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

To: Think4Yourself who wrote (68665)	6/23/2000 9:09:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

By nearly any measure, gasoline is still a bargain throughout the United States, cheaper now than at almost any time since people started driving cars Star Tribune, June 22 Editorial: The real problem is that gas prices have been too low It will be interesting, though academic, to see what the Federal Trade Commission finds out about why Midwestern gasoline prices have climbed so far above the U.S. average. Perhaps oil companies have been using price trends to cover a bit of gouging, as the White House contends. Perhaps new federal requirements for cleaner, reformulated gasoline are the main culprit, as the industry asserts (with some credible backing from the Congressional Research Service in a report issued yesterday). Probably there will be blame to go around, but the details will count for little at the gas pump. Prices are widely predicted to start subsiding soon; even if reformulated gasoline is shown to be a major factor, the Clinton administration is not disposed to ease its requirements, nor should it be. The fact is that by nearly any measure, gasoline is still a bargain throughout the United States, cheaper now than at almost any time since people started driving cars. Many such measures are reviewed in a recent report from Cambridge Energy Research Associates, confirming in hard data what Americans tend to know in their bones -- and demonstrate in their behavior. Gasoline prices of 1980, after adjusting for inflation, were equivalent to $2.50 a gallon today. Some Chicago-area retailers are near that level, but the nation's average of $1.64 is well below it, and so is Minnesota's $1.79. Even in the 1960s, when a gallon was 30 cents, Americans were paying the equivalent of $1.75 today. Twenty years ago, gasoline accounted for about 5 percent of the average household budget, according to the Cambridge group. Today the figure is about 3 percent -- even though household mileage goes up every year, even though fuel efficiency has been fairly flat for a decade. In 1980, it cost about 17 cents per mile to fuel the average car. Today the figure is about 7 cents. At that rate, why should Americans reconsider their love affair with sport-utility vehicles, or worry about driving habits that have boosted the average driver's mileage by 34 percent in two decades? The answers, of course, have little to do with the price of gasoline and everything to do with the social costs of car-dependent living -- starting with urban air pollution and global warming. After the oil shocks of the 1970s, it seemed that market factors might force a rethinking of U.S. motoring habits. But that appears a hopelessly naive notion this summer, as Americans confidently shrug off the temporary pain of today's high prices, believing they will soon recede. startribune.com

To: Think4Yourself who wrote (68665)	6/23/2000 9:17:00 AM
From: Aggie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

JQ and all, Good Morning. Perspective from the field: Staffing of rigs right now is a major problem, a friend of mine at a major contractor has seen his active rigs go from 0 to 3 in this region in the past 2 months. This is the international arena, where the roustabouts, roughnecks, and catering crew are nationals, with others positions filled by expat's. A real problem right now getting expat's who have a solid bank of experience and can safely direct national crews who (a) don't have the experience and (b) come from a background with a very different set of values, standards and motivations. The Contractor who will excel here is the one who kept their staff on during the slow periods, chipping paint and sweeping the warehouse and doing minor rig maintenance. Our project will spud in about a year's time and I have already voiced concerns to my friend, asking how specifically he intends to staff the rig. On another note, it looks like all of the Democrats are up to date on their Dumb Shots: slb.com (and below) No mention of Chucky Schumer, but I see signs of his flavor of ignorance. I wonder if Occidental sells oil to the SPR? This update from our Paris editors 11:41 GMT Lawmakers Seek Emergency Oil Release WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters via energy24.com) - The Clinton administration came under more pressure from Congress to release oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to give consumers relief from soaring gasoline prices. Printer-friendly version E-mail to colleagues Seventy-eight lawmakers asked President Bill Clinton to immediately release oil from the emergency stockpile to counter OPEC's failure to increase oil production enough to ease tight supplies and to fight oil companies they claim are overcharging consumers for gasoline. ?By flooding the market with new supply, you not only will have an immediate effect on the spot price of gasoline, you will send a message to the oil industry and to OPEC that the United States will not stand idly by while average Americans become the pawns of oligopolies and cartels,? the lawmakers said in joint letter to the president. The request to put reserve oil in the market comes as U.S. retail gasoline prices have reached record highs for the fourth week in a row, with pump prices in the Midwest topping $2 a gallon in many locations. Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, lawmakers said oil companies are gouging consumers at the pump and it's time for the administration to take action by releasing reserve oil. ?The Christians had a better chance against the lions than motorists against the oil companies,? said Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. The emergency reserve, which was created by Congress in the mid 1970s, holds 570 million barrels of oil in a series of underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas. With that much oil, Markey said one or two million barrels of crude could be released a day throughout the summer without making a dent in the reserve. The lawmakers said the president could order a direct sale of reserve oil or temporary loan crude to energy firms that would then sell the oil in the open market. Regards to all, Aggie

To: Think4Yourself who wrote (68665)	6/23/2000 9:20:00 AM
From: Ronald J. Clark	Respond to of 95453

JQP I agree that a driller must at a minimum have idle rigs. I am assuming however, that lots of drillers meet this minimum requirement (maybe I'm wrong or idle rigs in specific locations or of certain types are in fact not in surplus). If lots of drillers have idle hardware but can't find enough employees or operate them, an investor would have to gain a sense of which of the drillers with excess hardware are most likely to be able to recruit workers. Is it a matter of pay only, or does the reputation of the driller as to how they treat their employees in bad times a factor as well?