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

To: sand wedge who wrote (22349)	5/19/1998 8:49:00 AM
From: marc chatman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Brent futures down .15 this morning, and crude futures are asked down .13 pre-opening (drops it to $13.95).

To: sand wedge who wrote (22349)	5/19/1998 9:01:00 AM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

sand wedge -- Is Boots & Coots a "fav" company of yours because it is valiantly struggling to make a profit, or because you like the kind of business it is in? If the latter, you might be interested in a competitor (yes, WEL does have competitors). It is RPC Inc. (RES), basically a holding company for all sorts of companies, including Cudd Well Control and Cudd Pressure Control. RES has been around for a long time, and it has been steadily more profitable (no losing quarters) for the last ten years. (Virtually no debt, either.) It is much larger than WEL -- market cap of over 400 million -- and its over-all revenues last quarter were up 15% to $66,940,000. The oil and gas service segment of the business (it is also into powerboat manufacturing) was up 20% to $35,891,000. I don't know what proportion of that was contributed specifically by "well control" operations. The thing is that RES has long been the "end-to-end provider of prevention, emergency response, resoration and remediation services" that Boots & Coots aspires to become. (Which may be why it has never gone. through the "feast or famine" cycles that WEL has experienced.) FYI: biz.yahoo.com jbe P.S. Speaking of "fav" companies coming out with good news on bad days, what about "fav" companies going up sharply on bad days -- with no news (e.g., BTJ yesterday)? Still have trouble grasping the reasons behind such moves.