<a href=>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, April 28, 2003 By: Francisco Rivero

Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 19:14:59 -0400 From: Francisco Rivero riverofjr@hotmail.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Re: Venezuela's social-political past

Dear Editor: Nice try to Elio Cequea ... in his story there are fantastic strands of magic realism, half-baked truths and outright nonsense.

I wonder how would you explain the explosive economic growth and improving well-being in Venezuela during the 1950s thru 1970s.

What happened with your villains on those years?

It seems to me that your story’s "leit motiv" is to create villains people love to hate.

You know, my father used to tell me “nothing good has ever come from hate and resentment...”

Get a life! and get your story straight!

Francisco Rivero riverofjr@hotmail.com Caracas, Venezuela

Posted on Mon, Apr. 28, 2003 BY MELITA MARIE GARZA centredaily.com-Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO -(KRT) - The prospect of Iraq's return to the company of oil producers is contributing to growing disarray within the OPEC cartel, even though the war-torn country is weeks, if not months, away from resuming shipments.

U.S. crude oil prices, which had fallen 30 percent as U.S. armed forces marched through Iraq, rose 7 percent to close at $30.57 a barrel in the days approaching OPEC's April 24 meeting, in anticipation that the oil cartel would then tighten the spigot.

On Friday, crude oil prices closed at $26.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 38 cents from Thursday as traders puzzled over OPEC's surprise deal to raise formal output quotas while promising to cut excess supply.

At the meeting, OPEC decided to curb production by 2 million barrels a day and aim to maintain a price of $25 a barrel, with an accepted minimum of $22.

Iraq's share of the market has been minimal, amounting to less than 2 million barrels a day, and OPEC members have no how much oil Iraq will eventually export, according to John Kingston, global oil expert for Platts, an energy information service of the McGraw-Hill Co.

"Saudi Arabia is one of the last believers in OPEC. They tend to adjust their production based on what the market needs. If they (Iraq) go up to three million barrels a day, that's one million barrels a day that is going to have to come out of somebody's hide," Kingston said John Kingston, global oil expert for Platts, an energy information service of the McGraw-Hill Co.

"It tends to come out of Saudi Arabia's."

The cartel has to deal with the possibility that Iraq soon will be a member and make room for it, said Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a Massachusetts-based global energy consulting firm.. Iraq has the world's third largest proven oil reserves, after Saudi Arabia and Canada.

Iraq may prove to hold more than 9.3 percent of the world's reserves, but it will take years and billions of dollars of mostly foreign investment to find and develop the fields.

Yergin estimated that Iraq could begin producing oil in six to 10 weeks, though at about half of its prewar level of 2.8 million barrels a day.

"But for Iraq to return to its production level prior to the war, or to get back to its 1990 output of 3.5 million barrels a day of capacity probably would take two-to-three years and $5 billion," Yergin said. "Basically Iraq has not lived up to its potential as an oil producer," he said.

He estimated that it would take seven years and $30 billion to add 2 million barrels a day on top of the original 3.5 million barrels a day.

"They also need a government, a petroleum law, a fiscal system, and negotiations between a government and a company," Yergin said.

The primary hurdle for Iraq is the U.N. Security Council, which must rescind economic sanctions against Iraq that have been in place since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Sanctions eventually led to the Oil-for-Food program, which initially allowed Iraq to sell only a limited amount of oil in return for humanitarian aid.

Although President Bush on April 16 called for the United Nations to lift the sanctions, the decision will be up to the Security Council, which includes France, Germany and Russia, countries the United States had lambasted for failing to support the war.

Questions about a broader U.N. role in Iraq's reconstruction, which the United States does not want, likely will muddy the decision-making process.

For the time being, the sanctions mean that money to rebuild Iraq will be sharply curtailed. The program requires that 70 percent of the revenues be devoted to humanitarian aid, with most of the rest sent to Kuwait as war reparations.

Robert Ebel, director of energy programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said the United States is not going to "go in and open the valves and flood the market with oil. I don't see any real impact deriving from the re-emergence of Iraqi oil this decade."

Still, Mark Baxter, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said that now was not the time to cut production.

Despite the recession, oil markets remain tight, primarily because of strife in Venezuela and Nigeria.

"There is only one million barrels a day of excess capacity in the world today," Baxter said. "Before the war there was around 4.5 million to 5 million barrels a day of excess capacity."

But Ebel said OPEC is trying to account for the normally slower second and third quarters of the year.

"It has nothing to do with Iraq," Ebel said. "We are now coming out of the winter heating season," Ebel said. "They are thinking that if they don't cut back on production, prices will fall even farther and faster than they already have."

Ebel believes Iraq will remain in the cartel, at least initially.

