the most recent four-week period to end the week of February 28, at , 32% below the level for the same period last year. (Reuters) March 5: Some of Venezuelan production in the eastern region begins to come back on-line. It was shut off at the wellhead for a week because of bottlenecks at export terminals as Venezuelan state oil company PdVSA encountered problems in returning loading at terminals to pre-strike levels. The Venezuelan government claims that oil production is over , while fired PdVSA workers claim production is at . (Reuters) March 6: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announces that force majeure is henceforth lifted on Venezuelan oil exports. Venezuela had declared force majeure on its oil exports shortly after the national strike began on December 2, 2002. It is later revealed that this lifting does not apply to certain petroleum products. President Chavez also refuses to consider rehiring any of the over 15,000 fired PdVSA workers. (Reuters) March 7: The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) puts into effect expanded price limits on its energy contracts and reduces to five minutes the time trading is halted when those limits are reached. Under the revised rules, the initial price limits for light, sweet crude oil futures will be expanded to $10 per barrel in all months from the current $7.50 in the first two months and $3.00 in all other months. The initial Henry Hub natural gas futures limits will expand to $3.00 per million British thermal units in all months from $1 in all months. The initial limits on heating oil, gasoline and propane futures will increase to 25 cents per gallon in all months from 20 cents in the first two months and 6 cents in all other months. (Reuters) March 7: Officials in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announce that new clean water regulations for smaller sites, to take effect March 10, will not apply to the petroleum and natural gas industries. Rather, these two industries will have a two-year exemption, because, according to the EPA, further study of the effects of these regulations upon these two industries is needed. (NYT) March 11: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets in Vienna and decides to maintain crude oil production quotas for its member countries (excluding Iraq) at . Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister, Ali al-Naimi says, "There will be no shortage of oil. The test is, when