EDGE Presentation 14

1
EDGE Presentation 14

• Continuation of Stock Market Problems
• Iran confrontation
• Arab Iraq Summit meetings coming soon
• Russia buys Portland Steel Corporation
• Venezuela completes oil nationalization
• Ecuador renegotiates International debt
• Student discussion

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DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE INDEX (INDU)Open
12,265.59 High 12,289.22 Low 12,059.54 Close
12,268.63
In fact, economists said they expected a "bumpy"
stock market in the months ahead, meaning plenty
of volatility deriving from higher uncertainties
about housing sales, mortgage debt financed by
riskier "sub-prime" loans, manufacturing and
inflation.
3
U.S. Supports Involving Iran, Syria in Iraq
Regional Meeting

• The United States supports and will participate
  in the Iraqi government's initiative to invite
  Iran and Syria to a regional conference,
  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a
  congressional hearing February 27 to discuss
  emergency funding for operations in Iraq,
  Afghanistan and elsewhere.
• "Prime Minister Maliki believes, and President
  Bush and I agree, that success in Iraq requires
  the positive support of Iraq's neighbors," Rice
  told the Senate Appropriations Committee, which
  controls U.S. government spending. The committee
  is considering the Bush administration's request
  for 99.6 billion in additional funding for
  operations and reconstruction in Iraq and
  Afghanistan through September 30.
• "The Iraqis are launching a new diplomatic
  initiative, which we are going to fully support,"
  Rice said. Ambassadors are expected to meet on or
  around March 11 for an "expanded neighbors
  meeting" that will include representatives of
  Iraq's immediate neighbors, as well as other
  regional states, multilateral organizations and
  the five permanent members of the U.N. Security
  Council - China, France, Russia, the United
  Kingdom and the United States.
• Following an initial meeting in March, foreign
  ministers are expected to reconvene during the
  first half of April, Rice said. Iraq might also
  invite the Group of Eight (G8) to this meeting.
  The G8 nations are Canada, France, Germany,
  Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United
  States and Russia.

4
Iranian President to Visit Saudi Arabia

• DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 1 Irans
  President Mahamoud Ahmadinejad will make his
  first official visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday
  for a summit with King Abdullah intended to
  tackle the burgeoning sectarian and political
  battles throughout the Middle East, Saudi and
  Iranian officials said today.
• The two heads of state will discuss issues of
  the Islamic world, bilateral ties and the
  situation in the Middle East, Mohammad Hosseini,
  Irans ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told the
  Iranian news agency IRNA. He did not say when the
  trip would be made, but other news agencies
  reported that it would take place this weekend.
• Analysts believe the trip is aimed at improving
  relations between the regional powers, and Mr.
  Ahmadinejads visit is the latest in an exchange
  of visits in recent months. Iran sent its chief
  nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, to the kingdom
  and Saudi Arabia has sent envoys to Iran in
  recent months.
• The announcement that Mr Ahmadinejad will visit
  Saudi Arabia comes soon after the United States
  agreed in principle to hold a high-level meeting
  with Iraqs neighbors, including Iran and Syria,
  to help stabilize Iraq, setting the stage for the
  highest-level contact between American and
  Iranian officials in more than two years.

5
Arab Permanent Representatives Continue Meeting
in Cairo

• CAIRO, March 1, 2007 (WAFA) - Permanent
  representatives at the Arab League continued
  their discussions of the Arab foreign ministers'
  coming meeting here for the second day on
  Thursday.At its 127th session, the Council of
  the Arab League (AL) met for the second day at
  the level of Arab permanent representatives,
  under the chairmanship of Tunisian Representative
  Al-Habib Kaabash, to mull over the agenda of the
  Arab foreign ministers, who would meet at the
  Cairo-based AL headquarters on Sunday
• Meanwhile, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and
  Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is expected to
  attend the opening session of Arab foreign
  ministers for the first time. He will address the
  meeting on Arab-Turkish ties, which have recently
  developed on a steady basis in economic and
  political issues.

