www.floridatoday.com Mar 18, 9:41 PM By Wayne T. Price FLORIDA TODAY

U.S. oil companies should roll back prices to Jan. 1 levels because of the economic strain rising fuel prices are causing consumers, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said Tuesday.

Crist, in Washington for the annual meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General, made his request in a letter to six oil companies.

In Florida, that would mean gas at about $1.50 a gallon for regular unleaded vs. the current average price of $1.722.

"Consumers are losing the ability to break even, and those consumers include many of your employees or retired employees," Crist said in his letter to the oil companies.

A copy of Crist's letter to Lee Raymond, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp. was posted Crist's Web site, www.myfloridalegal.com. A representative for the Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Crist and several other chief law-enforcement officers of the nation's states have been questioning the quick rise of gasoline prices during the past few weeks. Most analysts have blamed uncertainty about military action in Iraq as the cause of the price increase.

But other factors also are at work, including a strike in oil-producing Venezuela, a harsh winter in the Northeastern United States and problems at oil refineries.

Crist said those conditions have changed. Venezuela has worked to end the strike and is producing 3 million barrels of oil a day. Also, temperatures in the Northeastern states have moderated.

And while there still may be uncertainty about what will happen with oil production in Iraq, the price of oil plunged 9 percent Tuesday, falling to its lowest level in more than two months. The April futures contract fell $3.26 to $31.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest close since Jan. 8.

"If these factors are genuine factors, as it relates to the rationale for raising prices, then it would be my hope they are genuine factors in the rationale to lower the price of fuel," Crist said from Washington.

Crist said he didn't expect a response from the oil companies for several days. He also added he didn't believe price-gouging was taking place in Florida, "but I can tell I received hundreds of calls from across Florida from people who are concerned about that issue."

"There is no allegation, and no finding, of price-gouging at this point," Crist said.

Even with gasoline prices at unprecedented levels, U.S. consumers still have it good, said Beck Taylor, the W.H. Smith professor of economics at Baylor University.

"Americans have a long tradition of complaining about gasoline prices, and sometimes rightly so," Taylor said. "But, compared with other countries in the world -- particularly in Europe -- the relative price of gasoline in the United States is low."

www.floridatoday.com Mar 18, 9:44 PM Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The price of oil plunged 9 percent Tuesday, falling to its lowest level in more than two months. Traders bet that the impending United States invasion of Iraq will go smoothly and that global stockpiles of crude are sufficient to offset any supply disruptions.

The April futures contract fell $3.26 to $31.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest close since Jan. 8.

However, with U.S. supplies low and uncertainty in the Middle East high, traders said petroleum prices likely will remain volatile in the short term.

"This thing could go right back up," said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas in New York. "We're still vulnerable because inventories are tight."

The most-recent Energy Department data showed commercial stockpiles of crude at269.8 million barrels, 18 percent below year ago levels.

Supplies have dwindled as a result of high demand for heating oil in the Northeast and fewer imports from Venezuela, whose oil industry was crippled for months by a nationwide strike.

Yet Bentz and other traders mostly expressed confidence Tuesday that the loss of Iraqi crude could be made up elsewhere and that the U.S. government will tap its own 600 million barrel stockpile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in the event of a supply emergency. European nations have their own stockpiles that could help make up for any supply shortages resulting from war, which could begin as early as tonight.

Furthermore, industry-watchers said Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries producers -- except Iraq and Venezuela -- all are pumping over their quotas, eager to take advantage of the high prices.

www.miami.com Posted on Wed, Mar. 19, 2003
BY JOHN DORSCHNER jdorschner@herald.com

HIGH HOPES: Rosanne Satz, above, and her father, Stanley, run Bio-Nucleonics, which got FDA approval for a proposal for the painkiller strontium chloride

Think of Bio-Nucleonics as the Little Pharma that could.

Big pharmaceutical firms spend hundreds of millions of dollars and have teams of lawyers and scientists to help get drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Miami's Bio-Nucleonics has Stanley Satz and his daughter, Rosanne.

And they have slogged their way through developing a three-inch-thick FDA proposal for strontium chloride Sr-89, a radioactive isotope with which to reduce cancer pain.

