The general strike in Venezuela is causing problems at a New Brunswick power plant that gets its specialized fuel from the South American country.

Much of the world looks to Venezuela for some of its oil supply, and New Brunswick is no exception. Venezuela provides NB Power with orimulsion fuel, which is a key element in the generation of the province's electricity.

The Dalhousie plant in northern New Brunswick currently relies on orimulsion fuel. NB Power's Coleson Cove plant plans to start burning the fuel in 2004.

With Venezuela's strike entering its fourth week, the Dalhousie generating plant's supply is running low. Venezuela is the world's only supplier of orimulsion fuel.

The New Brunswick conservation council is urging the province to reduce its dependence on foreign sources.

"The whole basis of the decision to go to orimulsion at the power plant was that the State Oil Company of Venezuela was giving NB Power a fixed price contract for 20 years or more," council policy director David Coon told ATV News. "Given the current political unrest all bets are off."

NB Power says the use of orimulsion fuel at the Dalhousie plant and the conversion of the Coleson Cove plant could save province residents millions of dollars annually. However, with the fuel of choice in short supply, the plants need to consider alternatives.

"We're trying to provide stable and competitive prices in the province of New Brunswick, and ways we have to do that is to try to find fuels that are not only as inexpensive as orimulsion is, but to find fuels that can make the world cleaner," NB Power's director of public affairs Bob Scott said.

This will be the first time in nine years that NB Power's orimulsion supply has been interrupted. The Dalhousie plant may have to resort to burning a heaver crude oil, which is more expensive with less favourable emissions.

REFLEXION SOBRE MILITARES Y POLÍTICOS

Los calificativos, las críticas y los juicios de valor sobre el Presidente son tan válidos que justificarían su salida por cualquier vía, menos por la del magnicidio, tan implorada por él quizás para librarse del calvario que le espera. Sin embargo, la Coordinadora Democrática se mantiene inalterable en plantear que la salida a la crisis tiene que ser negociada, pacífica, constitucional y electoral. Con ese propósito está en la mesa de negociaciones y acuerdos, o de diálogo según el gobierno, bajo la dirección del doctor Gaviria. Tímidamente añade al planteamiento electoral la renuncia del Presidente. Para algunos sectores, Plaza Altamira por ejemplo, el esquema debería ser renuncia primero y elecciones después. Para la Coordinadora la salida del Presidente pasa por el referéndum consultivo, o el revocatorio, o el adelanto pactado de una elección general, o una enmienda constitucional para acortar el período y elegir rápidamente, o una nueva Asamblea Constituyente para destituirlo, designar un gobierno provisional e ir a elecciones generales en un lapso razonable. No hay un solo planteamiento que unifique todos los criterios opositores perdiendo mientras el país se desmorona, la rabia se multiplica y la tentación de la violencia crece en la calle. Por su parte el Presidente no negocia, no acepta nada, retadoramente se burla de todo y de todos y trabaja para imponerse sobre los escombros de Venezuela. Para cualquiera de las salidas planteadas por la oposición se necesitan instituciones que funcionen y un Presidente que acepte y haga cumplir los acuerdos y decisiones. Los dos supuestos son inexistentes, pero se insiste en los imposibles. Todos sabemos que de Chávez no se saldrá sin una verdadera insurrección popular acompañada por una intervención militar eficiente que liquide la tragicomedia. El problema es que unos lo ven venir y lo desean, otros viéndolo lo rechazan aunque resignadamente y algunos trabajan activamente para que no llegue a ocurrir. Prefieren jugar a la política con Chávez. Mientras la salida sea “negociada, constitucional, pacífica y electoral”, los militares sobran como parte de la solución y en su mayoría, de acuerdo o no con el proyecto chavista, pasivamente le darán soporte institucional.

En Venezuela está amenazada la libertad, la democracia y la vida misma. Los derechos fundamentales, la soberanía y la integridad de la República. Hemos respetado a la Fuerza Armada como guardián de lo permanente. Mantener a Chávez en el poder o permanecer neutrales es una traición al juramento hecho de sostener y defender las instituciones democráticas. Éste no es un pleito político tradicional entre partidos. La independencia de Venezuela peligra en manos de un títere accionado desde afuera como parte de un proyecto revolucionario contrario al interés nacional. Dios y la Patria los condenarán por y para siempre si la traición se consuma.