6
Russian group completes Ore. steel
purchaseWednesday, January 24, 2007

• Evraz Group has completed its acquisition of
  Oregon Steel Mills, finalizing one of the largest
  investments in the United States by a Russian
  company.
• Evraz agreed in November to buy Oregon Steel for
  2.3 billion dollars, or 63 and 25 cents a share
  in cash.
  
• The deal received U-S regulatory approval earlier
  this month.
  
• Evraz has said that it had received enough of the
  nearly 36 million shares of Oregon Steel stock to
  bypass a shareholder vote.
  
• Evraz Group on Wednesday announced it has
  received conditional clearance from the European
  Commission to buy South African steelmaker
  Highveld for 678 million Friday Feb 23 Pueblo
  Chieftain
• The Oregon Steel Division is centered on the
  Company's steel plate minimill, the Portland
  Steelworks, in Portland, Oregon which supplies
  plate to the division's plate and pipe finishing
  facilities. Portland Steelworks is the only steel
  plate minimill in the 11 western states and one
  of only two steel plate production facilities
  operating in that region. The Combination Mill is
  expected to increase the division's manufacturing
  flexibility and supply substantially all the
  division's plate requirements for large diameter
  pipe as well as provide a new product in coiled
  plate.

7
Chavez Decree Takes 60 Share in Foreign Oil
Ventures

• Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo
  Chavez signed a decree tonight allowing the
  government to seize at least a 60 percent stake
  in the nation's last four heavy-crude-oil private
  joint ventures by May 1.
• The ventures, located in Venezuela's oil-rich,
  eastern Orinoco Belt, will be run by transition
  committees'' until May, when Venezuelan teams
  will take over, Chavez said on his nightly radio
  address to the nation. He didn't specify what
  kind of agreement, if any, had been reached with
  the six overseas companies that invested in the
  projects. He said only that he wanted them to
  stay on as minority partners.
• The privatization of oil is over,'' Chavez
  said. This is the last space that was left for
  us to recuperate. Petroleum now belongs to all
  Venezuelans.''
• Since his re-election on Dec. 3, Chavez has
  nationalized Venezuela's largest telephone and
  electricity companies, buying back assets he
  calls strategic'' to the state. His government
  last year raised royalties on private foreign oil
  companies and forced some into joint ventures,
  paring their participation even while expanding
  the role of foreign state-owned oil companies in
  developing the Orinoco's oil reserves.

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(continued) Foreign State Companies

• Argentine oil company Enarsa on Feb. 21 began
  exploratory drilling with Venezuela's state oil
  company Petroleos de Venezuela in the region's
  Ayachucho Block 6. State oil companies from Iran,
  Cuba, China, Belarus, Vietnam, India, Brazil,
  Russia and Malaysia have also signed on to help
  develop the Orinoco fields.
• Venezuela, a founding member of the Organization
  of Oil Producing Countries, was the group's
  third-largest exporter of crude in January.
  
• The four joint ventures affected by tonight's
  decree are partly owned by BP Plc, Chevron Corp.,
  ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., Statoil ASA
  and Total SA. The projects upgrade the Orinoco's
  tar-like crude into about 600,000 barrels of
  synthetic oil a day.

9
Ecuador says Congress vote prompts debt reform
President Rafael Correa

• QUITO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Ecuador's economy
  minister said on Wednesday that Congress's vote
  this week to reduce debt service assignments in
  the budget plan had given the government more
  reason to push ahead with its debt restructuring
  plans.
• Economy Minister Ricardo Patino, a leftist
  economist, also said a commission to audit the
  country's public debt would be named soon to
  determine "illegitimate debt" that the government
  says it will not pay.
• President Rafael Correa, a political outsider
  elected last year, has rattled Wall Street by
  promising to overhaul the country's foreign debt,
  triggering concerns that Ecuador might default on
  its obligations.
• Congress's vote on Tuesday to divert 283.4
  million earmarked for debt payments in the
  government's 9.8 billion budget plan this year
  worried investors who are already fretting over
  the government plans to reform bonds.
• Correa, a former economy minister and ally of
  U.S. foe Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has
  vowed to slash debt payments to spend more on the
  country's poor majority.
• The foreign debt of Ecuador, South America's
  fifth-largest oil producer, totaled 10.21
  billion in December, according to government
  figures.