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

To: Paul Angell who wrote (30377)	10/6/1998 6:29:00 AM
From: Ditchdigger	Respond to of 95453

Old news? Varco warns, Maverick to break even for the Q..DD

To: Paul Angell who wrote (30377)	10/6/1998 6:55:00 AM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 95453

OIL: Antitrust doubts mar meeting. Financial Times, October 5 By Robert Corzine in Venice Chief executives from some of the world's leading oil companies yesterday ended two days of talks marred by concern over the possible anti-competitive implications of the gathering. Twenty chief executives were due to meet for extended private talks in Venice. They represented a wide range of companies, including some of the biggest US and European integrated groups, such as Chevron of the US and Eni of Italy, as well as powerful national companies, such as Saudi Aramco and Statoil of Norway, the world's two biggest crude exporters. Leading independents and oil service companies, including Halliburton, the world's largest, were also present. But the chief executives from Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum, Europe's top two oil companies, dropped out because the meeting was viewed with some suspicion by competition authorities. Total, whose chairman, Thierry Desmarest, took part in the weekend of talks, said it had received a letter from the European Commission about the gathering, which was intended to review a range of issues confronting the industry, including the implications of new technology and the changing geopolitics of oil. Participants repeatedly denied that they had talked about oil prices, though all the companies have been hit hard by this year's price fall. Two weeks ago Shell, one of the world's most diversified and biggest oil companies, issued a profits warning accompanied by a pessimistic forecast for the industry's medium-term future. Franco Bernabè, chief executive of Eni, said the outside world had a "distorted" view of the oil industry, which was becoming more open and less concentrated: "There is no way anybody can influence prices. They are set by supply and demand." Mr Desmarest of Total accepted that the authorities might ask questions about such a meeting, but insisted that international oil companies had no power to support oil prices: "That is the responsibility of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries." If chief executives were reluctant to talk about prices, Rilwanu Lukman, Opec secretary general, was less reticent. "The big boys think the only way to survive low prices is to merge," he said. "But they should co-operate with Opec and restrain production instead.