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Gold/Mining/Energy : Trico Marine Services (TMAR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D.J.Smyth who wrote (608)	7/28/1998 6:00:00 PM
From: Sam Miller	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1153

Darrell Thank you for the summary of the conference call. Its is good to know that the company will remain profitable. Looks like day rates won't go below $6,000 as long as TDW can help it which sets a floor on rates as long as oil doesn't go down significantly. However could you clarify your point b) regarding labor costs. I agree that labor costs will go down if they idle boats but won't revenue go down by a greater amount? Or were they saying that the labor costs will go down more than the decrease in revenue per boat? Assuming each boat is operated at a profit of some amount I would assume less boats being used means less profits. If you wouldn't mind explaining b) a little further it would be greatly appreciated. Also is there a number to hear a tape of the conference call. Thanks. Sam

To: D.J.Smyth who wrote (608)	7/28/1998 9:25:00 PM
From: Grommit	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1153

Thanks for the notes on the call. Especially good to hear the banks were reassured after looking at the forecast. I hope bankers are better than analysts! For the record, my calculations were just to see if RJames numbers were possible, I was not trying to defend them. Some stockholder ought to get a copy from TMAR and let us know what dayrate and utilization assumptions are in there. The risk is in utilization rate. TMAR thinks it will be high 80% in Q4, while I would argue that they do not control it anymore than they control the dayates. And $6,000 is not a magic barrier. When you look at low variable cost of running the boats, it is very tempting to give someone a "one time deal" to get the boat off the dock, hoping that that deal does not become the new base rate. My bet is that these stock will not fly until the uncertainty lifts. No one knows oil prices, rig utilization, boat demand or dayrates. I originally got into this sector to get out of the uncertainty in the high tech sector. Silly me. :o)