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To: BigBull who wrote (55686)	11/30/1999 5:32:00 PM
From: Razorbak	Respond to of 95453

Bull, Refineries I'm not sure about the refinery you're referring to in Asia. I do know that the Asian refining market was grossly overbuilt in the late 80's and early 90's, so it doesn't surprise me that some of the refineries are now being shut down. If I recall correctly, one of the largest refineries in the world is located in Korea, but most Western countries weren't even aware of its true capacity (>700,000 bbl/day) until a few years ago. And anyone that has ever travelled to Singapore can personally attest to its massive refining infrastructure, all built because of the Singapore government's aggressive development program which was designed to build a national competitive advantage through high-value-added manufacturing processes. If I recall correctly, the XON/MOB refinery that is being divested is the Exxon Benicia refinery in Benicia, California (San Francisco Bay area). When I worked for Exxon back in the late 80's, that little refinery was a very profitable niche player in the heart of the relatively-sheltered-but-lucrative PADD V market, despite the fact that Exxon's overall downstream U.S. operations, as a whole, almost always lost money. If that actually is the refinery being divested, it's probably because of very real concerns voiced by Exxon's and Mobil's competitors about the new company gaining potential monopoly power in that particular geographic market. Having said that, I do agree with your premise that there are some real trends out there in the oil & gas market towards dis-integration by some of the vertically integrated majors. Unocal did it successfully a few years back when they sold their downstream operations to another player (Tosco?) and became more of an E&P company with some residual operations in the chemicals industry. However, Exxon & Mobil are not the same as Unocal. They've been integrated since the days of the anti-trust bust-up of the Rockefeller empire back in, what, 1912? And while they'll divest the occasional downstream asset, like when Exxon sold the unprofitable Bayway (New Jersey) refinery to Tosco a few years ago, they'll never completely de-couple their upstream and downstream businesses. JMHO. Razor

To: BigBull who wrote (55686)	11/30/1999 5:33:00 PM
From: k.ramesh	Respond to of 95453

OT The "New Refinery in India" is built by Reliance Petroleum which is a newer company belonging to Reliance Industries group, which boasted the largest mkt cap, (unless INFY has already shot past it) largest number of individual shareholders. single handedly created the shareholding craze in India. Quite possibly one of the best in increasing shareholder value anywhere in the world. These guys are like old fashioned industrialists who build their wealth as well as build the nation, their Polyester fiber yarn plant was implemented in the fastest time ever for a plant of that kind with dupont technology. All their plants are world class in scale. The group has been politically well connected in the past,(rights issues which have a promoters quota come in quite handy) and are probably setting hydrocarbon policy for the entire country. see ril.com Ramesh