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

To: Lucretius who wrote (17969)	4/3/1998 6:29:00 PM
From: pz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Friday April 3, 4:17 pm Eastern Time FOCUS-Oil prices up as doubts over OPEC deal ease (Adds closing prices) LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - World oil prices firmed on Friday as traders warmed to an output deal aimed at trimming more than two percent of global supply from glutted markets. World benchmark Brent blend crude oil closed 26 cents a barrel firmer at $14.43, extending gains made on Thursday. ''There is no major news to influence prices but it does appear as if sentiment is changing for the better,'' said Leslie Nicholas at brokers GNI in market comments. An emergency Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting that ended early on Tuesday approved a 1.245 million barrels per day (bpd) cartel contribution to a two percent cut in global output. Other cuts will come from non-OPEC Norway, Mexico, Egypt, Oman and Yemen, which have pledged to trim 270,000 bpd for a total of 1.5 million bpd in overall promised reductions. The aim is to mop up excess oil from flooded world markets and rescue prices from a 40 percent slide that took Brent to a nine-year low of $11.90 a barrel recently. The cuts achieved their goal in the days after they were first mapped out at a secret meeting in Riyadh between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico, boosting levels by some $3. After the Vienna meeting ratified the deal prices fell on the suspicion that OPEC members would cheat on their commitments, as they have in the past. But OPEC ministers pleaded for patience, arguing that prices would rise once production restraint worked its way into crude shipping schedules. That message appears to have been heeded and Brent has risen, with some dealers expecting a trading range to be established either side of $15 a barrel. ''Markets rush to judge. The deal will take a bit of time to settle in,'' said Peter Gignoux, head of the energy desk at Salomon Smith Barney in London. Customers of major Gulf exporters have already reported output cuts beginning to bite into export programmes, with incremental volumes that were previously available no longer on the market. The deal was given an unexpected boost on Friday by China which cut 150,000 bpd from its output and by Norway, which passed a decree confirming its 100,000 bpd contribution to the 1.5 million bpd reduction. Beijing's largest oil explorer has cut crude output in response to OPEC's cuts, China National United Oil Corp president Lin Qingshan told Reuters on Friday. OPEC had not previously factored any Chinese contribution into its output reduction targets. Norway's Oil and Energy ministry said its cuts would apply to 36 fields off Norway and would amount to a three percent cut in 1998 output from 3.2 million bpd to 3.1 million bpd. Norway last curbed output in 1986, ordering all companies to pump oil at 10 percent below full capacity to help prices recover from lows around $10 a a barrel. Those restrictions were lifted in 1990. Indonesian Mines and Energy minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto predicted crude oil prices would rise to an average of $16 this year as a result of the cuts. Warm winter weather in the northern hemisphere, growing Iraqi oil exports and a mistimed OPEC move in November to hike output by 10 percent were responsible for the slide from last year's average Brent price of $19.32 a barrel. Rising Iraqi exports will counteract the impact of the cuts after the United Nations gave Baghdad approval to double existing sales. But to boost exports Iraq says it needs $300 million for spare parts to repair its oil installations. Prices in dollars per barrel: April 3 April 2 (close) (close) IPE May Brent 14.43 14.17 NYMEX May light crude 15.88 15.74

To: Lucretius who wrote (17969)	4/3/1998 6:55:00 PM
From: RGinPG	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 95453

Uhmmmm.... Are you making fun of me? Nothing like kicking a dog while he's down. :>) Actually, your post gives me a chance to say something I've been thinking about. It seems as though the stocks that have been doing the best, just keep doing the best, and the laggards continue to lag regardless of fundamentals. Examples: Winners -vs- Not such great winners NE -vs- FLC GLBL -vs- FGII RIG -vs- DO MDCO -vs CDG RDC -vs- ESV PDS -vs- GW VRC -vs- EVI CXIPY -vs- everyone I've seen the strategy in the past on this thread to buy the laggards because they will eventually participate. I'm wondering about the wisdom of this. It may be better to stick with the winners. The fundamentals (which we know can change based on events we may not know about, but the market may know about)are almost as good, if not as good in the winners. So why bother with the others?