Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (47351)	7/5/1999 6:15:00 AM
From: Think4Yourself	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

TotalFina makes surprise $43 Bil stock swap hostile bid for Elf Aquataine. Europe energy traders in chaos as trading in both companies suspended. Sorry, no article available yet - still hot ON the presses.

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (47351)	7/5/1999 10:28:00 PM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Douglas, PDE the "forgotten" land driller? A while back you were somewhat bearish on PDE's prospects due to their Venezuela exposure. Do you see any further danger there? I mean Venezuela's is not taking near as much of a quota cut as say SA and Kuwait are this time around. I'm thinking maybe the worst is over in Venezuela wrt contract cancellations for land rigs. PDE has a huge pile of land rigs (mostly in South America). They've got a big bunch in Argentina, which is not as vulnerable. Perhaps the market place is overlooking PDE's large ownership of land rigs? PDE's offshore rate utilization has moved from the low 30% to 45% in the past month. While admittedly, this ain't 99.9, but hey, it's showing that their offshore rate utilization has probably bottomed. If this pachyderm drops back to 8 I'll pitch my howdah and buy some. That $15 book value is a lot more "tangible" at $20 wti. Now about capex. Don't the independent's have much more leeway in spending than the majors? Already we've seen Apache, Coastal, and Anadarko increase their drilling budgets. Slider has cited a reason for liking his small E&P's is that they are finding it much easier to obtain financing in this $18 to $20 bbl price range. Since the existing pool of capital dedicated to financing drilling projects will not be sopped up buy the majors till probably y2k, won't this allow the independent's to "go hog wild"? Sure, independent's can't drive up day rates like the majors, but can't they at least substantially firm them up? Come January the majors may get one nasty surprise?