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: Razorbak who wrote (57732)	1/1/2000 10:12:00 PM
From: Razorbak	Respond to of 95453

"World Energy Flows Trouble Free After Y2K" Saturday January 1, 8:52 am Eastern Time FOCUS-World energy flows trouble free after Y2K (adds IEA all clear para 5) By William Maclean LONDON, Jan 1 (Reuters) - From Australia to Alaska, world energy producers pumped smoothly away on Saturday with strategic oil and gas flows uninterrupted by the much-feared Y2K bug. Oil consuming nations breathed a sigh of relief after potential troublespots Iraq and Russia and key OPEC powers in the Gulf, Africa and Latin America passed an uneventful night. ''It's a green light across the world,'' said David Knapp, head of the markets division of the International Energy Agency (IEA), as the West's energy watchdog stepped down its monitoring operations. ''We have recorded no incidents.'' The IEA and the U.S. Department of Energy said there was no need to release emergency stockpiles of oil they had readied in case computer bugs caused a shortfall of energy supplies. ''There were no problems, no shortages and no reason for IEA member countries to mobilise their reserves,'' the IEA said at noon Paris time (1100 GMT) on Saturday. It said it had been prepared if necessary to unleash up to two million barrels a day. The nearest the computer-dependent international energy system came to a hint of a problem was an adjustment made by Turkey on the monitoring system on an Iraqi oil pipeline. Turkey said it had set the date on the computerised system to 1995 from 1999 to avoid potential millennium bug problems. Iraq pumps oil down the pipeline under a U.N.-monitored oil- for-food deal to provide aid for its people, under U.N. trade sanctions imposed after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. IRAQ GREEN LIGHT As things turned out, Iraq oil production and exports flowed normally over the turn of the millennium, Baghdad said. Multinationals producing in Nigeria said on Saturday they had experienced no problems from the millennium bug. Nigeria -- whose light, sweet crudes are important for U.S. East Coast refineries -- had been seen as a potential source of Y2K problems because of the frequently chaotic infrastructure in Africa's most populous nation. The millennium computer problem, known as the Y2K bug, stems from mainly older computer systems which were programmed to read only the last two digits of a year. It was feared systems might misread 2000 as 1900, causing systems to malfunction or crash. Key systems given the all clear included output from Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and exporter, OPEC's number two Iran, the Suez Canal and SUMED pipeline connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and Russia's Druzbha oil and gas export pipeline to eastern Europe.. North Sea crude systems including international pricing benchmark Brent and its loading terminal Sullom Voe in Scotland's Shetland islands were quickly given the green light. STATE, COMMERCIAL TITANS TROUBLE FREE State-owned oil titans such as Saudi Aramco, Venezuela's Petroleos de Venezuela and Mexico's Petroleos Mexicanos -- all key suppliers to the United States, the world's largets energy market -- reported no problems. Privately-owned supermajors Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM - news) Royal Dutch/Shell (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L) and BP Amoco (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BPA.L), also pronounced themselves trouble-free. In Alaska, the last oil province to enter the new millennium, dominant producer BP Amoco pronounced the all clear. ''The screen looks green all across the world -- no operational impacts,'' a company spokesman said. The IEA, grouping the world's major industrialised nations, said in December that it was confident preparations for computer date rollovers on January 1, 2000 would minimise risks to the global energy sector. But concerns had risen among oil consuming nations about the possible impact of the bug because of a sharp rise this year in world oil prices. Supply curbs implemented by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil exporters have sliced spare inventories and driven prices to $25 a barrel for North Sea Brent. The IEA said steps had been planned by member countries to deal with any residual Y2K problems and it was prepared for collective emergency measures in the event they were needed. But IEA deputy executive director William Ramsay told Reuters shortly before midnight in Paris: ''I don't see any particular reason (to tap emergency stocKs). There are no discernible shortfalls in oil.'' IEA member states are mandated to hold oil stocks of more than three billion barrels for release in the event of an emergency. The reserves were last released when Kuwaiti and Iraqi supplies were suspended after Baghdad's invasion of Kuwait in the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More Quotes and News: EXXON MOBIL (NYSE:XOM - news) biz.yahoo.com