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To: k.ramesh who wrote (30433)	10/7/1998 1:03:00 AM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Respond to of 95453

kramesh, Note on Global Marine- Talking to my friend today in Houston-She said that their company had a contract with a GM deepwater rig, but it sustained damage in Hurricane Georges. GM intends to drydock the rig and inspect it for superstructural damage. So scratch one GM deepwater rig for a while in the GOM. Now Good news- Bank recapitalization bills will be passed soon by Japanese Parliament per Reuters report tonight. Also tech bellweathers such as JBL posted good earnings tonight. It will take 12-18 months to get out of this hole we are in- but I sure hope that none of you are sitting short on NASDAQ tech stocks going into tomorrow's trading.... Finally I confirmed that both major telcomm stocks NT and LU have Dividend Reinvestment Plans today.... Sincerely, Doug F.

To: k.ramesh who wrote (30433)	10/7/1998 1:53:00 AM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

kramesh, I am also happy to report that the decrepit, corrupt and brutal Muslim minority Military Government in Nigeria is tottering on the brink of extinction tonight. Spontaneous uprisings by Ijaw Tribal Members have shut down a significant amount of Nigeria's oil production tonight. This is significant because none of the larger southern Tribes the Ibo and Yoruba are yet involved (And I emphasize the word "yet"). These are desparate starving people whose culture and religion has been systematically attacked and debased by the Muslim Military Government. Indeed the Ijaw make up only 1% of Nigeria's population. Yet the uprising by these couageous individuals has begun. As a former Member of the Carter Administration I want to call upon the Nigerian Military Government tonight to step down immediately and to prepare to hold free and unfettered elections monitored by UN officials within 30 days so that the Nigerian peoples may regain once again control of their own country, own destiny, and own fate... PS. BTW Shell Oil Co's statements in this news release are pure propaganda. Shell Oil Company (and the British Government generally) is widely considered by southern Nigerian Tribes to be "in bed" with the current corrupt military regime. That is the very reason why Shell's facilities are being attacked tonight. Indeed do not be surprised if Shell Oil Company is kicked out of Nigeria for its duplicity after the smoke clears and democracy is restored.... Also check out the typo, er Freudian slip on General Abdulsalami's name, ha! \| PRNews \| BizWire ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ disclaimerTuesday October 6, 9:40 pm Eastern Time FOCUS-Wave of attacks slashes Nigerian oil output By Matthew Tostevin LAGOS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A wave of apparently coordinated attacks on oil companies in the increasingly uncontrollable Niger Delta on Tuesday cut Nigeria's crude production by at least one- fifth. Royal Dutch/Shell Group (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L) said 10 of its flowstations had been closed by the politically motivated attacks, forcing it to shut in 269,000 barrels per day (bpd). Italian energy group ENI said a further 120,000 bpd of crude had been shut in. The total drop in output is 389,000 bpd from average exports of about two million bpd. Shell said it was too early to speculate on whether terminal loadings would be affected, but such large volumes cannot be shut in for long before cutting exports, which account for at least 90 percent of Nigeria's export revenue. While tension has been rising in the impoverished region for months, the attacks by youths from the Ijaw ethnic group are the first on such a wide scale to take place simultaneously and have such a drastic effect on output. ''Youths stormed the place. They clearly said their grievance was not against Shell but against the government,'' a Shell spokesman said, referring to four flowstations shut in the notoriously difficult Nembe region in southeastern Nigeria. Further west, Ijaw youths said they had shut five flowstations feeding Shell's Forcados Terminal to protest that their grievances over local government boundaries had not been addressed since clashes with Itsekiri rivals in which scores died last year. In a message intended for military ruler Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar's government, they gave a seven-day ultimatum for the creation of their own local government area ''after which we would be obliged to take our destiny and fate unto our hands.'' The Ijaws of the Niger Delta -- from whose region most of Nigeria's oil is produced -- have long felt aggrieved that they are not getting a sufficient share of the revenues pumped from beneath their land while suffering the consequences every time there is an oil spill. Abubakar's promise to reform a government body that is supposed to share 13 percent of state revenues among oil-producing communities is treated with widespread cynicism among people of the Niger Delta, who have heard many such pledges before. Oil industry executives at a seminar in Lagos on Tuesday called on the government to act quickly to give the communities the greater slice of the national pie that they demand. ''If the government applies the principle of derivation, it would surely help check the tension in the oil-producing areas and encourage oil companies to invest in the sector,'' Mobil Corp.'s (NYSE:MOB - news) Nigerian vice chairman Solomon Oladunni said. While political optimism has surged through much of the rest of Nigeria following Abubakar's promise to hand over to an elected president next May, there are few signs of political enthusiasm in the Niger Delta. Instead, many unemployed Ijaw youths have joined an ancient cult they say gives them the power not only to resist the enemy's bullets, but to turn them back on whoever fires them.