<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, April 03, 2003 By: David Coleman

 26-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen Eid Elwirelwir has been arrested uninjured after smashing his car through a wire barrier at the USAF Base in March, Riverside County ... 70 miles east of Los Angeles.

Police say Muslim Elwirelwir made anti-American statements as they charged him with damaging US government property.  Marine Corps sentries had had to jump for their lives as the Venezuelan gunned his car through the wire barrier ending up enmeshed in a chain-link fence.

In a statement, FBI officials say Elwirelwir had "expressed numerous anti-American sentiments and said he believed he had been oppressed by the United States because he is Muslim."

A  joint FBI terrorism task force raided Elwirelwir's home after the arrest and he remains in Federal custody pending a further court appearance.

News24.com 03/04/2003 14:07  - (SA)   Chip Cummins

Iraq - The US is moving to recruit senior executives to help run Iraq's oil industry after the war, even as US military engineers are reckoning that a resumption of petroleum exports is still months away.

The general commanding the US Army Corps of Engineers also said that a lack of replacement parts for infrastructure in the fields may crimp initial output volumes once production resumes.

The US effort has been further hampered by an unwillingness of Iraqi oil workers and managers to return to the job amid continued fighting in the south.

"We don't know how much it's going to cost and how long it's going to take" to bring exports from southern Iraq back on line, said Brigadier General Robert Crear, commander of the Southwestern Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, which has been tasked with Iraqi oil-rehabilitation efforts.

"It'll be months, but I can't tell you how many," he said.

The resumption of Iraqi exports is crucial for global oil markets, which have tightened in recent months. A strike in Venezuela hobbled exports from that big oil producer for months, while a colder-than-normal winter across the northern hemisphere helped erode stocks of inventory in big consumer countries, particularly the US.

More recently, political violence in Nigeria has sent major oil companies fleeing the region and shutting down oil production there.

Meanwhile, Phillip J Carroll, the former chief executive of Shell Oil, the US operations of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, will lead Iraq's national oil company, said people familiar with the appointment.

It is unclear whether Carroll, who retired last year as CEO of Fluor Corporation, would formally head the Iraqi company or exercise control by heading an advisory body in charge of Iraqi petroleum in a postwar transition period.

One industry official said the US was also considering an Iraqi-American, whom he couldn't identify, to oversee Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (Somo), which is in charge of exports.

The official also said Rodney Chase, deputy CEO of BP PLC, was being considered as a deputy to whoever runs Somo. Chase, due to retire from BP later this month, couldn't be reached for comment.

A BP spokesperson declined to comment.

While the overall US plan for running Iraq's oil industry isn't known yet, it is becoming clear that Washington is seeking to recruit top executives from the largest global oil companies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Their expertise could assist in the resurrection of the Iraqi oil industry, which was nationalised in the 1970s and has suffered amid war and sanctions for more than 20 years.

Oil prices, which soared ahead of the Iraq invasion on worry over export disruptions in the Persian Gulf, have fallen considerably after it became clear that supply routes out of the Gulf and Iraqi oil infrastructure remained relatively unscathed by war.

Wells set on fire

Retreating Iraqi soldiers appear to have torched just nine wells in the oil-rich south, a far cry from fears of a repetition of what happened in Kuwait in 1991, when Iraqi troops set more than 700 wells ablaze. All but two of the Iraqi fires have been extinguished.

In late trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the benchmark US futures contract was down $1.33 to $28.45.

Last week, a British commander in charge of UK forces in the region estimated it would take about three months and $1bn to restart exports from Iraq's massive southern fields, now largely held by US and British forces.

That estimate, by Air Marshal Brian Burridge, commander of British forces in the theatre, surprised some oil-industry analysts who had been expecting exports to resume in weeks, since damage to the fields appeared minimal.

Crear - whose engineers are in their second week of probing the fields - said on Wednesday that he didn't know what the British estimate was based on, and said he won't have a firm timeline of his own until initial assessments of the fields are complete.

But he suggested it was possible repairs might take even longer than three months. "I would hope that it's three months, instead of six months," he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers is working with Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton Company, to assess the fields and return them to "prehostility" production levels.

Before the war, Iraq was exporting some two million barrels of oil per day. Iraq's southern fields contribute about 60% of the country's output, with most of the remainder coming from Iraq's northern fields around the city of Kirkuk, still under Baghdad control.

Army officials said they have so far inspected more than 200 wellheads, out of an estimated 800 wellheads in the south. Military ordnance experts are combing each wellhead for signs of sabotage or booby traps, which they say they have found at some wells.

The general condition of wellheads - typically a tree-shaped collection of piping and valves jutting up from the ground - has been good, according to officials.

"Over all, they're in good shape," said John Forslund, the Army Corps of Engineers' project manager for the south.

"That's a pleasant surprise."

That isn't the case with some of the gas-oil separation plants, pumping stations and other critical infrastructure that dot the fields.

Crear said that many of the parts in the plants and in other equipment in the field are mismatched, perhaps the result of cannibalisation by Iraqi engineers looking to keep the fields running.

He said that many replacement parts ? from dozens of different manufacturers - may take a long time to order, and the delays could affect the amount of oil the fields can pump initially.