Oswaldo Alvarez Paz Lunes, 30 de diciembre de 2002

Canadian Press Monday, December 30, 2002

CARACAS (AP) - World oil markets will suffer for some time from the effects of the general strike aimed at toppling President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's top oil official said Monday.

The four-week-old strike has shut down key sectors of the economy and created gasoline and food shortages throughout Venezuela, the world's No. 5 exporter. Oil production has plunged from three million barrels a day to 260,000 barrels a day. "For some time, we will have distortions on the world oil markets due to this situation," Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez acknowledged Monday.

The strike escalated Monday as police used tear gas to separate opponents and supporters of Chavez outside the state oil monopoly's headquarters in Maracaibo, the hub of the country's oil-producing west.

Strike leader Carlos Ortega, who leads Venezuela's largest labour federation, called on all citizens Monday to stop paying taxes.

And secret police arrested National Guard Gen. Carlos Alfonso Martinez, one of dozens who have occupied a Caracas city square for three months in rebellion against Chavez. A handful of people protesting the arrest outside secret police headquarters fled under a hail of rocks thrown by Chavez supporters and tear gas fired by police.

The combined influence of Venezuela's crisis and the threat of U.S. war in Iraq sent crude futures to a high of $31.02 a barrel Monday on London's International Petroleum Exchange, and a two-year high of $33.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

U.S. markets were bracing for higher heating oil prices heading into winter, higher gas prices, and higher prices for all sorts of oil-based products. But reports that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was considering increasing output by at least 500,000 barrels a day took some heat out of the price.

OPEC's basket of seven crude oils hit a two-year high of $31.06 a barrel Friday, OPEC officials said Monday. Venezuela is an OPEC member.

Venezuela's opposition called the strike to force Hugo Chavez to call a Feb. 2 non-binding referendum on his presidency, which runs to 2007. Strike leaders hope a poor showing will increase pressure on Chavez to resign. At least 35,000 of the 45,000 employees joined the walkout at Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state-owned oil monopoly.

Opponents blame Chavez for economic contraction of seven per cent in 2002, annual inflation surpassing 30 per cent, 17 per cent unemployment and chronic political unrest. They charge Chavez is trying to impose a leftist authoritarian government.

Chavez counters that his adversaries are trying to mount an "economic coup" and that Venezuela's constitution allows a binding referendum on his presidency next August.

Venezuela's government and opposition have traded charges over the actual state of the country's crucial oil industry, which represents 30 per cent of Venezuela's $100-billion US gross domestic product.

Ramirez claimed Monday that oil production was up to between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels a day and would reach 1.2 million barrels a day next week.

PDVSA executives say it's impossible for the government to increase production so quickly, even with replacements of field crews, executives, tanker crews and dockhands.

Ramirez also said that Venezuela's largest refinery, the Paraguana complex, should be running at full capacity of 930,000 barrels per day within two months.

Last week, Ramirez said a Venezuela-run refinery in Curacao would be up and running within weeks. But union and management at the refinery, which processes Venezuelan crude and ships gasoline back to Venezuela, say the mammoth facility shut down completely on Friday.

Chavez says his government is importing gasoline from Brazil and Trinidad, although the cargoes amount to little more than a few day's normal demand. Ramirez said the government may import gasoline through January.

The strike has cost $2 billion in lost oil revenue and damage to oil installations, Ramirez said.

The government also is importing food. Colombia sent trucks carrying more than 500 tonnes of cooking flour. The Dominican Republic sent rice.

Despite Chavez's efforts to break the strike, motorists lined up by the hundreds at the few service stations that had gas. Supermarkets were slowly running out of products like milk and bottled drinking water.

The Organization of American States has been mediating talks to find an electoral solution to the crisis. The next round of talks is set for Thursday.

Phil Gunson Caracas 31 Dec 2002, 01:26 UTC

Listen to Phil Gunson's report from Caracas

Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Monday the government was winning the battle against a four-week-old general strike that virtually shut down the state-owned oil industry. Meanwhile, street clashes between government and opposition supporters in two cities underlined the risk of serious violence.

Minister Rafael Ramirez, who was speaking at a breakfast with foreign correspondents, was upbeat about the prospects for the country's vital oil industry, despite what he admitted was serious damage done by the strike. The world's fifth biggest exporter of oil has seen its exports slashed in December to a 10th of their normal levels, and motorists are still having to wait in line for hours to fill their tanks.

