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

To: Tommaso who wrote (61069)	2/29/2000 11:14:00 AM
From: Think4Yourself	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Russia business and government doesn't play by Western rules as many funds, including the Templeton Russia Fund, have found out in the last few years. If you are investing money you might need later I suggest you look into some of the problems the funds have had in Russia. At least that way you will pick a fund that can deal with the environment there

To: Tommaso who wrote (61069)	2/29/2000 12:38:00 PM
From: Nello Filippone	Respond to of 95453

<<If Russia really has huge amounts of oil awaiting potential export, and if the Russian economy has been hurt by (among many other things) low oil prices, might there not be a recovery in Russia accompanying high oil prices? >> Tommaso, I would not count on any significant amount of Oil exports from Russia. A few weeks ago month they increased tariffs on oil exports 25%. They are having a hard time supplying themselves right now. This is partially due to the IMF taking money off the table that was going to the development of new fields. Russia's best bet would be to try and help Iraq get parts and equipment for it's deteriorating oil production infrastructure in exchange for cheap crude. I don't think it was a coincidence that two RUSSIAN tankers where caught smuggling Iraqi crude.

To: Tommaso who wrote (61069)	2/29/2000 1:12:00 PM
From: Think4Yourself	Respond to of 95453

Here is Russia's NG situation. Oil situation pretty similar. Russia to Ease Gas Producers' Access to Gazprom Pipelines By Eduard Gismatullin Moscow, Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to ease access for gas producers, including oil companies, to the pipelines of OAO Gazprom, Russia's natural gas monopoly, this year to encourage companies to ship gas to customers using the network. ``We have to make Gazprom more transparent and open the way for outside (gas) producers,' said Minister of Fuel and Energy Viktor Kalyuzhny. ``Not only Itera (a U.S.-based gas trading company) should work with Gazprom pipelines. . . (Russian) oil companies, which also produce gas, should also achieve results from such cooperation.' Gazprom said it plans to cut its gas exports outside the former Soviet Union by 0.8 percent, with domestic production at the same level as in 1999. Gazprom plans to export 130 billion cubic meters of gas this year, down from 130.1 billion cubic meters in 1999, said Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Valery Remizov. The company expects $9.2 billion of export revenue, a record, as world gas prices recover to an average $80 per 1,000 cubic meters. The gas company expects to double its tax payment to 206 billion rubles ($7.2 billion) this year. The recently introduced 5 percent gas export duty charged on the value of gas will cost the company 11 billion rubles, said Remizov. ``Russian consumers have accumulated 108 billion rubles of debts for supplied gas,' said Remizov. ``This is equal to the whole country supply for 1.3 years.' Unpaid Gas Bills Customers in the former Soviet Union owe 50 billion rubles of debts to Gazprom, Russia's power generators owe 44 billion rubles to the company and government agencies owe 15 billion rubles for delivered gas. ``Gazprom's capital expenditures were half what was necessary to maintain production in 1997-1999,' said Kalyuzhny. ``We have 20 billion cubic meter of gas deficit (in Russia) now, which can be up to 80 billion (cubic meters) in 2002.' Gazprom's capital expenditures were 68.2 billion rubles last year, said Remizov. Gazprom produced 545.6 billion cubic meters of gas down 1.5 percent, or 8 billion cubic meters, from output in 1998. The company delivered 339 billion cubic meters of gas to domestic customers, off which 134.9 billion cubic meters were supplied to power generating utilities. The company sold 86.7 billion cubic meters of gas to customers in the Baltic region and the CIS last year. In addition Gazprom produced 9.9 million tons of oil in 1999 up 4.2 percent from 9.5 million tons of output in 1998.