Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). (DJ) September 26: A summit of OPEC heads of government opens in Caracas, Venezuela. The summit is only the second OPEC meeting held at that level. The summit ends on a conciliatory note, with the communique calling for increased dialogue between OPEC and consuming nations. (DJ) September 28: The United Nations Compensation Commission, which handles claims for reparations arising from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, approves by consensus a $15.9 billion claim by Kuwait for compensation for lost oil production and damage to oil reserves and equipment. The proportion of revenues from Iraqi oil sales under the "oil for food" program which are used for payment of claims is reduced from 30 percent to 25 percent. Iraq condemns the decision, but states that it will not call a halt to oil exports, as had earlier been feared. (DJ) October 12: Oil prices rise sharply on news of a terrorist attack on an American warship, the USS Cole, in the Yemeni port of Aden, as well as escalating violence between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. November crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rises $2.81 to close at $36.06 per barrel. Prices for Henry Hub natural gas hit a record high of $5.78 per million British thermal units (BTU) before falling back slightly to close at $5.63 per million BTU. (WSJ) October 15: Chevron agrees to purchase Texaco for $35.1 billion in stock. The deal would create the fourth largest oil and gas company in the world, and follows a general trend toward consolidation among the major oil companies over the last two years. Analysts expect the merger, like other recent mergers, to face intensive antitrust scrutiny, especially as a combined ChevronTexaco would have a heavy share of both refining capacity and retail outlets on the west coast of the United States. (WSJ) October 30: The president OPEC, Venezuelan oil minister Ali Rodriguez, announces that the cartel will raise production quotas by , beginning November 1. OPEC's action comes as a result of its "price band" mechanism, which triggers an increase in production quotas when the price of the OPEC Basket of crude oils closes over $28 per barrel for twenty consecutive trading days. Many analysts voice doubt as to whether the OPEC quota increase will lead to an actual increase in production of that magnitude, given the lack of spare production capacity of most OPEC