The minister said he expected domestic gasoline supplies would be back to normal once the El Palito refinery, on the Caribbean coast, comes back on line in about 10 days. By next week, he said, crude oil production would be around 1.2 million barrels a day, or approximately 40 percent of normal. But exports would remain below par for some time yet.

Cars line up for gas in CaracasOpposition sources, however, and some independent experts, suggested the minister's version was overly optimistic. Dissident oil company managers continue to insist that the vast majority of workers in the state oil corporation, Petroleos de Venezuela, remain on strike, and that it will be impossible to restart refineries and normalize production without them.

Although there has been less violence on the streets than expected during the strike, tensions remain high as the opposition continues to push for the resignation of leftist President Hugo Chavez. In the western port city of Maracaibo, police had to disperse rival groups of demonstrators with teargas, and similar clashes took place in the capital, Caracas, after a dissident military officer was arrested by the state security police, known as the Disip.

General Carlos Alfonzo is one of a large group of officers who have been occupying a Caracas square since October in a peaceful protest against the government. His whereabouts, and the charges against him, were not immediately revealed, though he was reportedly being held at military intelligence headquarters.

Meanwhile, in Washington, a state department spokesman reiterated U.S. concern over possible outbreaks of violence and urged the two sides to reach a peaceful, electoral solution to the

By ALEXANDRA OLSON

Police fired tear gas to separate supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez in a western city Monday, as leaders of an anti-Chavez strike called for protests in the president's strongholds in the capital.

Chavez opponents broke past police lines and tried to tear down a tent set up by supporters of the president Maracaibo. Police firing tear gas shoved the two sides apart.

The four-week strike has depleted gasoline supplies in the world's No. 5 oil exporter but failed to force the president from office.

"The strike will continue until the last consequences," said Carlos Ortega, president of Venezuela's largest labor confederation. "This regime is only prolonging its agony. Venezuelans, your indignation is just. The people never give up."

Ortega's comments Sunday came after hundreds of thousands of Chavez opponents marched through the street of Caracas _ the latest in countless of protests that have accompanied the strike since it began Dec. 2.

Opposition leaders are threatening more civil disobedience, including urging citizens not to pay income taxes.

Venezuela's strike and the crisis in Iraq sent European benchmark Brent crude oil futures soaring to a 15-month high of $30.70 a barrel Monday.

The opposition called rallies in two of poorest neighborhoods in the capital on Monday, trying to chip away at Chavez's support in the slums, where many still consider him the first leader in generations to stand up for their interests.

Chavez's popularity has slipped to about 30 percent, as discontent grows over a wrenching economic recession and political turmoil. The former army paratrooper, however, still counts on almost 45 percent support in the poor regions.

On Sunday, Chavez again vowed he wouldn't quit. He insisted he was foiling a strike that has slashed oil exports from 3 million barrels a day to 160,000 and forced Venezuela to look abroad for food and fuel.

"I think I'm never going to leave. I feel so loved that I am never going to leave," Chavez said during his weekly television show. "It's a treacherous oligarchy that wants to break the government and break the Venezuelan people."

Chavez hosted the show outside the Yagua gasoline distribution center in the western state of Carabobo, and applauded every time a gasoline truck left the installation. Two hundreds trucks left, said Chavez, who replaced striking managers at Yagua.

Gasoline shipments were coming from Venezuela's La Isla refinery in Curacao and Trinidad, Chavez added. One oil tanker has already arrived from Brazil.

Mile-long lines persisted at service stations. Many Venezuelans were doing without products like fresh milk, soft drinks, beer and tissue paper.

Ali Rodriguez, president of PDVSA, said Venezuela is currently producing between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels a day. Striking PDVSA executives saying it is producing less than 200,000 barrels a day. Production is normally about 3 million barrels a day.

Venezuela's largest labor confederation and business chamber called to demand Chavez accept a nonbinding referendum on his rule. Many in the opposition now demand early elections _ which constitutionally can only take place if Chavez resigns.

They accuse the president of running roughshod over democratic institutions and wrecking the economy with leftist policies. Chavez says opponents should wait for a possible recall referendum midway through his term, or August 2003, as permitted by the constitution. He was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, and his term ends in 2007.

Negotiations sponsored by the Organization of American States, which have produced few results, were to resume Jan. 2 after a brief break for the holidays.