Many analysts believe that Russia has already been exporting near capacity for some months. (Reuters) June 26: OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna decide to leave their combined output quota, excluding Iraq, unchanged at for the third quarter of 2002. It is estimated that OPEC-10 countries (i.e. excluding Iraq) are producing between 1 million and above the quota agreement. OPEC members also agree to appoint Venezuelan Oil Minister Alvaro Silva as the cartel's new secretary general, replacing Ali Rodriguez, who will now head Venezuelan state oil company PdVSA. At the meeting, Algeria requests a larger share of OPEC's total quota, but the issue will not be taken up until the OPEC Board of Governors meeting in August. (NYT, DJ) June 27: Mexico announces that it will continue its agreement with OPEC to limit crude oil exports to into the third quarter of 2002. A statement from the Energy Ministry said that the decision was "based on national interests and conditioned upon the future conduct of the world oil market." Mexico is among the five largest oil exporters to the United States. (Reuters) June 29: An official at Oman's Oil and Gas Ministry announces that the non-OPEC country will continue its production cut into the third quarter of 2002. Oman had agreed with OPEC to cut production in the first and second quarters of 2002. (Reuters) July 1: The California State Legislature passes a bill that limits vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide, the first such bill to pass a state legislature. The specific regulations, to be developed by 2005, would take effect on 2009 model-year vehicles. The limits, enacted because of carbon dioxide's putative effect on global climate change, are likely to have significant repercussions beyond California because the State represents some 10% of the U.S. automobile market. Governor Gray Davis signs the bill into law on July 22. (LAT) July 3: The supertanker Astro Lupus arrives offshore of the Port of Houston, carrying the first direct shipment of Russian crude oil to the United States. The oil, about of Urals Blend, was exported by Yukos, Russia's second-largest producer and destined for two ExxonMobil refineries in Texas. Yukos hopes to make six such shipments this year. (NYT, WMRC, OD) July 26: The U.S. Department of Energy announces that it intends to increase the rate at which the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is filled by increasing the “royalty-in-kind” exchange program by . Under