for training purposes and to escape the Colombian army.

According to General Warrick Blanco, there are currently around 5,000 soldiers guarding the border, but many more will soon arrive, along with extra equipment and helicopters. The air force will also increase its surveillance activities along the border. 

Blanco also denied recent reports in the Colombian media that claimed there are around 400 guerilla training camps in Venezuela at the moment, branding the reports "irresponsible."

The government has also strongly denied these claims, however, Fernando Villasmil an opposition politician in Zulia State claims to have a copy of a report by the Environment Ministry that confirms the existence of at least one camp. The validity of the allegation has still to be confirmed.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 14, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) secretary general Manuel Cova has appeared before the Attorney General's Office following a summons issued earlier in the week by public prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz.

At first Cova was unsure as to whether he would attend following the arrest warrants issued for other leading strike leaders, such as CTV president Carlos Ortega who is currently on the run from the police, but following some clarification of why he had been summoned he decided to present himself.

The senior CTV member said he had been questioned in regard to the two month long national work stoppage which he argued "was a decision made by every Venezuelan citizen that believed it was necessary to join the protest which was aimed at securing elections."

Cova told the public prosecutor that Coordinadora Democratica's and the CTV's role had merely been to urge people to participate and those that did so acted of their own accord.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 14, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

According to former executives at the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), the government has taken control of the BCV and it is now "a monetary branch of the government."

In a document signed by 11 former senior BCV executives they claim that the BCV is breaking the Constitution by endorsing government policies. "Monetary policy is now subordinate to fiscal needs and this has led to non-compliance with the Constitution."

Proof of this, the group claim, can be seen on three specific occasions: August 2000 "when the Finance Minister decided to confiscate part of the bank's capital," secondly in October 2001 when the bank's ability to establish reserves were removed from the Central Bank Law and thirdly in November last year when the law was changed because the Treasury needed extra funds.

www.sfgate.com Verne Kopytoff, Vanessa Hua, Chronicle Staff Writers Friday, March 14, 2003

Gov. Gray Davis ordered an investigation Thursday into soaring gasoline, diesel and natural gas prices, questioning whether the oil industry is engaged in illegal profiteering.

Davis asked the California Energy Commission and the state's Public Utilities Commission to examine what he called unexplained price spikes. He suggested that the sticker shock consumers are feeling at the pump and from their heating bills may actually be due to manipulation and a deliberate withholding of supplies.

"The prices are extraordinarily high and don't need to be," Davis said in announcing the investigations at a meeting in Sunnyvale of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, a technology trade association.

The Energy Commission and the PUC are expected to report back to the governor within 15 days. If the commissions discover anything suspicious, the information could be referred to state Attorney General Bill Lockyer for further investigation and possible prosecution.

The governor's call for investigations into fuel costs coincides with gasoline prices hitting all-time highs across the state. A survey this month by the AAA of Northern California shows that the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded Thursday in San Francisco was $2.25, up 71 cents from a year ago.

Natural gas prices are also spiking. An average Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

customer will pay $69.27 in monthly gas bills for March, about 80 percent more than a year ago.

GOUGING DENIALS

John Felmy, an economist for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry trade group, rejected the notion that drivers are being gouged.

Increases in gasoline prices, he insisted, are a consequence of a "perfect storm" of factors ranging from tensions in Iraq to a strike by workers in Venezuela to extra costs associated with California's switch of the smog- reducing fuel additive MTBE to ethanol.

"This is the market at work," Felmy said.

His comments echo what natural gas suppliers are saying. They blame the high prices on a cold winter in the East Coast, in addition to the other factors affecting gasoline.

The rising fuel prices in California elicit obvious comparisons to the state's past electricity crisis in 2000 and 2001, after which suppliers and middlemen were found to have manipulated the market. Davis, who faced stinging criticism for his initial handling of that situation, cast himself as an aggressive consumer advocate this time around.

"As we well know from past experience, many energy companies would rather use Enron-style tricks to fuel their bottom lines, than to fuel California homes and businesses," Davis wrote. "These companies have no qualms about using world events, such as the Venezuelan oil strike and an unusually cold winter on the East Coast, to their advantage."

Felmy, the petroleum industry economist, gave a emphatic response: "It's simply disappointing for the governor to say we're using Enron-style tricks. To lump us in with those well-known problems is unacceptable."

Over the years, the oil industry has been investigated by at least two dozen local and state governments related to price manipulation. Felmy said that it has yet to be found guilty.

On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration, an arm of the federal Department of Energy, said in a weekly report that it believes the current spike is driven by market forces, not gouging.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has asked the General Accounting Office to look into the price increases. Other senators have asked the Federal Trade Commission for a similar inquiry.

