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Pastimes : All Clowns Must Be Destroyed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (40233)	6/16/2000 4:09:00 PM
From: Ken98	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42523

<<There may be an innocent explanation.>> Maybe so. I'm just a little (really a lot) skeptical of anything coming out of the Dept. of Energy right now. What with Los Alamos, mid-west gas prices, Sect. Richardson in line for VP and what not. Also, with Clinton out there today trying to jawbone down oil prices. There seems to be some sort of connection with these oil loans and the refiners and trying to jawbone down gas prices: <<Friday June 16, 3:38 pm Eastern Time NYMEX crude trims losses after sharp fall on OPEC, SPR NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) - NYMEX crude oil futures trimmed losses near the close Friday after falling more than $1 a barrel amid pressures spawned by a looming increase in OPEC supply and worries over U.S. gasoline supply. NYMEX July crude slipped further to $31.20 a barrel in late trade, extending the day's losses to $1.75. It last traded at $32.10, a loss of 85 cents on the day, recouping part of its losses on pre-weekend short-covering.. July gasoline futures tumbled to a late session low of $1.036 a gallon, slashing its value from Thursday by 5.20 cents. It last traded at $1.0620 down 2.60 cents. July heating oil dropped as low as 73.00 cents, losing 4.44 cents, to 73.00 cents a gallon, before last trading at 74.00 cents, down 3.44 cents. In London, August Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) last traded at $28.30, sliding $1.09 on expectations of an OPEC oil output increase next week. Calls by U.S. politicians for the federal government to allow oil companies to borrow oil from national strategic reserves to alleviate the tight supply situation prodded speculative funds and locals to lighten their long positions. Fund-led speculators were also encouraged to unwind positions as the July contract is expiring next Tuesday. President Bill Clinton early in the day expressed frustration over gasoline prices in the U.S. Midwest, which has jumped above $2 a gallon in Chicago and Milwaukee. ``It's been very frustrating to me. I'm quite concerned about it,'' Clinton said during an interview with NBC's ``Today'' show during a visit to New York. Blockage of a shipping channel in Louisiana caused the Department of Energy (DOE) to lend Citgo Petroleum Corp. 500,000 barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) so the company's Lake Charles refinery could maintain gasoline production. Conoco Inc. (NYSE:COCa - news), which also runs a refinery in the area, said it was talking with Washington regulators to draw a still unspecified amount of SPR oil because of the blockage. It said it had cut crude runs at its plant by 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 190,000 bpd. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, led a bipartisan call for the Clinton administration to allow SPR oil loans to energy companies to fight what they called OPEC's tight production policy. Analysts they expected OPEC to raise output by at least 500,000 barrels when it meets on June 21 in Vienna. ``We fully expect an announcement for a production increase of at least 500,000 bpd,'' at the meeting, said analyst L. Bruce Lanni at CIBC World Markets. A Venezuelan official on Thursday said his country favours an oil production increase of more than 500,000 bpd. The comment came after a private meeting between the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia and Mexico which ended early Thursday with little fresh clues on producers' intentions. ...>>