''You can't imagine the work that goes into this,'' Rosanne says with a sigh.

The process took 882 days.

She counted.

''We put our life savings into this,'' she explains.

And while ImClone and many others have seen highly touted products get slammed by the FDA, Bio-Nucleonics received approval for its strontium in January.

The Satzes and their small band of employees celebrated with dinner at a North Beach Italian eatery -- then went right back to work the next morning.

The firm now has a dozen employees working out of a warehouse just north of downtown Miami, manufacturing a product that has yet to meet the scrutiny of not only the FDA but also of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

''We have to respond to two gods,'' Stanley says with a sigh almost as big as his daughter's. ``Nuclear is one of the most regulated, if not the most regulated, areas in the country.''

NUCLEAR BACKGROUND

Stanley Satz's background is in the Cold War nuclear field -- he doesn't say any more about it than that -- and he decided in 1996 to start a business in nuclear medicine.

His daughter was just finishing business studies at Florida International University, and she jumped aboard.

He became president and chief technology officer. She was named chief executive officer and chief operating officer ''as well as the person dealing with the media.'' Staffers, she jokes, often refer to her as the ``cheap operating officer.''

While starting to develop drugs, Bio-Nucleonics did a side business exporting radioactive isotopes, mostly to Venezuela, where they were used as markers in oil exploration. This kept the company going for a while, but it ceased the export activities as the pharmaceutical side developed.

It also worked hard on obtaining grants, including one of $200,000 from Enterprise Florida. Altogether, the Satzes say, the firm has received almost $3 million in grant money that is being used to develop drugs that are still a long way from market.

The Satzes say nothing from those grants went into their strontium product, which they developed as something to give them income while their other ideas were in development.

They decided to target Metastron, a strontium isotope manufactured by Amersham, a British company.

As a basic element, strontium can't be patented, of course, but Amersham had shown the FDA that an injection of strontium was effective in treating severe cases of cancer pain.

Because Amersham had gone through the FDA's approval hurdles, the federal agency gave the firm five years of exclusivity for the product. That exclusivity had lapsed when the Satzes began looking at strontium.

But Bio-Nucleonics still had to show the FDA that it could produce the isotope in a safe, pure form. The Satzes hired a consultant to explain the FDA process to them.

''He just consulted,'' Rosanne says. ``He didn't do the application. We did.''

Now, Bio-Nucleonics has contracted with a radio pharmacy distributor -- ''We promised not to say who,'' Rosanne says -- to use its salesmen and system to distribute Sr-89.

Rosanne declined to say what the company is charging, but if it's like other generics, the price is likely 20 to 30 percent under the $3,200 or more that Amersham charges.

A SINGLE SHOT

Strontium is given to a patient in a one-time shot. Rosanne sees the potential market as 200,000 to 300,000 patients with prostate, lung or breast cancer that has spread to other areas.

The shot starts easing pain within two weeks and reaches its peak effect within six weeks. The pain relief lasts three to six months. During that six-month period, the strontium shot costs as much as other severe pain alternatives, such as morphine.

Strontium may increase pain briefly the first two days after its administration, but the Satzes say it has far fewer side effects than morphine, which can cause vomiting, nausea and an inability to function.

They add that Amersham brought in $36 million in 1997 on this pain product and that a similar radioactive isotope is earning about $1 million a month.

Compared to Nexium and Viagra, this is a small market. For a pop-and-daughter operation, it's a major chance.

''We could be profitable with this product,'' Rosanne says, ``but this is just the beginning.''

She declines to talk about what else is in Bio-Nucleonic's pipeline, but trade publications report that the firm received $1.5 million in August 2001 from the U.S. Department of Commerce to develop an alloy for use in a stent to prop open arteries after angioplasties.

THE BIG LEAGUES

Bio-Nucleonics is looking to create an alloy that could kill scar tissue by having a short-lived, low-level beta radiation.

With this, the Satzes are entering a Big Pharma arena. Miami Lakes-based Cordis has spent more than $600 million to develop the drug-eluting Cypher stent, which is expected to get FDA approval within the next few weeks.