California is among those governments that have pursued the oil industry. In 1999, Lockyer began an investigation of gasoline price spikes after a particularly strong episode here.

He ultimately reported that California was highly susceptible to a volatile fuel market due to a limited number of companies owning the vast majority of refinery capacity.

He also said that the state's requirement for a special clean-burning fuel blend made gas imports difficult to get in times of need.

No criminal or civil charges were brought against the oil industry by Lockyer. The investigation is still open, according to Tom Dresslar, a Lockyer spokesman.

"We'll be happy to take whatever evidence or information the PUC or Energy Commission come up with as part of their investigation," he said. "We haven't found anything yet, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

Davis vetoed a part of a state Senate bill that would have given the attorney general $1 million to investigate the oil industry in 1999.

Gabriel Sanchez, a Davis spokesman, said the governor merely thought the attorney general's office could do the investigation with existing funds.

"He does want to get to the bottom of things," Sanchez insisted. "It shows that even back in '99, he was just trying to be a very good fiscal manager."

Davis has accepted $1.27 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry since 1997, according to the National Institute on Money and State Politics, a political watchdog group. Lockyer has received $279,562 in similar contributions during that time, according to the the institute.

HARD TO PROVE

At the event in Sunnyvale Thursday, Davis acknowledged that proving an antitrust case against the oil industry will be difficult. But he added that an industry's high prices tend to moderate or go down when that industry is being investigated.

"Do I have proof, any evidence?" Davis said of the possibility of fuel prices being manipulated. "No. But as governor, I have an obligation to do something about it. Prices do not just go down, and that is my goal, whatever the reason."

Robert Pringle, head of antitrust matters for the Thelen Reid & Priest law firm in San Francisco, said of Davis' call to arms Thursday: "It's highly political. If the government doesn't do anything, it looks like they're not doing their job."

One wrinkle mentioned by Sandy Litvak, an attorney for the Quinn Emanuel law firm in Los Angeles, is that drivers will have to wait a long time before even a successful case against the oil industry pays off.

"It's too difficult to prove," Litvak said. "And if it was really the case, it would be decided four years from now -- a lot of good that will do."

Still, consumer groups praised the governor.

''Consumers feel bent over the oil barrel," said Charles Langley, who oversees the gasoline price issue for the Utility Consumers' Action Network in San Diego. "People need to know, are we paying a fair price or not?"

WHAT THEY DO

California Energy Commission: Oversees energy planning and policy. Duties include forecasting the state's energy needs, advocating energy efficiency and keeping historical energy data such as prices, production and consumption.

California Public Utilities Commission: Regulates natural gas, electricity, telecommunications and private water suppliers. Sets rates and rules for utilities; monitors complaints.

E-mail the writers at Verne Kopytoff at vkopytoff@sfchronicle.com and Vanessa Hua at vahua@sfchronicle.com.

www.fuelcelltoday.com 13 March 2003 Author: Anonymous Provider: World Refining Originally Published:20021201.

Air Products has signed an agreement to supply the ConocoPhillips Lake Charles, La., refinery with hydrogen. To support ConocoPhillips, and perhaps other refiners in the area, Air Products will build and operate a new hydrogen facility in Lake Charles, with a capacity in excess of 100 million standard cubic feet per day.

Air Products already has signed another long-term hydrogen supply agreement with a major Lake Charles-area refinery. To serve the two customers, Air Products will link its new facility to its existing hydrogen pipeline network, which serves about 40 clients.

To meet ConocoPhillips' hydrogen requirements, pipeline shipments will commence prior to the end of 2002, with the anticipated startup of the new hydrogen production facility by mid-2004. "This supply arrangement is one of over 20 that the company has undertaken for refiners worldwide within the past 10 years," said Jeff Byrne, Air Products' regional vice president for chemical and process industries in North America.

The ConocoPhillips Lake Charles refinery has a capacity of 250,000 bpd, and it processes both heavy high-sulfur crude (mainly from Venezuela and Mexico) and low-sulfur crude. The refinery also produces a full range of fuel products and the feedstock for Excel Paralubes, ConocoPhillips' joint-venture facility that produces high-quality lubricating base oils, representing approximately 10% of U.S. lubricating base oil production.

The new hydrogen facility, a natural gas-based hydrogen steam methane reformer, will be the 19th to be built through the Air Products and Technip-- Coflexip Group Alliance. Technip-Coflexip provides the design and construction expertise for steam methane reformers. Air Products provides the gas cleanup technology and, through its operating network, brings operational and engineering knowledge to "design in" high reliability and efficiency, and then operates and maintains the facilities for customers under long-term agreements.

(C) 2002 World Refining. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved