WhiteHouse, President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate two individuals to serve in his administration:

The President intends to nominate Julie L. Myers of Kansas, to be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce (Export Enforcement). She currently serves as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division. Previously, Ms. Myers served as Deputy Assistant Secretary (Money Laundering and Financial Crimes) for the Department of the Treasury, Office of Enforcement. From November 1999 to October 2001, she served as Assistant United States Attorney for the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York. Earlier in her career, Ms. Myers served as an associate for the law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt and as a law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She earned her bachelor's degree from Baylor University and her J.D. from Cornell Law School.

The President intends to nominate Rixio Enrique Medina of Oklahoma, to be a Member of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, for a five-year term. Currently, he serves as Manager of Corporate Health, Safety and Security for CITGO Petroleum Corporation. Previously, Mr. Medina served as Manager of Health and Safety Services for Corpus Christi Refinery, CITGO. Earlier in his career, he served as Safety Engineering Supervisor for Mobil Oil Corporation and as Environmental, Health and Safety Superintendent for PDVSA (Petrleos de Venezuela). Mr. Medina earned his bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University and his master's degree from Central Missouri University.

Wed June 25, 2003 02:56 PM ET By Alistair Scrutton

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, June 25 (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - In theory, it was a recipe for easy cash in one of the Western Hemisphere's poorest nations that just happened to be sitting on one of Latin America's biggest natural gas reserves.

All Bolivia had to do was negotiate with companies eager to pipe out trillions of cubic feet of gas to energy-hungry California, then wait a few years before enjoying the sweet smell of royalties for the next two decades.

In practice, a $6 billion plan to develop Latin America's second-biggest gas reserves is in a quagmire, delayed for more than a year due to a potent cocktail of civil unrest and a century-old border dispute with Chile that could sink a project soon to face stiff competitors such as Russian gas fields.

"A window for opportunity exists for Bolivia today. But that market (for world gas) will close when the market decides on a supplier," said Paul Jordan, senior executive at British Gas Group PLC BG.L , one of three companies in the Pacific LNG consortium involved in the project.

"And that may not be within the control of Pacific LNG," he added in his air-conditioned offices in the tropical town of Santa Cruz, the center of most gas operations in Bolivia.

The project envisages landlocked Bolivia choosing whether to pipe gas hundreds of miles either to a Chilean or a Peruvian port on the Pacific before being be shipped to Mexico and moved by train to California.

Energy specialists say Chile's ports -- on a straight line on maps from the fields -- are the cheapest option. But many Bolivians are up in arms at their gas being piped via their neighbor, an old enemy after Bolivia lost its access to the coast in an 1879 war.

President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada has hinted he favors Chile but his government, boxed in by civil strife amid economic downtown, has put off a decision that was due in early 2002. Government officials say a decision will be made by the end of this year.

In the meantime, energy companies say, time is running out amid a growing supply worldwide of gas and other competitors to feed the California market such as Russia's Sakhalin Islands.

INDUSTRY VS INDIANS

Bolivia has 55 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, second only to Venezuela.

British Gas, which along with Spain's Repsol REP.MC and BP Plc BP.L makes up Pacific LNG consortium, says the project could supply nearly a fifth of energy needs of California -- a market similar in size to Japan.

But many Bolivians want to pipe via Peru, a fellow Andean nation mired in poverty that desperately needs foreign investment. That plan could cost LNG an extra $600 million.

Industry analysts favor Chile, as does LNG.

"Should the government of Bolivia think Peru is more appropriate then the investors would have to revaluate the project," Jordan said.

But feelings run high in Bolivia, where school text books say that Chile stole their land. Graffiti such as "Chile? I'd die first" litters La Paz's colonial streets.

Few doubt the plan, which could bring in $5.7 billion for Bolivia, will help the nation recover from its worst downturn since democracy returned two decades ago.

"Bolivia is no longer the producer of tin and silver it once was. Gas could provide Bolivia with a spinal vertebra for the economy for years," said Raul Kieffer, the head of the Bolivian chamber of energy firms.

"This is a huge reserve but it is still less than 1 percent of world reserves. Bolivia is not the only country around and investors are worried about the delay," he added.

Lozada, a U.S-educated businessman who opened Bolivia to investors in the 1990s, was elected again in 2002 with just 22 percent of votes. He runs a weak congressional coalition against a strong Indian movement opposing the Chile route.

In February, at least 29 people were killed in riots over government austerity policies.

"Common sense says it must be Chile. But Lozada fears further uprisings like February," said Alberto Bonadona, a well-known Bolivian economist.

There are signs of progress. Industry officials say LNG may sign by the end of the third quarter, a deal with the United States. Sempra SRE.N or Marathon Oil Corp. MRO.N to sell gas -- a condition Bolivia demanded before deciding on Chile or Peru.

Industry watchers say the government could also try and involve state-owned energy firm YPFB to appease nationalistic concerns. The energy industry has also started television ads saying that "Bolivia needs our energy to escape the storms."

For Bolivian business leaders, it is a battle that must be won.

"Bolivia must show the world it is playing the rules of the game -- that investors can trust Bolivia," Kieffer said.

Wed June 25, 2003 01:05 PM ET NEW YORK (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Oil prices surged a dollar on Wednesday after the U.S. government showed an unexpected drop in already tight fuel inventories.

U.S. light sweet crude jumped 97 cents to $29.75 a barrel, ending a run of losses that had cut nearly $3 from 12-week highs hit earlier this month. Benchmark Brent crude rose 85 cents to $27.47 per barrel.

