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

To: hdrjr who wrote (57361)	12/23/1999 11:36:00 PM
From: IndioBlues	Respond to of 95453

FROM Bloomberg: Crude Oil Rises as Low Inventories Offset Demand From Year 2000 Concerns By Mark Pittman Crude Oil Rises as Low Inventories Offset Demand From Y2K Fear New York, Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose, ending a four-day slide, on expectations that production cuts by OPEC will erode supplies even as U.S. demand eases after the New Year's holiday next week. U.S. inventories are at their lowest levels since January 1997 and are down 14 percent since April, leaving prices more than double what they were a year ago. Inventories probably will fall further even after consumers stop stocking up on fuel to avert possible shortages caused by Y2K computer malfunctions. ``Inventories are going to keep falling,' said Tim Evans, senior energy analyst at Pegasus Econometric Group in New York. ``Even if demand falls short, it still draws down inventories.' Crude oil for February delivery rose as much as 32 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $25.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract was recently up 12 cents at $25.62 a barrel. Crude oil has fallen more than 4 percent since Dec. 16. The exchange is closed tomorrow for the Christmas holiday. The U.S. Department of Energy predicted that an extra 7 million barrels of gasoline will be purchased in the next few days, or enough to top off a quarter of the nation's cars and light trucks. Wholesale gasoline demand last week was up 2.1 million barrels from the same period a year ago. ``I'm going to fill up my car with gas,' said Chris Schachte, a trader at GSC Energy Corp. in Atlanta. ``It couldn't hurt.' While demand probably will drop off after New Year's, inventories are expected to keep dropping. As of Dec. 17, U.S. crude oil supplies fell to 294.92 million barrels from 295.1 million the previous week, the fifth decline in six weeks, the American Petroleum Institute reported Tuesday. ``It's hard to dispute that the fundamentals are good,' said Michael Fitzpatrick, a trader at Fimat USA Inc. in New York. ``But there are so few participants because of the holiday that it's hard to tell what the sentiment is. We've been down lately because people have been selling because of boredom and a lack of patience that we're not reaching new highs.'