"I think they will stay in OPEC until they reach parity with Iran in export quotas, and until they think that staying in OPEC will limit future growth," he said.

Yergin agreed: "OPEC was founded in Baghdad in 1960 before Saddam Hussein came to power. The basic interest for the U.S. is to see Iraq generate high oil revenues so that it can rebuild."

© 2003, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at www.chicago.tribune.com

Published: Monday, April 28, 2003 Heraldnet-Associated Press

SPOKANE -- It may be a relic of the old economy, but Hecla Mining Co. continued an astonishing turnaround in 2002.

The Coeur d'Alene, Idaho-based company produced more gold and silver than ever, and its stock was the second-best performer on the New York Stock Exchange.

Chief Executive Officer Arthur Brown, 62, will retire in May, although he will remain as chairman. President Phillips Baker, 43, will assume CEO duties.

Brown believes Hecla, which has 700 employees, will continue to thrive.

"Hecla has been around for 112 years and along with our skills as underground miners, we have always been known for our honesty, integrity and as dealing fairly with people," Brown, who began with Hecla in 1967, wrote in the annual report released this week.

In 2002, Hecla produced 240,000 ounces of gold and 8.7 million ounces of silver. Income rose dramatically as the prices for gold and silver climbed while Hecla's costs dropped, the company said.

Hecla posted net income for the year of $8.6 million, or 11 cents a share, compared to net income of $2.3 million, or 3 cents a share in 2001. Sales rose from $85 million in 2001 to $105 million in 2002.

Back-to-back profitable years were dramatic improvements from a decade of losses caused by low mineral prices. In 2000, the company lost $92 million.

In 2002, Hecla Mining was the second-biggest gainer on the New York Stock Exchange, rising by 438 percent when the stock reached $5.06 a share. The biggest gainer was a Chinese maker of diesel engines, China Yuchai International, which rose 485 percent to $4.57.

Hecla stock has since settled around $3.40 per share.

Much of the company's financial health can be traced to efficient production. Hecla produced gold for an average cost of $137 an ounce in 2002. Gold this week was selling for $324.

It produced silver at an average cost of $2.16 per ounce, down 39 percent from 2001. Silver sold this week for $4.53.

The company produces silver, gold, lead and zinc at mines in Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, Mexico and Venezuela. It also has an aggressive exploration and acquisition program, after raising $92 million in a January stock offering.

The company will continue to concentrate on silver production, where it is a dominant player, the annual report said.

But the company hopes to double its gold production over the next five years, thanks to the existing La Camorra mine in Venezuela, and exploration and development at the Block B Project in Venezuela and the Hollister Block in Nevada.

Hecla's only mine in Idaho is the Lucky Friday, near Wallace. About 100 workers were laid off and operations were cut back sharply there in 2002, largely because of high production costs for silver. But the Lucky Friday has a vast quantity of minerals left to mine, and rising silver prices would allow the company to ramp up production there, the report said.

Hecla officials were cheered in 2002 by progress in a massive lawsuit against mining companies for historical pollution in the Silver Valley. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal for a $359 million cleanup over 30 years "will be very manageable," the company said.

<a href=new.stockwatch.com>new.stockwatch.com 2003-04-28 02:39 ET - News Release

OSLO, Norway, April 28, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Statoil ASA (OSE:STL) (NYSE:STO) (Other OTC:SLDKF) achieved an income before financial items, income taxes and minority interests (Ebit) of NOK 13.8 billion as against NOK 10.0 billion for the same period of 2002. This represented an increase of 38 per cent. Net income for the first quarter rose from NOK 3.0 billion in 2002 to NOK 3.6 billion.

Statoil's results for the first quarter of 2003

• Net income for the first quarter: NOK 3.6 billion
• Earnings per share, first quarter: NOK 1.66
• Production up by six per cent
• New gas sales contract with Electricite de France
• Sale of Navion completed on 7 April

The return on capital employed for the past 12 months came to 16.9 per cent as against 14.9 per cent for the year 2002. After normalisation, the return on capital employed (please refer to explanation in quarterly report) was 11.4 per cent for the past 12 months compared with 10.8 per cent for the year 2002.

"I am pleased that we have delivered another strong quarterly result," said chief executive Olav Fjell. "This performance has been influenced by high oil prices, continued good production and high natural gas sales from the Norwegian continental shelf, and improved downstream margins. It is gratifying that we secured a new contract to increase our deliveries to the European gas market. Both internationally and on the NCS, we strengthened our position with new operatorships."

Earnings per share came to NOK 1.66 for the first quarter of 2003 as against NOK 1.39 in the same period of last year.