Prices raced up after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said U.S. crude stocks fell 4.1 million barrels to 284.2 million barrels, 11 percent lower than a year ago. Analysts predicted stocks would rise by 1.1 million barrels.

Leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia and other members of the OPEC cartel cut back production this month, while a three month halt to exports from Iraq has further tightened supply.

Heavy imports from Saudi Arabia had started to rebuild U.S. stocks which were drained to 26-year lows earlier this year by supply disruptions in Venezuela and Nigeria.

Crude imports fell to 9.3 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, down 970,000 bpd from the previous week, the EIA said.

"It was all in the imports," said Jim Ritterbusch, analyst at Ritterbusch & Associates. "People think you can sit there at capacity imports, at 10 million barrels per day, but you're going to eventually get an occasional downdraft."

Iraq resumed exports over the weekend for the first time since the war and is pumping around 800,000 bpd, but looting and sabotage are likely to keep exports below pre-war levels of 1.7 million bpd for months.

An oil pipeline feeding a key Iraqi refinery was still ablaze on Wednesday after an explosion on Tuesday night, the third pipeline blast in four days, a Reuters eyewitness said.

Iraqi and U.S. authorities have blamed previous pipeline blasts on sabotage, which they suspect is aimed at hampering U.S. efforts to revive the energy sector, key to financing the rebuilding of the country.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls around half of world exports, has called an extraordinary meeting on July 31 to monitor the impact of Iraqi production on the market.

The cartel's president said this week OPEC was unlikely to cut output at that meeting as the slow build-up in Iraqi oil exports has been keeping prices toward the top of the cartel's target range of $22-$28.

Traders said the market could draw even more strength when U.S. Federal Reserve policy-makers announce their decision on interest rates at around 1815 GMT Wednesday.

If they announce a rate cut, as is widely predicted, investment funds would increase oil buying, traders said.

"If it looks like the economy is going to get boosted into activity, the funds will certainly choose oil as one of the commodities to put their money into," said Tony Machacek of Prudential Bache brokerage.

Reuters, 06.25.03, 12:43 PM ET CARACAS, Venezuela, June 25 (Reuters) - Demand for Venezuela's crude has lessened during the second quarter after a stronger-than-expected surge as the world's No. 5 exporter restarted output disrupted by a two-month strike, the state oil company chief said on Wednesday. "We've had a surprisingly better demand for crude and products ... and that has somewhat reduced inventories which we are revising at the moment to avoid any surprises," PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez said. "Recently that has started to lessen which always happens in the second quarter of the year," Rodriguez told state-run television after Fitch Ratings upgraded its rating on PDVSA to reflect the recovery of output. Fitch said in a statement the changes followed the government's success in restarting oil production after the strike severely disrupted output until fizzling out at the start of February. The ratings agency said it upgraded the senior unsecured foreign currency rating of PDVSA to B- from CCC+ following a similar upgrade on Venezuela's long-term foreign currency rating and long-term local currency ratings. The strike from December to January failed to oust leftist President Hugo Chavez. But it battered the economy by choking off the crude shipments that provide about half of the state's total revenue. The government fired more than 18,000 PDVSA employees for taking part in the shutdown and used troops and replacement workers to restore production. PDVSA says output has been restored to the 3.1 million barrels per day it produced before the strike. Dissident oil workers, however, estimate production is lower and say the government has struggled to completely restart its refinery system and some older operations. Fitch said it also has revised its Rating Watch to positive from negative for four joint ventures between PDVSA and foreign oil firms -- the Petrozuata and Hamaca projects with ConocoPhillips (nyse: COP - news - people), the Sincor venture with TotalFinaElf <TOTF.PA> and the Cerro Negro project with Exxon Mobil (nyse: COP - news - people).

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 By: A. Pharma

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 12:09:10 -0400 From: A. Pharma a.pharma@hotpop.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Commentary to the interaction between Mr, Coronel & others

Dear Editor: Any plan or road-map can only function when there is trust and some reasonable level of stability and continuity. Especially in between elections.

This trust does not exist and has not existed in Venezuela for a long time.

Even before Black Friday (at the beginning of the 80s), the level of distrust has been extremely high. Accion Democratica (AD) does not trust the Christian Socialists (Copei) and vice-versa and the general population does not trust either one.

Hate ... a facet of distrust ... has always been there.

As the distrust is generalized, any project (government or industrial) lasting longer than one term fails from the start for the following reason:

Because of distrust of the previous government ... all players in key and not so key positions are fired and new ones hired.

The first year the new government is busy consolidating its position ... previous contracts are cancelled and new ones made.

The next few years show a modicum of stability but more distrust as obligations and promises cannot be met.

The last year almost everything stops ... next year they lose their job, so why continue?

This not only happens in Venezuela, but happens in most Latin American countries.

One step in the right direction would be to keep key and not-so-key players in their positions between elections.

For example: Is it necessary to change Customs personnel when government changes hands? Not really, they're there to perform a function, a job. If they do their job well, why change them? They have, after all, a certain amount of experience.

Another example: Is it necessary to change not-so-key personnel such as clerks when government changes hands? Again, the answer is no. These people know their jobs and very likely the status of any unfinished business ... they are assets, not liabilities.

Most perfectly normal human beings look for some form of economic stability. These same perfectly normal human beings will have very good incentive for dislike and hate when displaced from their positions for such reasons as political change.

Even though the road-map as mentioned by Mr. Coronel is a move in the right direction, it suffers from three big defects.

One: It cannot be accomplished within one term.

Two: It makes no provisions, contractual or other, to prevent abuses by the same people that made the road-map ... that makes it suspect.

Three: It does not attempt to create an atmosphere of trust.

A. Pharma a.pharma@hotpop.com