Rosanne knows they're going to need more funds.

''Absolutely,'' she says. ``You're always looking for money.''

For now, her father remains unwilling to sell a huge stake in the company to get investors.

''We're not,'' he says, ``selling the sizzle.''

www.nola.com The Associated Press 3/19/03 2:03 AM

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Against a backdrop of strong commodity prices, energy companies have filed 793 bids on 561 offshore drilling tracts in the Gulf of Mexico.

That's an increase from last year's showing of 697 bids on 506 tracts, according to data from the Minerals Management Service.

"It's an increase, and we feel it's a very strong showing," Minerals Management Service spokeswoman Caryl Fagot said.

The tracts will be auctioned off in a federal lease sale in New Orleans Tuesday.

The increase in bids comes amid a stretch of abnormally high crude and natural gas prices caused by a variety of factors, including uncertainty in the Middle East, an oil-field strike in Venezuela and an unusually cold winter in the Northeast.

But the current statistics pale in comparison with lease sales a few years ago. The peak from recent years came in 1997, when energy companies bid on more than 1,000 tracts.

Leasing the offshore slots is the first step in oil and gas development. After the leased tracts actually begin producing, companies must pay the government royalties.

Many energy companies already hold substantial acreage in the deep-water Gulf. Moreover, many of the best prospects in the Gulf of Mexico already have been leased, leading to the downturn in bidding.

"It's an indication companies are struggling to find prospects," said Larry Benedetto, an analyst with Howard Weil, a New Orleans investment bank. "It's not a blockbuster sale."

In some cases, energy companies still plan new investment in the Gulf, even if they aren't acquiring the acreage at the lease sale.

On Tuesday, Apache Corp. of Houston announced the closing of a $509 million deal to purchase Gulf of Mexico prospects from BP.

Apache spokesman Tony Lentini said the company would post only a handful of bids Wednesday.

"We probably have as good or better prospects as what's coming" at the sale, Lentini said. "We're not a big participant these days at the lease sales."

english.eastday.com

A US-led war with Iraq runs counter to the common aspiration of the international community to for a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis, an article carried by the People's Daily, China's leading newspaper, on Wednesday.

US President George W. Bush issued an ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein late Monday, demanding that Saddam and his sons leave Iraq within 48 hours or face a US-led war.

In the televised speech to the nation, Bush also said the United Nations Security Council failed to enforce its resolutions on Iraqi disarmament.

With the ultimatum, a war without the authorization of the UN Security Council is imminent and the Iraq crisis is at a critical moment, the article noted.

The international community is deeply concerned about the escalating Iraq crisis, as peoples around the world and in most countries wish peace rather than war, the 15-member UN Security Council is stepping up its efforts to seek a political solution and the UN weapons inspection in Iraq is making headway, the article said.

It is common knowledge that the United Nations was created after World War II to maintain the world peace and security. If war against Iraq were to take place without the support of the United Nations, its legitimacy would be questioned, the article noted.

The principle of national sovereignty is the cornerstone of contemporary international laws and international relations. Ignoring it or even resorting to force to meddle in the internal affairs of other nations will severely damage the international relations and undermine the world peace, security and stability.

The article said China has persistently advocated peaceful and diplomatic solution to the Iraq crisis within the UN framework, and China will continue its diplomatic efforts so long as there still exists a gleam of hope for a peaceful solution.

Leaders from France, Russia and Germany have reiterated that the Iraq crisis should be solved within the framework of the United Nations, saying the diplomatic efforts to avoid the war should continue till the last minute, it said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said a war against Iraq would be "a mistake and would generate severe consequences" while French President Jacques Chirac said the ultimatum to Iraq was an " unilateral decision" and ran counter to the will of the United Nations Security Council and the international community."

Many countries around the world, including Brazil, Malaysia, Iran, Syria, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Romania, have expressed their opposition to a US-led war on Iraq without the authorization of the Security Council. The Arab League has also flatly rejected the US ultimatum, saying such a final warning was issued "outside international legality."

Peace is a necessary precondition for all the countries in the world to co-exist and is a basic but lofty wish of the mankind, the article concluded.