The Daily Advertiser from Lafayette, Louisiana • 30

WALL STREET For the latest information on Wall Street and mutual fund listings, see Stocks on PAGES 8C. 9C Business LET US KNOW If you have questions, comments or a story idea, please call Arnessa Garrett at 289-6386 or e-mail agarretttheadvertiser.com. Friday, July 21, 2006 Page IOC theadveptiser.com Stakes rise in sugar mill deal BUSINESS BRIEFCASE The Markets in Brief Thursday, July 20, 2006 Wfr DOW JONES Closed at: 10,928.10 P'" NASDAQ Closed at: 2.039,42 10.68 Closed at: 1.249,13 Documents show ag department has guaranteed loan for farmers. ment with them, with an option to eventually purchase the facility. According to the lease document.

Odom BATON ROUGE (AP) The state is digging deeper than originally port, saving struggling sugar cane farmers money. Using the powers of the Louisiana Agricultural Finance Authority. Odom acted as general contractor on the project, using dozens of his employees as construction workers. But the mill was not ready in time for last year's fall harvest season, as had been scheduled. Odom blamed the delay on Hurricane Rita.

Critics of the venture have questioned the financial underpinnings of the project, saying the mill can make money only by processing much more cane than is currently grown in the area. ture commissioner first won State Bond Commission approval for the syrup mill in Lacassine in September 2003. with construction beginning in 2004. The facility was built with $45 million raised from bonds backed by $12 million that the Louisiana Agricultural Finance Authority receives each year in tax dollars from slot machines at horse racing tracks. Unlike traditional sugar mills, the Lacassine plant will boil cane into syrup, which can be taken by rail to private mills along Bayou Teche.

near New Iberia. The concept is that syrup will be cheaper to trans "If they are going to pay $60 million for the $45 million deal, that is a hell of a good deal for the state." Odom said. Odom told The Times-Picayune on Wednesday that another business besides the Lake Charles Cane Cooperative wants to buy the facility. Such a sale would be possible, he said, if the co-op exercised its option to purchase the mill and then sold it to the other company Later in the same conversation, Odom said the mill had in fact already been sold for $60 million but refused to say to whom, the newspaper reported. The longtime agricul would be transferred to the local farmers, who would begin paying it off.

But documents filed last month in Jefferson Davis Parish show that, in addition to paying off the bonds used to build the plant, the state agriculture department through the 12-member State Market Commission has guaranteed a loan for up to 87 million for the sugar cane farmers to buy equipment, make modifications to the mill and operate it. Also, instead of immediately selling the mill to the cane farmers around Lake Charles. Odom has entered into a lease agree- AMEX 14.0 Closed at: 1.897.54 the first annual lease payment of S100.000 is not due until Dec. 31. 2007.

Odom said he is prohibited from talking about the loan guarantee, which he said would amount to a violation of banking protections for loan recipients. He said the lease-purchase agreement includes a $60 million price for the facility. predicted to provide financial backing for a taxpayer-funded sugar syrup mill in southwest Louisiana. When Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom first started building the S45 million Lacassine mill, he touted the project as a self-financing venture that, upon completion. Innovation honored Bernanke: Oil to stay at Fed chief's two-year prediction based on futures market activity NEW YORK AP) Crude oil prices rose Thursday, as refinery outages and further clashes between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon stoked supply worries.

Still, the U.S. Department of Energy's Wednesday report of an unexpected increase in U.S. gasoline supplies atop Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments Thursday that oil demand has been decreasing limited the price increases. Light sweet crude for August delivery which expired Thursday rose 42 cents to settle at ST3.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil futures have plunged more than 5 percent since settling at a record above S77 a barrel July 14 because of fears that the Mideast crisis could escalate.

Also inflating oil prices Thursday was news that Valero Energy Corp. would shut down its St. Charles refinery for 20 days for repairs. The company anticipates a loss of 1.3 million barrels of gasoline production during the repair period. Other refining hitches included a power outage at a ConocoPhillips refinery in Illinois and a strike at a Marathon Petroleum Co.

LLC refinery in Minnesota. But prices eased slightly after Bernanke. speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, said. "We are seeing some reduction in demand for oil, perhaps less than we would like." Based on futures market activity, the price of oil is expected to stay in the range of $75 to $80 a barrel over the next two years, he said. If oil prices were to rise another S10 or S15 a barrel, there would be "significant consequences" for the economy, the Fed chairman added.

He said high energy prices already are hurting the "in terms of real activity and in terms of inflation." he said. "There is no question about it." Prices at the gas pump are about 30 percent higher than a year ago. but demand has remained strong. PC. P1azzapp1a7zaetheadvert1ser.com Fugro Chance geodesist Dariusz Lapucha is the first recipient of Fugro's Herman Zuidberg Award for Innovation.

Fugro Chance employee wins top award worldwide NYSE Composite: 2.554,961.760 Get free 24-hour-a-day marke! updates theadvertiser.com. Gas Oil Prices 11 Swt. Crude 'Aug 1 $73.08 -42 Heating Oil 'Aug I $1,934 Unl. Gasoline $2.2477 .0179 Natural Gas Aug I S6 09' Farm Commodities Com Sept- S2425 0225 Rice (Jury) S9.25 -05 Soybeans -Aug S56425 015 Sugar 14 Sect $5278 .0013 Financial services companies merge Financial Services. LLC.

an affiliate of Darnall. Sikes. Gardes Frederick, and Wealth Care Group Asset Management. LLC said in a news release Monday that they have merged and will provide financial services under the new-name DSF Wealth Management. LLC.

