Rick/Jim,
I agree with Emilio that we have a great project supporter in the Governor. He clearly understood the importance of having a gas project, sooner rather than later, and that we are not requesting any special treatment, in terms of taxes, royalties, as opposed to our competing project, the Venezuelan LNG. Moreover, we recognized that this project, due to the pricing formula defined with PDVSA, will likely pay a higher price for the gas than the domestic market will (and never lower)  and therefore is good business for Venezuela.

In the conversation with the Minister of Energy and Mines (he was even willing to call Chavez at that very same moment), the Minister acknowledged that no decision, either positive or negative, was already made. The roadblock is the availability of gas, which under very conservative scenarios analyzed by Petroleos de Venezuela, is not such. The decision, therefore, is political. 

I think it was an excellent meeting. Thye governor even suggested additional businesses such as arranging the financing for a stadium, in the way we did with the Enron field, and also the purchase of fertilizer (this is one of the most important states in terms of agriculture). I will forward this info to the appropriate people.

In an unrelated matter, I am working on a proposal to the Venezuelan Gov't, through the Ministry of Energy and Mines, to sell some power plants that ENA is desperatedly trying to sell. I wrote a proposal for several machines, with the support of the owners, and they showed interest in a used one. 35 MM US$. I'll keep you posted. 

I understand from Emilio Vicens that Chavez has not responded to Bill Richardson's letter yet. A follow-up phone call should follow. Rick, please keep me posted with Bill's efforts.

Regards,
ALF
---------------------- Forwarded by Alberto Levy/SA/Enron on 09/14/2001 02:57 PM ---------------------------
From:	Emilio Vicens/ENRON@enronXgate on 09/14/2001 10:21 AM
To:	Eric Gonzales/ENRON@enronXgate, Neal Gerstandt/ENRON@enronXgate, Guido Caranti/ENRON@enronXgate
cc:	Alberto Levy/SA/Enron@Enron 

Subject:	Meeting with the Governor

The following is a brief summary of the meeting that Alberto Levy and I had yesterday with the Governor of the Anzoategui State:

1.	Initially, the meeting was scheduled for Wednesday morning but the Governor had to cancelled at the last minute because of scheduling conflicts. Alberto Levy managed to reschedule the meeting for the following day (Sept. 13);

2.	We had approximately 2 hours to present and discuss the project with the Governor in great level of detail. The first quarter of the meeting was very formal. Nevertheless, by the second quarter, we were openly discussing the issues and how could he help us move the project forward;

3.	We explained that our commercial agreements were all concluded and that PDVSA was behind our project but that, for many months now, a political battle had slow down the final approval of the project to an unacceptable point for Enron. We also explained all the efforts and meetings we had with the MEM, ENAGAS, PDVSA and other Venezuelan agencies;

4.	We also talked about other LNG development in the country and that we believe that some people favor the development of Paria (this project is in the Sucre State). He knew about the old Cristobal Colon Project and immediately understood the situation. Joking, he even said that maybe in 10 years they move the Paria Project forward; 

5.	He was extremely interested in helping us in the project (mainly because of the investment and employment) and immediately asked his secretary to call the Minister of Energy & Mines. In less than five minutes, the Governor was talking (with us in his office) to the Minister about our project. He strongly told the Minister that the State was looking forward to the approval of this project as it was required to move the economy of the region. They discussed the status and the relationship with Paria, if any. According to the Governor, the Minister said that Paria and Jose were completely independent (not mutually exclusive) and that a final decision about the project was not made yet;

6.	He promised to discuss the project again with the Minister on Tuesday and push for a short-term decision as he understood Enron's situation very well;

7.	In addition, he will be meeting with President Chavez during the weekend about a number of subjects and will introduce this project in his discussions. We mentioned how important was to have Chavez on-board and he agreed. He will try to help us on it;

8.	He was very aggressive and pro-active in a positive way, mentioning that his role as Governor was to promote investment in the region at all cost. He will continue to push at all levels to see how he can help us in getting the final approval;

Finally, we clearly have a powerful and very connected friend in the Governor. We were gladly surprised to see such a pro-business, no BS individual as Governor. We have and will continue to push for his support and help in matters related to the project at the State and Federal level.

Emilio