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

To: D.J.Smyth who wrote (835)	9/16/1998 11:25:00 AM
From: D.J.Smyth	Respond to of 1153

17:33 DJS Shell To Pursue Deepwater Projects, Undeterred By Low Oil Prices 17:33 DJS Shell To Pursue Deepwater Projects, Undeterred By Low Oil Prices HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- Despite current low oil prices, Shell Oil Co. is continuing to aggressively pursue high-cost deepwater exploration projects world-wide, company officials said Tuesday. The company has recently acquired deepwater leases in 25 countries, said Laura Raymond, business development manager for Shell E&P International Ventures, a unit of Shell Oil. Included in those leases are blocks in Angola, Trinidad, Congo, Cote D'Ivoire and Indonesia. The company is also negotiating for deepwater leases in Brazil. Because deepwater development is a long-term project, current oil prices aren't as important as what will happen in two years, five years or 10 years, said Rich Pattarozzi, president and chief executive of Shell Deepwater Development Inc. Yet the cost of deepwater projects is more important with world prices at $14 a barrel than at $18 a barrel, he added. Pattarozzi wouldn't disclose Shell's breakeven price for deepwater barrels. Deepwater discoveries have been large so far, helping to justify the high costs. Shell wasn't as active in a recent Minerals Management Service western Gulf of Mexico lease sale as it had been in previous deepwater sales, he said. But the company won 14 of the 18 blocks on which it bid in that sale. "We're selectively adding to our portfolio,' Pattarozzi said. Shell already owns 20% of the deepwater leases in the Gulf of Mexico, he said. The company's current gulf production from deepwater projects is about 220,000 barrels a day of oil and 800 million to 900 million cubic feet a day of natural gas, he said. Those figures probably won't increase through the end of 1998. Until recently, production increases have been held back by lack of capacity of deepwater oil and gas pipelines, Pattarozzi said. But completion of the Destin pipeline a month ago means that pipeline systems will be able to handle all the production increases Shell is expecting. Copyright (c) 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. (:RD) (:SC) (:U.RSH) (:U.SLR) 09/15 5:33p CDT of interest is Shell's pursuit of deep water contracts in Brazil where Trico has contracts with Petrobras