reuters.com Mon March 17, 2003 10:22 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said on Monday that the Energy Department has told him that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is ready to release oil to counter a disruption in supplies.

"Our review with the Department of Energy has convinced me that the SPR is fully operational and capable of releasing crude oil within the parameters required to prevent interruptions in crude oil deliveries to the market," Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin said in a letter to fellow lawmakers.

"The SPR has, for some time now, transitioned from the 'fill' mode to the 'flow' mode and is prepared to flow upon orders from the President," Tauzin said.

With a possible war with Iraq looming, supply disruptions in Venezuela and skyrocketing oil prices, Tauzin made his comments in a letter to lawmakers urging their support to expand the reserve to 1 billion barrels from its current capacity of 700 million barrels.

www.barbadosadvocate.com Web Posted - Mon Mar 17 2003

WHEN CIBC and Barclays Bank PLC completed their merger last year, it virtually set in motion the start to changes in the local banking industry.

That process now seems to be picking up speed with talks of a strategic arrangement between the Barbados National Bank and Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.

Financial sources told Business Monday that there are a couple of issues that would favour the BNB going for a strategic partner.

“The first is that the face of banking in Barbados is not only changing but that the competition is becoming tough,” one analyst indicated.

He recalled that the creation of FirstCaribbean International the entity out of the merger of CIBC and Barclays Bank PLC is a large bank.

“That bank has with assets of US$10 billion that effectively made it the largest bank on the island,” the source said. However, the other players like Royal Bank and Scotiabank with their foreign base, give them the depth to be significant players in this market, according to an economist.

“Secondly, the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is going to provide new opportunities and challenges for banks, and the BNB has to be in a position to capitalise and benefit from those opportunities,” the economist said. Though it has been performing well over the past few years, the BNB might still be unable to match what these “giants” are able to do.

“By ... seeking a strategic partner the BNB’s is effectively becoming more dominant in the industry.”

“With several businesses in Barbados as well as Government seeking foreign financing the opportunity is there for capitalising on such activities,” it was pointed out to Business Monday.

“So there are synergies to be gained from the arrangement.” Republic Bank’s assets stand at well over TT$10.7 billion and in 1996, the bank showed after tax profits of TT$136 million. Republic employs over 2 000 people in Trinidad and Tobago.

With a well established branch network and the reputation as the premier bank in Trinidad and Tobago, Republic Bank Limited has expanded its operations beyond its home base, and positioned itself as the leading financial services institution in the Eastern Caribbean.

The bank’s major subsidiary in Trinidad and Tobago is Republic Finance & Merchant Bank Limited (FINCOR). For the purpose of large scale property development, the London Street Project Company Limited was developed in 1995 as a subsidiary to FINCOR.

Republic Bank was actively establishing subsidiaries in 1992. That year the bank and Grupo Acedo-Mendoza established Acedo-Mendoza Fincor C.A., a confirming house with offices in Venezuela and Colombia as well as Trinidad. Also in 1992, Republic established Republic Bank Trinidad and Tobago (Cayman) Limited, a wholly-owned offshore bank with registered offices in the Cayman Islands. Before the close of the year, Republic Bank Limited purchased a 51 per cent shareholding in the National Commercial Bank of Grenada Limited, a commercial banking operation with eight branches on the islands of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

biz.yahoo.com Reuters Monday March 17, 4:34 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World oil prices eased further on Monday as dealers wagered that the looming war in Iraq would be short and inflict only limited damage on Middle East oil flows.

The possibility that the United States could release oil from its 600-million-barrel emergency oil stockpile further weighed on prices, which have fallen more than eight percent over the last three trading sessions.

"The market believes the war will be short and quick, so there should be a relatively soft landing for crude prices," said Charlie Luke at Aberdeen Asset Management.

U.S. light crude futures (CLc1) dropped 45 cents to $34.93 per barrel, down from a 12-year high of $39.99 hit late last month. That is $6 short of a $41.15 all-time peak during the 1990-91 Gulf War crisis.

Brent crude oil (LCOc1) fell 65 cents to $29.48 per barrel on London's International Petroleum Exchange, which was forced to close for two hours when anti-war protesters raided the London market waving banners saying "Oil fuels war."

Prices fell as the United States and its allies ended diplomatic efforts to win U.N. approval for an ultimatum to Iraq, clearing the way to launch war without Security Council authority.

Speculative investors that fueled a 60 percent rise in oil prices in just over three months are now selling to avoid being caught out by a sudden price slide if Middle East oil flows escape severe disruption.

