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To: Big Dog who wrote (56064)	12/4/1999 11:44:00 PM
From: IndioBlues	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Bloomberg update on Plains All-American (this is getting interesting) Bloomberg Energy Sat, 04 Dec 1999, 11:38pm EST 12/3 18:14 Fired Plains All-American Trader Challenged U.S. Oil Estimates By Mark Pittman Fired Plains All-American Trader Challenged U.S. Oil Estimates Houston, Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Plains All American Pipeline LP, which said Monday it expects $160 million in losses because one of its traders appeared to have made unauthorized bets that oil prices would fall, complained in July that the Department of Energy was underestimating the amount of oil in U.S. storage. James M. Stewart, then director of parent company Plains Resources' Gulf Coast unit, said this summer that oil companies were underreporting their inventories to the DOE's Energy Information Administration. Stewart called the storage estimates, which were helping to lift the price of oil, ``out and out fraud.' On Monday, Stewart acknowledged that he was the unnamed employee that Plains fired because of the losses in oil trading. The company did not return repeated calls for comment this week. Now industry traders are speculating that ferocity of Stewart's complaint last summer about EIA supply estimates was related to bets by Plains that oil prices would fall, a practice known as shorting the market. Traders who sold oil short in early 1999 lost money because prices more than doubled, rising on the New York Mercantile Exchange from $12.05 on Dec. 31, 1998 to $25.81 today. `In the Headlights' Plains told analysts on Monday that a trader had taken market positions over the last year that amounted to wagers that oil prices would fall, and stuck to those positions even as prices continued to rise. ``Somebody froze in the headlights and didn't pull the trigger on getting out of the position, or they tried to go double or nothing and the losses mounted,' said Tim Evans, senior energy analyst at Pegasus Econometric Group in New York. On the advice of his attorney, Stewart wouldn't comment on his firing, other than to say ``there is more here than meets the eye.' If he was selling oil short, Stewart would have been very concerned about EIA inventory estimates. ``Fundamental traders are using inventory levels as an indication of market tightness,' Evans said. Stewart's protests about supply estimates proved justified. A week after his complaint was filed, the EIA revised the nation's inventory statistics for previous weeks, adding 6.8 million barrels to the nation's crude oil supply. The EIA admitted that some of its numbers were wrong because companies didn't provide complete information. Though companies are required to respond to a government inventory survey, the responses are never audited in person and no one has been prosecuted for lying on the forms in at least 12 years. Inventories have since plummeted to near 2-year lows as oil producing nations have honored agreements to cut output. Those cutbacks fueled the oil price rise.

To: Big Dog who wrote (56064)	12/5/1999 9:33:00 AM
From: SargeK	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

O/T Hey Big, Sorry about that. I was killing time before the Neb/Texas game and did a search on what was posted on Feb 4th (my birthday) and stumbled across your OLD post. I though it was interesting and pasted it. I didn't even look at the year. Not only did the Longhorns get stomped, my wife and I drove down to Nacogdoches last evening to watch Alto (my home town) get beat by Elysian Fields in the area championship 17 - 7. Somedays it just doesn't pay to get up. >g< Re: The POST, Good Call. Sarge