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Gold/Mining/Energy : KERM'S KORNER -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kerm Yerman who wrote (14578)	12/30/1998 11:16:00 PM
From: Kerm Yerman	Respond to of 15196

TOP STORIES / BP Amoco World's Number Three Oil Company British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> and Amoco Corp <AN.N>, which said on Wednesday that they will close their $55 billion merger on New Year's Eve, will form the world's third largest oil company in terms of revenue. With 1997 revenues exceeding $107 billion -- $71 billion contributed by BP and $36 billion by Amoco -- the new company will join the oil superleague, being exceeded in size only by Royal Dutch/Shell Group <RD.AS> <SHEL.L> and the planned combination of Exxon Corp <XON.N> and Mobil <MOB.N>. The new BP Amoco Plc, due to start trading on January 4 1999, will be headquartered in London and report quarterly in dollars. It will be Britain's biggest company, with a market capitalisation of over $140 billion. BP Chief Executive Sir John Browne will be CEO of BP Amoco Plc. The deal has been structured with equity split 60:40 between BP and Amoco. BP, with exploration activities in 16 countries and production activities in 11, is the largest oil producer in both the United States and in the British North Sea. Amoco has exploration activities in some 20 countries and produces in 14. It is the largest North American private natural gas producer. KEY FIGURES FOR BOTH COMPANIES: BP Amoco Earnings 1997* $4.6 bln $ 2.7 bln Revenues 1997 $71 bln $36.0 bln Capital employed 1997 $30.7 bln $22.0 bln Capital budget 1998 $6 bln $3.9 bln Chairman Peter Sutherland Larry Fuller Employees at end-1997 56,450 43,000 Headquarters London Chicago Production crude/gas liquids '97 1.25 mln bpd 637,000 bpd Production natural gas 1.66 bln cu ft 4.00 bln cu ft Est. proven liquid reserves 6.85 bln bbls 2.40 bln bbls Est. proven gas reserves 10.5 trn cu ft 21.0 trn cu ft Oil product sales 3.3 mln bpd 1.2 mln bpd Service stations 17,900 9,300 Refinery throughput 1.8 mln bpd 1.0 mln bpd Chemicals output/capacity ** 9.4 mln tpa 13.0 mln tpa NOTE - * BP earnings are UK GAAP replacement cost, before extraordinary charges. Amoco earnings are US GAAP. On UK GAAP, 1997 earnings were $1,979 billion. ** Chemicals data refers to production in metric tons per year for BP and to capacity for Amoco.

To: Kerm Yerman who wrote (14578)	12/30/1998 11:34:00 PM
From: Kerm Yerman	Respond to of 15196

