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Strategies & Market Trends : Piffer OT - And Other Assorted Nuts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (53342)	9/22/2000 11:07:52 AM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 63513

Producers actually want prices to ease off... U.S. energy companies fear government action on prices HOUSTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - U.S. oil and natural gas companies are increasingly concerned that current high prices for both fuels could trigger government intervention, possibly in the form of a tax on windfall profits. However, industry executives attending an energy conference in Houston this week warned that any such action would have an adverse effect on supplies by reducing the incentive to find and produce more oil and natural gas. "Frankly, we're a little concerned about gas prices, with these kind of numbers," said Allen Turner, senior vice president for corporate development at Devon Energy Corp.(AMEX: DVN). Natural gas prices are already running at record levels of over $5 per thousand cubic feet and if they spiked higher this winter, as demand for gas to heat homes peaks, that could create additional pressure for a government response, he said. "Our basic fear is political reaction... So this may be a little bit heretical and it may not be the thing you want to hear, but we'd actually prefer to see a little decline in gas prices," Turner told the meeting sponsored by investment firm Dain Rauscher Wessels . Mark Papa, chairman and chief executive officer of EOG Resources Inc.(NYSE: EOG), noted that high gasoline prices had led to accusations of "gouging" in the U.S. Midwest earlier this year and that a similar public outcry had recently led regulators to impose a cap on retail electricity prices in California. "I do think that the political rhetoric that we're going to hear over the next six months and the level of public interest on this is going to get ratcheted way up," he said. Pressure on the industry would mount as customers noticed the effect of higher gas prices on their heating bills, but a tax on windfall profits would be "counterproductive", he added. Lisa Stewart, executive vice president for business development at Apache Corp.(NYSE: APA), said her company, too, was worried about the possibility of regulatory action to tame high oil and gas prices. "It's a real concern for us, although I would say we're going to enjoy the high commodity prices while they're here," she said. Bob Dye, Apache's vice president of investor relations, said a tax on windfall profits would not help the underlying problem of scarce supplies. "If they take money away from the producers, you're taking money away from the people that actually could have a shot at solving the problem," he said. John Seitz, president and chief operating officer of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.(NYSE: APC), said the best action the government could take to alleviate supply problems was to open up more federal lands to oil and gas exploration. "The short-term solution is for the industry to gear up and go out and drill more wells and discover more fields. The federal government can facilitate that by making more acreage available rather than making less acreage available," he said. All Headlines Additional Headlines

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (53342)	9/22/2000 11:20:45 AM
From: Logain Ablar	Respond to of 63513

JXM. Well the natural gas supplies are as tight as heating oil but ng should remain tight with the new power plants generating via ng. Will hinder the growth of inventory. I read somewhere ng inventories are 30% lower than last year at this time. I believe this is what we keep seeing in the futures. Consider the 100% gain in price flows right to the bottom line. Plus additional production helps earnings as well. All the new electric power plants have been natural gas. No more coal or nuclear. Hydro will be revived soon. We will have the politicans (mostly democratic) bashing the oil & gas companies on excessive profits. They will pick on % gain year over year and omit the % drop a couple of years ago. We just need to ensure we make money off of the positions. Tim