In the first Gulf War, prices sank from over $30 to barely $20 when the U.S. launched its January 1991 offensive as it became clear that Iraq would not harm oilfields in Saudi Arabia.

But prices could quickly go back up if Iraq inflicts substantial damage on its own oilfields, or the war is prolonged, analysts said. Iraq and its Gulf neighbors together pump about 40 percent of global crude exports.

U.S. plans to quickly secure Iraq's northern Kirkuk oilfields in the event of war has also been undercut by Turkey's refusal to let U.S. troops through its territory.

"The market is betting on a short, straightforward campaign that would be over fairly quickly," said Steve Turner of Commerzbank in London.

"But there is definitely upside if the war is long and difficult and there are repercussions across the Middle East."

NO MARGIN FOR ERROR

A cold winter and prolonged supply hitch from Venezuela simultaneously drained commercial stockpiles to historic lows, and the OPEC (News - Websites)oil cartel has little spare production capacity to cover further supply disruption.

U.S. gasoline pump prices have already hit a new all-time high of $1.73 a gallon for an average price of regular unleaded, the government said on Monday. A sustained increase in energy costs could further weaken an already soft economy, analysts say.

Iraq's U.N.-supervised oil exports, which recently averaged almost two million barrels daily, will slow to a trickle this week as dealers have already stopped buying for fear of an imminent attack.

Iraq's two authorized export terminals in Turkey and the Gulf were both idle early on Monday. The United Nations later announced that it was pulling out all inspectors, including oil monitors.

Further pressuring prices, the chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee said the Energy Department told him the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is ready to release oil to counter a disruption in crude supplies, if necessary.

"The SPR has, for some time now, transitioned from the 'fill' mode to the 'flow' mode and is prepared to flow upon orders from the President," Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin said in a letter to fellow lawmakers.

The United States and other members of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which comprises 26 industrialized nations, has said that it will allow OPEC oil producers to try to cover any shortages in war, releasing inventories from emergency stockpiles only as a last resort.

The IEA built strategic oil reserves after the 1974 Arab oil embargo. They were last used in the 1990-91 Gulf War after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 03.17.03, 10:21 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee said on Monday that the Energy Department has told him that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is ready to release oil to counter a disruption in supplies. But the U.S. Energy Department said the Bush administration has not made a decision to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The administration is prepared to use the reserve in a supply emergency, an Energy Department spokesman told Reuters. "But at this point we have not made a decision to move on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," she said. "We are monitoring the situation very carefully," the spokeswoman said. "Our review with the Department of Energy has convinced me that the SPR is fully operational and capable of releasing crude oil within the parameters required to prevent interruptions in crude oil deliveries to the market," Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin said in a letter to fellow lawmakers. "The SPR has, for some time now, transitioned from the 'fill' mode to the 'flow' mode and is prepared to flow upon orders from the President," Tauzin said. With a possible war with Iraq looming, supply disruptions in Venezuela and skyrocketing oil prices, Tauzin made his comments in a letter to lawmakers urging their support to expand the reserve to 1 billion barrels from its current capacity of 700 million barrels.

smartmoney.com March 17, 2003

Oil prices are sliding as more crude moves toward a thirsty U.S. market, but gasoline prices aren't expected to follow them down anytime soon, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported.

The reason: tight crude-oil supplies and production problems, particularly on the West Coast.

In California, where prices now average $2.08 a gallon, gasoline supply continues to be dogged by refinery- maintenance issues and complications surrounding the production of a new ethanol-gasoline blend. Those problems appear to be affecting supplies to other western states.

Nationally, gasoline prices are expected to reach highs, before adjusting for inflation, when the latest survey comes out today. They most recently averaged $1.71 a gallon of regular, just below the previous record. A prolonged oil workers' strike in Venezuela this year and fears about the impact of a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq have contributed to the bulk of the price run-up.

Inventories have dropped dangerously low in some parts of the country and will be hard to replenish quickly. The crude on the way from the Middle East won't help inventories for a month or more, and weeks more will pass before the oil is refined into gasoline and transported to service stations. The Energy Information Administration, an arm of the Department of Energy, predicts that pump prices will peak at $1.76 this year.

On Friday, crude oil fell on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in part reflecting reports that Saudi Arabia had chartered at least a dozen oil tankers for shipment to the U.S. Gulf Coast. But that oil won't reach U.S. shores until the first half of May. In the meantime, the first wave of extra Saudi oil -- shipped more than a month ago -- is expected to reach the U.S. Gulf Coast soon, said Larry Goldstein, president of Petroleum Research Foundation in New York.

Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Alexei Barrionuevo contributed to this report.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-17-03 0028ET