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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ahhaha who wrote (4297)	4/28/2002 8:54:49 AM
From: riposte	Respond to of 24758

Saudi May Privatize Some Aramco Operations Saudi May Privatize Some Aramco Operations DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is looking at the possibility of privatizing some of the operations of state-owned Saudi Aramco, the biggest oil-producing company in the world, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Saturday. Naimi, addressing Saudi Aramco staff in Houston, did not elaborate, but Western and Saudi industry sources said they believed he was referring to Saudi Aramco's non-core, ancillary operations and not the kingdom's key oil and gas facilities. "We are also studying the possibility of privatizing some of Saudi Aramco's operations," Naimi said in his speech. Oil industry sources said the Saudi Aramco privatization scheme has been in the pipeline since the late 1990s. "Saudi Aramco, as with many state-run oil firms, has been reviewing this concept for several years," said an industry source in the region. "They are thinking of hiving off services in the medical, housing, transport and educational sectors." Saudi Aramco was a joint venture with private oil companies until the 1980s when the Saudi government acquired a 100-percent interest in its assets. The oil giant offers myriad staff benefits through service units it currently owns. The Saudi oil chief also spoke of the kingdom's decision -- unveiled at an energy conference in Riyadh in November -- to set up a publicly-held energy services company. The holding company, which could draw initial investment of $160 million to $220 million, would be similar, but not identical, to Saudi industrial giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC). Naimi said Saudi Aramco currently out-sources many support services to the Saudi private sector to help spread the wealth generated by its oil production. "We in the Ministry of Petroleum are embarking on establishing a publicly-owned company, which will provide support services to the petroleum and energy sector," he said in a copy of the speech given to Reuters. "This covers engineering, seismic surveying, drilling, manufacturing of some products and others," Naimi said. Majority ownership in the company would come courtesy of the Saudi private sector, while the government would participate via two existing oil services companies -- Arabian Drilling Co and the Arabian Geophysical and Surveying Co. While under Saudi corporate law, foreign firms cannot invest in joint stock companies, they will be allowed to form joint ventures with subsidiaries of the holding company. The Saudi oil minister stressed the strong ties between the kingdom and the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, and appeared to put paid to earlier reports suggesting Riyadh was mulling the use of the oil weapon to influence Washington. "The economic and political relations that bind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and those that bind the Saudi petroleum industry and its American counterparts -- especially Texas -- are strong," Naimi said. "And our hope is that these relations continue to develop for the betterment of both sides. And that Saudi-American ties are not affected by those who might try to disrupt this relationship." URL: biz.yahoo.com

To: ahhaha who wrote (4297)	4/29/2002 1:45:03 AM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24758

The answer is labor. In Canada the cost of labor is a major problem. That's why the BOC has to start tightening early. We're trying to inflate too, but we aren't having much luck with it. Actually the same old inflation plagues supermarket prices and nothing else has changed much over the last many months. Must be the dollar which is now lower than when I last noticed in November that this latest move up lacked the punch. I see that gold stocks are up 50% since January and bullion is up 10%. It looks like gold is undergoing yet another bear market rally. I thought for sure it was entering a long slow bull market. The 'Bugs think it's rising because of debt induced deflation. I sure wish. It's amazing. The NAZ and other indices look like they're headed for a waterfall decline. In the good old days I would have been in there shorting left and right given the chart patterns. I can't do that now. It's a bull market, you know. In a bull market the market can turn on a dime. One has to be long and looking straight down knowing the clean out is near in order to make money. It took me 20 years to learn that. I finally got the lesson down pat during the Gulf War. Then the public invented a false bull, so I was never looking down, so that I could make some money.