TOP STORIES / Lost Hills Play - Relief Well Gains Ground On Well That Blew Out December 30, 1998 BOB CHRISTIE - Bakerfield Californian LOST HILLS — A relief well being drilled to cut off the flow of natural gas, oil and water from a wildcat well that blew out and caught fire Nov. 23 is ahead of schedule and has reached more than 11,000 feet in depth. The relief well, being drilled by workers from Nabors Drilling USA, may intercept the failed well's bore in less than a month. It could finally shut off the massive flow from the failed well that discovered a new gas and oil field 45 miles west of Bakersfield. The impressive flames have diminished, but more than five weeks after the well nearly blew out, it continues to pour out natural gas, oil and water at high rates. In addition to the relief well, a crew from Halliburton Co. is using a specialized rig called a "snubbing unit" to try to control the well from the surface. Those efforts have been under way for about a week, but it is too early to tell whether they will be successful, said Aidan Walsh, president and CEO of Elk Point Resources Inc. of Calgary, Canada. Elk Point's subsidiary, Bellevue Resources Inc. is the well operator. "We're pleased with the progress on the relief well," Walsh said Wednesday. "We had said when we started that it would be roughly a 45-day procedure and we're about 15 days into it. The snubbing operation has started, but it could be one to two weeks, depending on how things go." The snubbing unit is designed to allow crews to send tools into the bore of a flowing well. It is sometimes possible to stop an out-of-control well by plugging it internally using the snubbing unit, but the possibility of using that procedure on the Lost Hills well is not yet known. The relief well is slated to be used as a replacement well for the blowout well, whether or not the snubbing unit works. The 12 companies involved in the wildcat well already are looking at further development wells, according to the chief financial officer of PYR Energy Corp. of Denver, the only publically traded U.S.-based company with an interest in the well. "We are considering a second development well, but the timing is still up in the air," said PYR's Andrew Calerich. "We hope to learn a lot more with the replacement well because we had not penetrated the structure very far." The blown well, called Bellevue No. 1, was aiming to tap an unexplored reservoir of natural gas and oil below 17,000 feet when it blew out. The drill bit had only penetrated about 17 feet of the oil-bearing rock layer when the well blew. The well blazed furiously for more than two weeks before it began producing so much water that it could no longer burn. The well was capped by crews from Boots & Coots International Well Control that diverted the flow into a water/oil/gas separator system. The gas is now being burned off, along with some of the water. The remaining water and some oil is being trucked off. If the second well is successful and produces natural gas or light oil, it will become the deepest producing well in the state. PYR Energy's only holdings are in Kern County, where it also has interests in three other exploratory sites. The Lost Hills well has sparked incredible interest from Canadian investors who hold stock in the seven Canadian companies invested in the well. It also has heartened PYR's Calerich. "We're extremely excited and cautiously optimistic," he said. Previous Related Stories bakersfield.com Operator's News Releases 192.139.81.46@dockeywords+"stock=ELK" Market Reaction (changes daily) techstocks.com

To: Kerm Yerman who wrote (14578)	12/30/1998 11:40:00 PM
From: Kerm Yerman	Respond to of 15196

TOP STORIES / TransCanada Forms U.S. Pipe Partnership CALGARY, Dec 30 - TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. said on Wednesday it would sell to the public 15.6 million units in a new limited partnership formed to acquire and operate its U.S. pipeline interests. Calgary-based TransCanada said the units in the public offering would represent 78.2 percent of the total interest in the new TC PipeLines LP, which will own a 30 percent stake in the recently expanded Northern Border Pipeline Co. natural gas pipeline. TransCanada, which filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the offering on Wednesday, currently owns the 30-percent Northern Border interest. Other owners of the pipeline include Enron Corp. and Northern Border Partners LP . The pipeline carries Canadian gas to Chicago from Monchy on the Saskatchewan-Montana border. The 15.6 million units, which have yet to be priced, do not include a 2.3-million-unit underwriters' overallotment option. The underwriting group is led by Goldman Sachs & Co. and also includes Salomon Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and PaineWebber Inc. TransCanada has over the past two years formed limited partnerships for both its Canadian electricity generation and gas processing businesses.

To: Kerm Yerman who wrote (14578)	12/31/1998 12:11:00 AM
From: Kerm Yerman	Respond to of 15196

TOP STORIES / Canadian Rig Count Steady & U.S. Rig Count Falls 13 To 621, Week Dec. 30 The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States fell 13 from last week to stand at 621 as of Dec. 30, and down from 1,003 a year ago, oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc. said Wednesday. The number of rigs drilling on land was down 19 at 500, while rigs working offshore rose four to 102. The number of rigs active in inland waters was up two at 19. The Gulf of Mexico rig count was up four at 100. The number of rigs searching for gas fell one to 483, and the number of rigs searching for oil dropped 12 to 137. There were 161 rigs exploring directionally, 41 exploring horizontally, and 419 exploring vertically. In Canada, the number of working rigs held steady from the previous week at 236, compared with 368 a year ago. The states with the largest number of changes in their rig counts were Alaska, California and Oklahoma, all of which fell four. The weekly rig count reflects the number of rigs exploring for oil and gas, not those producing oil and gas. Detailed Table Data & Charts bakerhughes.com