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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (8363)	3/16/1998 9:08:00 AM
From: Enigma	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116768

I hope you're right about natural gas. Makes the oil patch (read gas) in Canada the place to be. Back to gold (!) Someone pointed out the danger of possible Middle East Selling, and this could happen. What I wonder is - why aren't the Asian Central Banks - particularly the Japanese - Buying? Maybe they are, possibly, in a clandestine way, and this may be the big surprise round the corner? I can't help wondering whether those countries in the far east wouldn't have weathered the currency crisis if they had maintained significant gold reserves. AS so many have pointed out here it is strange how slow gold has been in reacting to the currency turmoil. I first was exposed to gold and gold stocks in 1973, as a neophite broker, when there was a currency crisis. Of course the price had only just been freed up so it was a bit like a coiled spring. But that was the place to be - then. This spring may be coiled too? But is seized up from lack of action?

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (8363)	3/16/1998 2:27:00 PM
From: Crimson Ghost	Respond to of 116768

Bobby: My take is that we are in a base building period for gold and gold stocks. This may persist for some time. I do think the next major move will be up, but we may test the lows again and possibly twice before the bull commences for real. BTW, this gold bear now is 25 months old. Only the 1980-82 bear lasted longer (29 months), according to The Privateer. Small caps still underperforming. The stock bull is safe as long as this persists. But once the small caps start to strongly outperform, the bull's days will be numbered.

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (8363)	3/16/1998 5:29:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116768

shortage of natural gas projected... HOUSTON (Reuters) - Despite a two-year rise in drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico, industry analysts warn the discovery of new reserves of natural gas is not keeping pace with rising U.S. demand. As demand increases in coming years, producers will likely be forced to look deeper for supplies or turn more to Canada to meet the shortfall, industry analysts and officials said this week. ''We're not replacing reserves. We're drilling more wells, but we're not showing a net benefit,'' Gregory Shuttlesworth, managing director with PIRA Energy Group, told participants at GasFair, an industry conference held here. The number of rigs searching for natgas in the United States increased nearly 30 percent last year, while gas production rose 1.2 percent to ust more than 19 trillion cubic feet (TCF). At the same time, U.S. gas consumption edged up slightly to about 22 TCF, leaving a three TCF gap that in the short run must be filled by tapping gas from underground storage facilities and boosting imports from neighboring Canada. While production from shallow, offshore Gulf of Mexico fields has been flagging, Shuttlesworth noted deepwater fields were starting to yield better results. ''In deepwater, we've had some pretty impressive reserves, but it's an extremely difficult frontier. There's a lot of expenditure,'' he said. Cynthia Quarterman, director of the U.S. Minerals Management Services (MMS), said technological advancements have lowered exploration and development costs and helped companies like Shell Oil and Amoco Corp open up Gulf of Mexico fields at depths of 5,000 feet or more. Analysts said the volume of natgas from such deepwater fields could amount to as much as three billion cubic feet-per-day (BCFD) this year,up sharply from about 2.2 BCFD in 1997. ''The deepwater Gulf (of Mexico) promises to be a significant area for exploration and production. The last four (government) lease sales in the central and western Gulf were record breaking,'' Quarterman said. Industry officials said increased imports from Canada also will help close the supply gap despite flat growth last year, when fields were already flowing at near capacity. ''There's a significant price differential between Alberta and the Midwest which has helped drive exports. Gas is looking for the highest priced market,'' said Terrance Rochefort of Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) in Calgary. Canadian exports to the United States last year held steady at about 2.8 tcf, or 13 percent of U.S. consumption. That rate has nearly tripled in 10 years, but Canada, too, has seen a significant decline in its reserves-to-production ratio, leaving some concerned there will not be enough gas to fill new pipelines now in the planning stages. Rochefort said there were several major line expansions planned over the next one to two years that will move more Canadian gas to the U.S. Midwest and Northeast. Some of the biggest are: -- Northern Border's expansion from Alberta to Iowa designed to move 900 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), and a line from Iowa to Chicago designed to move 650 mmcfd. Both are targeted to start operation in late 1998. -- Viking Voyageur, a joint venture between TransCanada Pipelines Northern States Power and Northern Illinois Gas slated for late 1999, is designed to deliver up to 1.3 bcfd to Chicago. -- Alliance Pipeline, whose partners include IPL Energy, Fort Chicago Energy Partners, Coastal Corp, Westcoast Energy and others, will ship 1.3 BCFD to Chicago from northern British Columbia starting sometime in 2000. -- In eastern Canada, the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline, a joint venture of Duke, Mobil and Westcoast, will ship about 440-460 mmcfd of production from the Sable project off Nova Scotia to Canada's eastern provinces and New England.