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

To: BigBull who wrote (57656)	12/31/1999 8:48:00 AM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

Kinda OT - Yeltsin resigns, Putin in: news.bbc.co.uk Any implications for Russian oil?

To: BigBull who wrote (57656)	12/31/1999 10:34:00 AM
From: Winkman777	Respond to of 95453

Hi Bull. Just a little comment about FGH. RIG's Talbert said it would be 3 to 5 years before new deep water rigs may be needed. Disclosure: I sold FGI shortly after merger announcement. To me it's a dead money situation. Today is our last chance to take a tax loss for 99. OT: I value Slider's serious commentary. But IMO his, at times, almost paranoid overreaction to critics coupled with his enormous energy causes a lot of negativity and wasted space/time. To all, I wish a happy, prosperous, and above all peaceful 2000. Winkman

To: BigBull who wrote (57656)	12/31/1999 12:07:00 PM
From: upanddown	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Bull, my only source of information on FGH business is using the RIGZONE database. If you look for all rigs built since 1995 with a rated water depth of 2000 ft+, the "yard built" is foreign for at least 30 of the 37 rigs shown. It shows TDI-Halter as the yard for 4 semis, none for Friede Goldman. Even the Bingo rigs for Ocean Rig are shown as being built at Dalian in China. Now there could be errors in the data or FGH could have been part of a consortium of builders but it does not appear that FGH is a major player in deepwater rig building. Haven't heard anything about Daewoo but they are not listed as "yard built" for any of the recent deepwater rigs. One thing I have never seen discussed here are the platforms needed to PRODUCE deepwater fields. There are about 50 active drilling projects worldwide in 2000 ft+ of water with others having already been completed successfully. I expect a spate of new deepwater projects to be initiated early in 2000. My question is "what will be needed to produce these deepwater fields?" Won't there be a need for some gigantic hunk of floating iron? I'am assuming that existing platforms cannot be used and that it will require at least a semi conversion. Has anyone heard anything about plans for deepwater production? John