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Gold/Mining/Energy : Alpine Oil Services ASL TSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gerry who wrote (274)	4/3/1998 12:01:00 AM
From: Rick Thomas	Respond to of 896

Greetings Gerry! Alpine has been under pretty good accumulation by insiders and major investment holding co. to the best of my knowledge. I'll dig some more info up tomorrow that is more exact. Management appears to rcognize value in their stock at these prices! I'm not Warren Buffett ,but the stock sure looks cheap to me. I had a real good run with Tidewater stock last year, was fortunate enough to have traded out of it before the bath.All sectors as you probably know well ,will trade in cycles. This one has had it's first leg up in all likelyhood.It appears to be undergoing a basing cycle right now.I follow the technicals daily and will advise of my findings. Regards Rick

To: Gerry who wrote (274)	4/3/1998 1:00:00 AM
From: Jason Krueger	Respond to of 896

Gerald, I thought I would spur conversations on these two press releases. No opinions from me, but these are obviously very relevant to the entire service sector. Precision Drilling Corp - News Release Northland Energy being acquired Precision Drilling Corp PD Shares issued 42,001,980 Apr 1 close $30.90 Thu 2 Apr 98 News Release Mr Dale Tremblay reports Precision Drilling has entered into a letter of intent to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Northland Energy Corp and is expected to close this transaction on May 1 1998. The acquisition of Northland would position Precision as a world leader in underbalanced drilling systems and at the same time further expand its presence geographically. Northland has developed a leading worldwide position in underbalanced drilling technology, which has proven to be an extremely successful application in the development of sensitive and mature oil and gas fields. The combination with Precision would provide Northland with the ability to fully exploit the potential of this rapidly expanding technology. At the same time, the acquisition would open up new markets for Precision to enhance its position in the international oil and gas service industry. Northland conducts its business through five divisions. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Northland employs 300 personnel in Canada, the US, UK, Netherlands and Venezuela. Precision intends that all employees of Northland would be retained after closing and that Leo Jegen would remain as head of the new division. Northland's primary business is providing personnel and surface control equipment for use in underbalanced drilling programs. With 35 portable underbalanced surface control packages, Northland is the largest supplier in Canada, having an approximate 50% market share. Northland has provided surface control units and well program engineering into the international market over the last several years. Related businesses are production testing and wireline services. Northland is also the largest provider of production testing services in Canada. Northland will operate as a stand-alone entity. Precision's rig assist snubbing business, Live Well Service is complementary to Northland and currently they market their services together as an integrated package to certain international customers. The purchase price of the transaction is not disclosed in accordance with an agreement with the vendor. The transaction is expected to generate a further $50 - $55 million of gross revenues to Precision. (c) Copyright 1998 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com Artisan Corp - Globe says drilling firms merge Artisan Corp ADR Shares issued 11702696 1998-03-30 close $11 Tuesday Mar 31 1998 See Ensign Resource Service Group Inc (ESI) In the News The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, March 31, edition that Ensign Resource Service Group is acquiring Artisan for $155 million. The Globe's Brent Jang writes that Ensign, controlled by Calgary financier Murray Edwards, said yesterday that it will pay $70 million in cash and swap stock valued at $85 million to buy Artisan. The combined company would have a stock market value exceeding $765 million second to Precision Drilling's capitalization of $1.26 billion, based on yesterday's closes. Precision and Ensign are well ahead of the pack in the drilling sector, with Precision running 207 of 575 rigs across Western Canada. Ensign is poised to add Artisan's 33 rigs to its current Canadian fleet of 103. The Ensign-Artisan merger is expected to close in May, and would result in Ensign holding a 24 per cent share of the drilling fleets in Canada, just behind Precision's 36 per cent share. Ensign also operates 46 rigs in the US. The friendly transaction between Ensign and Artisan is the latest deal in a trend of consolidation in the industry. (c) Copyright 1998 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com