DSF Wealth Management will be headquartered in Lafayette, with additional locations in Abbeville. Eunice and Morgan City, the release stated. Larry Sikes will act as CEO. while David Strother will serve as CIO of the new firm. Financial advisers include Danny Frederick and Jennifer Ziegler New views of parish to be presented today Chief Information Officer Keith Thibodeaux and his staff will make a presentation today of Lafayette Consolidated Government's new oblique and ortho photography (3D-like images of overhead views) of Lafayette Parish from Pictometry.

The presentation will be held at 10 a.m. in the Council Auditorium on the first floor of Lafavette City Hall. Coldren Oil Gas acquires Noble assets Coldren Oil Gas Company LP of New Orleans announced in a news release that it has acquired certain Noble Energy Gulf of Mexico shelf assets. The assets were acquired through its majority-owned affiliate. Coldren Resources LP.

Coldren Oil Gas LP owns 60 percent of Coldren Resources and Superior Energy Services. Inc. owns the remaining 40 percent. Coldren is majority owned by First Reserve Corporation, a Greenwich. Conn -based private equity fund with $4.5 billion under management.

Coldren has offices in Lafavette. System that Lapucha and the engineering team developed is being used to fix broken pipelines in the Gulf. Lapucha showed off the system's receiver, for which he helped write the software. It can position small items within inches much more sophisticated than the GPS found in cars. The enhanced GPS has uses in a multitude of industries, from oil and gas to agriculture.

Lapucha and his family have been Lafayette for 15 years, and he said this year has been truly special. His 11 -year-old son Adam's soccer team, which Lapucha coaches, won the state championship. His 16-year-old son Matthew, who plays the saxa-phone. made all-state in music. And his daughter Joanna was Lafayette's spelling bee champ.

"We call it the Lapucha year." his assistant. Jo Ann Poe. joked. Arnessa M. Garrett agarrett a theadvertiser.com Dariusz Lapucha's interest in science has led him far away from his native Poland.

"I always wanted to develop new things. I always wanted to do innovative things." he said. Now a senior geodesist at Lafayette-based Fugro Chance. Lapucha has a drive to innovate that has earned him a distinction among the 9.000 employees of Fugro companies worldwide. Lapucha recently was named the first recipient of Fugro's Herman Zuidberg Award for Innovation.

The award is named for a longtime inventor at the company. Lapucha and his wife. Natasza. traveled to the Fugro headquarters in Holland, where he received the award at a meeting of Fugro man agers worldwide. Those who work with Lapucha said the award couldn't be more well-deserved.

But Lapucha himself remains humble. "It wasn't just me." he said. "Also, the company was recognized. Fugro Chance is a very innovative company and always has been." Lapucha's work has helped to bring new business to the company, said Richard Barker, manager of systems engineering at Fugro Chance. "He was recognized worldwide for being a significant contributor to the technical ability and profitability of the Fugro organization." Barker said.

Since hurricanes Katrina and Rita disrupted drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico, the company has been very busy providing technical support for offshore companies trying to rebuild. Barker said. The enhanced Global Positioning Contract dispute could kill Mesaba Airlines Feeder airline for Northwest flies out of Lafavette. some small jets, but Northwest is reducing it to 49 prop-driven Saabs that seat up to 34 passengers. Woerth's threat was the strongest yet from any of the unions fighting Mesaba's demands for major pay cuts.

Mesaba has said it needs the concessions if it is to keep flying for Northwest, its only customer. Strike threats have been common from pilots and other unions at bank rupt airlines. But. this was the first time in any of the recent bankruptcies that Woerth has inserted himself so directly into the negotiations between an airline and its pilots. Woerth said that's because the pay cuts negotiated at airlines such as bankrupt United Airlines.

Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. left those pilots with enough to live on. At Mesa ba. the union said a new first officer the lowest -ranked, lowest-paid pilot at the airline would make $16,417 a year under the company's proposal, down from $19,337 under the current contract.

Woerth said other regional carriers would aim for similar terms if Mesaba succeeds. A Mesaba spokesman did not return a phone message Thursday. lines feeder over accepting a contract approved by a bankruptcy judge. Air Line Pilots Association President Duane Woerth vowed a strike that could kill Mesaba if it imposes a new contract on pilots even though a judge has given the airline permission to do so. And.

he said he won't sign a contract that includes similar terms, even if Mesaba's 730 active pilots approve it. If Mesaba "wants to keep the company alive, they're going to have to meet my terms." he said. Mesaba's parent. MATR Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. Mesaba provides the only air service in many of the 98 cities it flies to, mostly in the Midwest.

Lafayette is among the cities it serves. Its fleet once included about 100 planes, including BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) The head of the nation's largest pilots union set up a potential legal showdown over Mesa ba Airlines on Thursday, saying he'd prefer liquidation of the Northwest Air August 5th 6th Cajundome Convention Center ft 11 I More he mm.