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

To: The Perfect Hedge who wrote (8060)	1/14/1998 3:25:00 PM
From: HH	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

I would have liked to have owned 10,000- 20,000 shrs of PKD since yesterday. HH

To: The Perfect Hedge who wrote (8060)	1/14/1998 3:28:00 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

To all: They must have had steak for lunch on wall street cause the bills are back at ir this afternoon! Methinks the mms want to expire some puts worthless tomorrow! Dave

To: The Perfect Hedge who wrote (8060)	1/14/1998 3:28:00 PM
From: Teddy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

No Bad News Here: Dow Jones Newswires -- January 14, 1998 Rowan Co. 4Q Net Soars As Rig Dayrates Keep Rising By Loren Fox NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Fourth-quarter earnings at offshore drilling contractor Rowan Cos. (RDC) soared some 128% as the company continued to ride the boom in offshore drilling for oil and natural gas. The Houston company said Wednesday fourth-quarter operating earnings, excluding an extraordinary charge, were $53.9 million, or 60 cents a diluted share, up from $23.6 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier. The 60 cents surpassed the 59 cents that had been expected, according to First Call, which tracks analysts' estimates. The earnings growth was propelled by rising daily rental rates for its offshore rigs, most of which are jackup rigs, which drill in shallower waters by floating out to a site and extending support legs to the ocean floor. As drilling activity has risen, especially in hot areas such as the Gulf of Mexico, "dayrates" - the daily rates at which the company leases a rig - for jackup rigs and deepwater rigs have soared. Rowan said its average dayrate during the quarter was $59,300, up 7% from the third quarter and up 44% from a year ago. Perhaps more important, dayrates for Rowan's rigs, which are usually contracted for two- or three-month periods, have been rising by $3,000 to $4,000 in the first quarter. said Bear Stearns & Co. analyst Russell Hoffman. Rowan Chairman and Chief Executive C.R. Palmer said in the earnings statement that 1998 earnings could "improve by more than 50% over results for 1997." The strong earnings and comments from Rowan, the first offshore driller to report quarterly results, bode well for other offshore drillers - including Global Marine Inc. (GLM), a jackup specialist scheduled to report earnings Thursday. That would be welcome good news for drilling and oil-services stocks, which fell between 25% and 50% in the past two months on declining oil and gas prices. Investors have feared that the recent drop in fuel prices would cause oil companies to reduce their drilling plans. Boosted by the earnings and by a bounce back in the sector. Rowan's NYSE-listed shares were recently 9/16, or 2.2%, at 25 3/4. The Dow Jones index of oil-drilling stocks was up 2% on a market-capitalization weighted basis. Industry watchers believe the drillers may have hit bottom and are now starting to recover. Last week, many drilling stocks were trading at close to just 10 times 1998 earnings. "I do think they've seen their lows," said Mark Urness, an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney Inc. Analysts acknowledged that the growth in dayrates seems to be moderating, as Rowan's average dayrate in the fourth quarter was up 7% from the previous quarter, which was up 11% from the third quarter. But that is natural, said Dain Rauscher Inc. analyst Lewis Kreps. "You can't keep growing at 15% a quarter," he said. -Loren Fox; 201-938-5267; loren.fox@cor.dowjones.com BTW, i think we have had just enough jokes about my age<g>