Results for the first quarter were strengthened by comparison with the same period of 2002 through an increase in oil prices, higher production and improved downstream margins. These effects were offset to some extent by lower gas prices and a weaker USD exchange rate against the NOK. While oil prices measured in USD rose by 56 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2002, they were up by 23 per cent in NOK. Gas prices declined by six per cent in NOK.

Income tax for the first quarter of 2003 came to NOK 8.9 billion, giving a tax rate of 70.4 per cent as against 71.8 per cent for the same period of last year.

Statoil's oil and gas production averaged 1,159,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) for the first quarter, an increase of six per cent from 1,096,000 boe/d in the same period of 2002. High gas output on the NCS made the biggest contribution to the rise in production. The NCS accounted for 1,082,000 boe/d of the group's first-quarter output, with international operations contributing 76,000 boe/d. Production from the Sincor project in Venezuela was reduced during the period as a result of political unrest, which affected Statoil's overall international output.

Three exploration and appraisal wells were completed during the first quarter, yielding two discoveries -- one internationally and the other on the NCS.

Statoil secured one operatorship and interests in three further production licences when awards were made in Norway's North Sea licensing round. On 1 January 2003, the group became operator for all fields in the Tampen area of the Norwegian North Sea after taking over this role from Norsk Hydro on Visund, Snorre, Tordis and Vigdis. Statoil has increased its provision for losses on rig charters by NOK 700 million in anticipation of persistent excess capacity in the rig market.

The producing life of the Glitne field in the North Sea has been extended by approximately 1.5 years after recoverable reserves were increased by 40 per cent. A new production well will be drilled.

Statoil secured two new operatorships outside Norway during the first quarter. These cover responsibility for gas sales and business development for the gas pipeline for the Shah Deniz field off Azerbaijan, and the operatorship for block four on Venezuela's Plataforma Deltana. The decision to develop Shah Deniz was taken on 27 February this year. Fabrication work on two of the three platforms for phases six-eight of Iran's South Pars development has begun, and drilling operations are being planned.

Statoil secured a new gas contract from Electricite de France covering one billion standard cubic metres (scm) annually over 15 years. Deliveries will begin on 1 October 2005.

Gas sales rose by 16 per cent from the first quarter of 2002 to 5.9 billion scm. This high figure reflected the cold winter in Europe and customer use of their contractual flexibility to take gas.

Results for the Manufacturing & Marketing business area improved sharply, rising by NOK 1.6 billion from the same period of 2002. Higher refining margins and better results from oil trading were the most important reasons for this increase. The acquisition of Preem's Polish service stations was completed in the first quarter. Completed on 7 April, the sale of Navion to Teekay will be recorded in the second quarter of 2003.

Production of virtually sulphur-free petrol began from the Mongstad refinery near Bergen during the first quarter.

Serious incidents per million working hours improved from 3.9 in the first quarter of 2002 to 3.4. Total recordable injuries per million working hours rose from 5.3 to 5.9. A contractor employee lost his life in an accident on the Saipem 7000 crane barge in the North Sea. This incident is being investigated and improvement measures are being implemented to avoid similar accidents.

Statoil was listed on the FTSE4Good sustainability index on the basis of an assessment of its environmental and social performance.

reports.huginonline.com

Contact: Statoil ASA
Public affairs: Wenche Skorge +47 51 99 79 17 (office) +47 918 70 741 (mobile)

     Public affairs:
     Trude Maseide
     +47 957 26 510 (mobile)

     Investor relations:
     Mari Thjoemoee
     +47 51 99 77 90 (office)
     +47 907 77 824 (mobile)

     Investor relations USA:
     Thore E Kristiansen 
     +1 203 978 6950 (office)
     +47 916 64 659 (mobile)

AFP-SPACE DAILY WIRE

BOGOTA (AFP) Apr 26, 2003 Colombia is on guard against debris that could rain down on it from the Italian research satellite BeppoSAX, which is to enter the Earth's equatorial zone next week, officials here said Saturday.

"Faced with the possibility that fragments from the satellite may fall on southern Colombia, we will have to take some preventive measures, like an eventual suspension of aerial operations," civil aviation chief Juan Carlos Velez told reporters.

Velez also urged residents in Cali, Florencia, Mocoa, Neiva, Pasto, Popayan, Villavicencio and Leticia not to touch any debris from the satellite, noting that it could be toxic.

He said Italian experts would specify Monday where the debris -- expected to fall between April 29 and May 3 -- would land, noting that there was a 1 in 14 chance it would fall on Colombia.

The 1,400-kilo (870-pound) satellite, which should break into about 40 pieces upon re-entering Earth's orbit -- could also drop in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Cameroon or Singapore, Velez said.

BeppoSAX was launched in 1996.