"Our ability to get in there and get parts, it might be challenging," he said.

At Gas Oil Separation Plant #6 - a collection of pipes, pumps and manifolds enclosed in a sand wall - hand wheels are encrusted with dust, pressure gauges are broken or missing and heavy corrosion cakes fittings. Dried oil stains piping around seals, suggesting widespread leaking when the plant was operational.

Army officials here said maintenance and operational procedures appear to have been poor. But Iraqi workers haven't been showing up in sufficient numbers to provide hands-on guidance to the Americans.

The Pentagon was counting on meeting managers and field hands to keep Iraqi oil flowing. Continued fighting in large population centres, including the nearby town of Az Zubayr and the main southern city of Basra, has complicated that effort.

Military officials have said in recent days that some Iraqis have been showing up eager to get back to work in the fields, but Crear and other officials here said the process is moving slowly.

US and British civil-affairs specialists are making contact with some Iraqis, but "people are very reluctant to expose themselves", said Crear.

3 April 2003  BY TRACY BURROWS, <a href=www.itweb.co.za>ITWEB JOURNALIST

[Johannesburg, 3 April 2003] - A group of international ICT consultants has embarked on a four-month tour of southern Africa, to help meet the technology needs of non-profit organisations in the region.

The concept, known as eRiding, is described as a globally successful non-profit ICT consultation model, with representation in over 20 countries. eRiding is an ICT consultancy tailored to the needs of non-profit organisations, where the eRider delivers ICT training, planning and networking solutions for little or no cost.

The eRider tour has been launched by Ungana-Afrika, a new project aimed at bridging the digital divide by improving the technological capacity of civil society organisations. Ungana-Afrika is a collaborative project between the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and AIESEC, described as the world's largest student organisation.

Rudi von Staden, a South African member of the Ungana-Afrika team, says: "During the past few weeks we have been setting up the infrastructure of Ungana-Afrika and initiating communication with the non-profit community in nine SADC countries. Now we are ready to visit them in person."

Veronica Pena, one of the international eRiders from Venezuela, says: "eRiding is an excellent way to have a true impact because civil society organisations working in a variety of developmental capacities often suffer from a lack of ICT infrastructure, connectivity and skills. We are here to use our experience and training to help bridge the digital divide, which the whole African continent is increasingly facing."

Toni Eliasz, Ungana-Afrika's project manager from Finland, says having the support of AIESEC and OSISA is "one of the best possible combinations we could dream of. Besides their existing network, both organisations offer important resources, OSISA by funding the project and AIESEC by providing affordable international consultants.”

Eliasz says the future of Ungana-Afrika has been secured until early next year but sustainability is one of this year's main objectives. “We are trying to find relevant funding organisations and new partners from the private sector."

OPEC Vienna, April 3, IRNA -- The price of the OPEC basket of seven crudes stood at 25.76 dollars a barrel on Wednesday compared with 26.80 dollars of the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations here Thursday.

Wed 19 February 31.95
Thu 20 February 31.48
Fri 21 February 31.84
Mon 24 February 32.44
Tue 25 February 32.73
Wed 26 February 32.49
Thu 27 February 32.48
Fri 28 February 32.63
Mon 03 March 31.63
Tue 04 March 32.12
Wed 05 March 32.29
Thu 06 March 32.50
Fri 07 March 33.79
Mon 10 March 33.11
Tue 11 March 32.54
Wed 12 March 32.74
Thu 13 March 32.42
Fr 14 March 30.98
Mon 17 March 29.80
Tue 18 March 27.69
Wed 19 March 27.12
Thu 20 March 26.51
Fri 21 March 24.81
Mon 24 March 25.70
Tue 25 March 26.84
Wed 26 March 25.54
Thu 27 March 26.66
Fri 28 March 27.23
Mon 31 March 27.22
Tue 01 April 26.80

For the first quarter of 2002, the basket price averaged dlrs     

19.83 a barrel as opposed to dlrs 18.38 in the 4th quarter of 2001.
For 2001 as a whole, the price of the basket averaged dlrs
23.12 a barrel compared with dlrs 27.60 in 2000, dlrs 17.47 in 1999 and dlrs 12.28 in 1998.
The OPEC basket comprises Algeria's Saharan Blend, Indonesia's Minas, Nigeria's Bonny Light, Saudi Arabian Light, Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela's Ti Juana and Mexico's Istmus Crude.
MN/LS
End

By Bradley Brooks <a href=www.upi.com>UPI Business Correspondent From the Business & Economics Desk Published 4/3/2003 7:00 AM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, April 3 (UPI) -- Latin American stock markets were mostly down this week, though a Wednesday rally around the globe made things considerably cheerier.

As elsewhere, traders in Latin American are moving in response to every bit of news that comes from the coalition war in Iraq. If coalition forces become bogged down, stocks do the same. Wednesday's news from the war zone painted a brighter picture, with coalition forces seeming to make advances and coming ever closer to Baghdad.

Stock indexes across Latin American shot up accordingly.

In Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, investors went against global trends for much of the week, posting nice gains as the country's benchmark bond rallied and the currency gained steam against the dollar.

