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

To: drsvelte who wrote (19403)	4/16/1998 7:04:00 PM
From: Lucretius	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

I'm guessing this was what was on the street today. Although, ESV is a shallow player and we all know their dayrates are likely to be soft. ESV is strictly shallow jackups and barge rigs as far as I know w/ a few supply boats thrown in. FLC may see weakness in its barges and MDCO and GLM should also see weakness. NE has only 4 deepwater jackups in the GOM, and last I spoke to them they had seen the dayrate drop by about $1000 per day, but nothing to be concerned about. I think the mkt is aware of these facts already. Hence NE, RIG, and DO are where they are and the rest are languishing. In the near term the other players may not do as well, but for a value play they are still a steal. -Lucretius

To: drsvelte who wrote (19403)	4/16/1998 7:06:00 PM
From: ron peterson	Respond to of 95453

ESV still keeps stinging. No more ESV for me! Unless it sees 24. What will they say tomorrow? ron

To: drsvelte who wrote (19403)	4/16/1998 7:10:00 PM
From: ron peterson	Respond to of 95453

ESV CEO put the nails on their coffin in their earnings report and in the conference call seems he drove the nails home.

To: drsvelte who wrote (19403)	4/16/1998 10:45:00 PM
From: Slava Chechik	Respond to of 95453

Ensco (NYSE:ESV) leads drillers lower after warning Reuters, Thursday, April 16, 1998 at 21:56 NEW YORK, April 16 (Reuters) - Shares of Ensco International Inc led oil drilling and services shares lower after the offshore driller warned that its second and third quarter earnings could be hurt by low oil prices. In a conference call after its first quarter earnings, Ensco chief executive Carl Thorne said that second and third quarter earnings could be sequentially lower. Ensco stock shed 1-5/16 to 26-9/16, or 4.7 percent, but was trading above its day low of 25-1/2 and the Standard & Poors Oil Drillers Index, which tracks the performance of the drilling and service sector, fell 92.37 points, 2.06 percent, to 4400.50. Ensco's first quarter fully diluted earnings per share of $0.61 beat analyst forecasts of $0.58. Ensco's Thorne stressed however that any weakness in drilling rig rates would be a short-lived phenomenon and said the company expected to see a pickup in the fourth quarter of this year and in 1999. "I think Ensco is just prewarning on the 300 foot jackup market which are having pressure on rates. This will also impact Global Marine Inc (NYSE:GLM), but not Rowan Cos Inc (NYSE:RDC) so much," said Lewis Kreps, analyst at Dain Rauscher. Global lost 15/16 to 23-3/4 and Rowan 10/16 to 29-3/16. Carol Lau, analyst at Opppenheimer & Co said that the effect was a short term event which would not cause her to alter her "buy" recommendation on the stock. Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (NYSE:DO) also reported earnings today of $0.56 per share compared with analyst forecasts of $0.53. Its stock traded 13/16 lower at 45-7/8. "Both stocks are selling off on a less than bullish conference call and any investor with a 12-month horizon could see value here," said Dan Pickering, analyst at Simmons & Co. He has a 12-18 month price target of $36 per share for Ensco and $63 for Diamond. However, some analysts were worred about the controlling interest held in Diamond by Loews Corp (NYSE:LTR). Asked by one analyst whether Loews was using the driller's strong cash flow as a "cash cow" Dickerson said that he believed Loews was committed to Diamond. But analysts remained wary on the company which recently lost its chief executive and said the low relative valuation of Diamond is attributable to uncertainty over what will happen to the company. "With stock where it is now it could be potential takeover candidate. If you want to buy one offshore driller there are two companies, Diamond and Santa Fe International Corp (NYSE:SDC) where you would only have to talk to one major shareholder," said one analyst who declined to be named. david.chance@reuters.com))