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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (46419)	6/14/1999 7:01:00 PM
From: pz	Respond to of 95453

Monday June 14, 6:26 pm Eastern Time Saudi leads as U.S. oil imports in Apr run ahead of 1998 WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia continued to lead all other nations as a sorce of crude oil for the United States in April, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's latest monthly report. The report showed overall imports running ahead of last year's average, despite cuts by the leading OPEC and non-OPEC exporters. The report showed the U.S. imported overall an average of 9.05 million bpd in April, an increase of more than 240,000 bpd from March 1999 and up from the 1998 average of 8.55 million bpd. While Saudi Arabian April imports slipped to 1.398 million bpd from high levels the previous two months, it was little changed from the 1998 average. Meanwhile, Venezuela imports rebounded (see table below). The declines from some countries has been more than made up by higher imports from others, such as Iraq and Nigeria. U.S. oil imports from major crude suppliers (in million barrels per day) in the last three months are as follows: COUNTRY February '99 March April --- Ave. 1998 Saudi Arabia 1.437 1.584 1.398 1.386 Venezuela 1.291 .998 1.356 1.356 Mexico 1.231 1.426 1.313 1.304 Canada 1.082 1.053 .970 1.112 Nigeria .661 .630 .865 .679 Iraq .681 .791 .840 .334 Colombia .458 .572 .425 .326 Angola .333 .283 .409 .446 Kuwait .205 .324 .279 .279 Norway .157 .200 .191 .216 ------------------------------------------------------ TOTAL 9.054 8.547 ------------------------------------------------------

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (46419)	6/14/1999 7:03:00 PM
From: pz	Respond to of 95453

Monday June 14, 4:48 pm Eastern Time FOCUS-Oil holds strong gains as stockpiles ease (adds closing prices) LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices stayed high on Monday consolidating last week's strong gains that were triggered by fresh optimism over OPEC measures to erase surplus stockpiles. Brent futures for August delivery settled just three cents lower in London at $16.66 a barrel after jumping on Friday to within 40 cents of a peak this year for Brent of $17.09. Dealers said news that the Venezuelan government had settled a pay dispute with oil workers had prevented an immediate extension of the rally. Venezuelan oil unions called off their nationwide strike call on Sunday after the government backed down on a decision to freeze oil sector wages in the world's third largest exporter. Oil prices moved higher last week despite the impact of poor refinery profit margins which previously had anchored the market at lower levels. Refiners in Europe and the United States have curtailed operations, reducing demand for crude. Nevertheless, analysts were convinced that the supply-demand picture was improving again after a demand lull which in May put a severe dent in the spring rally caused by OPEC's March announcement of stringent supply curbs. They said that renewed imports by Asian buyers from West Africa and the North Sea would continue to support the oil market during June and July. ''Asian purchasing of Atlantic Basin crude continues and will be compounded by increased demand from both sides of the Atlantic and reduced supply from North Sea maintenance,'' said Washington's Petroleum Finance in a monthly report. Oil prices on Friday also were pushed up by news that a pipeline carrying gasoline and jet fuel had exploded in Washington State in the United States on Thursday. The blast cut off the northern half of the Olympic Pipeline, the major carrier of refined fuels from Pacific Northwest refineries. Also last week the International Energy Agency said OPEC's output curbs had started reducing world oil stockpiles. The Paris-based agency said that the prospects for world petroleum demand growth this year were improving after it had identified a key turning point for surplus petroleum stockpiles. Though still high, the year-on-year global inventory surplus fell in April for the first time in two and a half years, dropping 34 million barrels, to 2.65 billion. ''The implied stockdraw for the rest of the year is definitely favourable to oil exporters,'' said David Knapp, editor of the IEA report. Prices in dollars a barrel: Jun 14 Jun 11 (close) (close) IPE Aug Brent 16.69 16.72 NYMEX July light crude 18.33 18.43

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (46419)	6/14/1999 7:08:00 PM
From: pz	Respond to of 95453

Monday June 14, 8:06 am Eastern Time INTERVIEW-Nigerian unrest cuts Shell's output By Matthew Tostevin WARRI, Nigeria, June 14 (Reuters) - Recent ethnic clashes and political unrest in Nigeria's Niger Delta are disrupting both long and short term oil industry operations, Royal Dutch/Shell (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L) said. Albert Aramabi, External Relations Manager in Warri, said Shell's Western division was producing about 370,000 barrels per day (bpd) from capacity of 450,000 bpd -- meaning a drop in output even when OPEC quota cuts are accounted for. ''We're still well below where we should be if things were operating normally. The point is that we're not even able to run the fields and run our production to meet that OPEC level,'' Aramabi told Reuters in an interview at the weekend. ''We have quite a considerable amount of disturbances in the Western division,'' he added. The Western division, which exports through the Forcados Terminal, has been particularly badly hit over the past year by unrest which has affected swamp and land flow stations in almost all its areas of operation. The eruption of clashes near Warri between Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri tribes after the end of military rule last month, have made it difficult for Shell to operate from the town where fighting has claimed scores of lives. ''Many of our staff live in the town. With less people around we haven't therefore been able to get supplies to our fields,'' Aramabi said. ''Without food and water reaching the stations, some equipment to maintain production, it's pretty obvious that it's only a matter of time before things start getting very difficult. Right now things have reached that stage,'' he said. Aramabi said there had as yet been no immediate effect on output from the clashes around Warri but production was affected by ongoing unrest in the Northern Swamp area. Flow station closures to press political demands as well as the threat of kidnapping oil workers and sabotage have made it impossible to man installations on a 24 hour basis, Aramabi said. ''It will be more expensive and definitely output will begin to drop when we find that we don't have time to maintain the facilities,'' he said. Aramabi said unrest had slowed devlopment of the Odidi gas gathering project in the northern swamp, that is intended to use gas that would otherwise be flared for local power generation. But he said that after a long break last year due to trouble in the southern swamp region, a rig that had been dormant for several months was now drilling again, with plans to drill many more wells. Aramabi said development planning of the new EA field was underway and hoped the field, which would give the Western division a greater shallow water component, would be operating within a few years. While the immediate causes of the disturbances in the Niger Delta are political and ethnic grievances, the root of the problem lies in a longer term feeling by impoverished villagers that they are neglected by central government. But withdrawing is not an option for the government which draws 90 percent of export revenue from the region or oil firms which can produce light, low sulphur crudes for as little as $2 per barrel. ''I am an optimist. We are going through a phase,. It hasn't always been like this and probably we'll go back to the good times if the problems are solved,'' Aramabi said.