Sentiment was further buoyed in Brazil as it looked inevitable that the lower house of Congress was going to pass a bill that could lead to autonomy at the central bank.

While some analysts say this has already been priced into the market, or is discounted after government officials have said that such autonomy won't come until 2004, it is clear that traders thought it good news nonetheless.

Additionally, a new poll out Wednesday showed the approval rating for Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at 75 percent after three months, though the approval rating for the government as a whole stood at 49 percent.

International investors are hopeful that Lula can use his voter mandate and forceful personality to push through needed reforms to the country's financial, legal and pension systems. If those reforms come in a timely manner, analysts say, Brazil could see a new infusion of cash from emerging-market investors.

In Argentina, that country's antitrust body said Wednesday that it will delay a decision on allowing the sale of Argentine energy giant Perez Companc to Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras. Officials said the decision may come in mid-April.

The deal, if completed, would be one of the largest in Latin America in the past year. It was last October that Petrobras said it was paying more than $1 billion for a 58.6 percent share of Perez Companc. The deal has taken on political undertones in Argentina, where even President Eduardo Duhalde recently said he had "doubts" about its legality. Officials are concerned about a Brazilian company having a monopoly in Argentina.

As for the markets, Brazil´s Bovespa stock index rose 0.2 percent to 11,233 last Thursday. Steelmakers gained after news that a World Trade Organization panel ruled U.S. steel tariffs illegal. Usiminas rose 5.7 percent on that ruling, while the world´s largest iron ore miner CVRD added 0.7 percent. Friday brought a gain of 1.5 percent to 11,396. Investors were cheered by a central bank report indicating a healthy budget surplus for February. Telecoms gained, as Telesp Celular added 6.2 percent and fixed-line phone company Telemar rose 1.7 percent.

The Bovespa lost 1.1 percent to 11,273 Monday as overseas doldrums caught up with investors. Telemar lost 2.6 percent and long-distance carrier Embratel fell 1.7 percent.

The index gained 2.8 percent to 11,592 Tuesday as the local currency gained nicely, spreading optimism into equities. Telemar soared 5.3 percent, as aircraft manufacturer Embraer gained 4.7 percent on news one of its key clients -- American Airlines -- might avoid bankruptcy. Wednesday brought a gain of 2.4 percent to 11,872, as investors followed Wall Street up on positive news from the war in Iraq. Utility Cemig gained 4.6 percent, Embratel added 5.9 percent, and Eletrobras gained 5.6 percent.

In Mexico, the IPC index ended last Thursday flat at 5,951, with worries about Iraq weighing. Wal-Mart de Mexico, or Walmex, closed up 1.7 percent, industrial group Alfa lost 1.4 percent.

On Friday, the index lost slightly to 5,947 as investors were sidelined by the military action in the Middle East. Fixed-line phone giant Telmex shed 0.5 percent, while retailer Elektra gained 1.7 percent. The IPC lost 0.6 percent to 5,914 Monday, tracking U.S. equities down. Alfa lost 3.2 percent, Walmex shed 1.8 percent. Telmex was a rare winner, gaining nearly 1 percent.

Tuesday saw a loss of 0.3 percent to 5,896, despite gains in the United States. Telmex lost 1.4 percent, while brewer Modelo gained 1.8 percent. The IPC gained 1.9 percent to 6,009 Wednesday with investors taking cues from Wall Street's gains. Telmex added 2.5 percent, America Movil gained more than 2 percent, and Walmex rose 2.34 percent.

Argentina´s Merval stock index edged up to 569 Thursday. Energy company Perez Companc gained 1 percent. Friday brought a loss of 0.5 percent to 566 for the index. Banks lost as the government lifted restrictions of withdrawls from certificates of deposit. Grupo Financiero Galicia -- which controls the country´s largest private bank -- lost 1.8 percent. Banco Frances fell 2 percent. Markets were closed Monday in Argentina for a national holiday.

On Tuesday, the index lost slightly to 565.9. Carmaker Renault lost 1.5 percent. The Merval was the only losing major index in Latin America Wednesday, as it stumbled 0.75 percent to 561.6. Banco Frances lost more than 3 percent, Perez Companc fell by 2.38 percent after its partial sell to Petrobras was delayed.

In Chile, the IPSA index lost 0.4 percent to 1,004 Thursday. Utility Enersis lost nearly 1 percent. Friday saw the index rise to 1,010. Enersis gained 3.6 percent while utility Endesa gained 0.3 percent. Monday brought a slight loss to 1,009 in quiet trade.

The IPSA lost 0.2 percent to 1,007 Tuesday as investors fretted over the war in Iraq. Enersis lost 1.7 percent. Wednesday brought a gain of 0.6 percent for the index, taking it to 1,013.

The IBC index in Venezuela lost 0.2 percent to 8,411 Thursday. The index gained 1 percent to 8,499 Friday. Monday saw the index up to 8,506. Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, or CANTV, which comprises 40 percent of the index, lost 1.3 percent. Tuesday brought a gain to 8,570 for the IBC. CANTV gained 2 percent. On Wednesday, the index added 0.27 percent to 8,594.