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

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (35432)	1/20/1999 11:54:00 AM
From: Mike from La.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Doug, Congradulations on the interview, this is truly a class thread with folks like you and Dog and others on it. How about asking Dog to identify the producers and services that can survive in the $12 environment. I think I read once that the majors are all producing for less than $4 per bbl, but I'm not sure. I think the basic survival trick is to distinguish between the high cost and low cost markets. Mike from La.

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (35432)	1/20/1999 12:34:00 PM
From: Hrothgar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Hey Doug- Long time lurker finally emerging... I would ask about the status of the the deepwater rig newbuilds and conversions. Are many/any of them in jeopardy of being cancelled or postponed, or does their deep water orientation still insulate them somewhat from these potential events? Basically, I would like his opinion on how stable the conversion/upgrade/newbuild market is for these deepwater projects. In addition, his opinion on the rig construction/repair market as a whole would also be appreciated. This would be a discussion directly related to companies such as FGI. With its majority of deepwater projects, both active and backlogged, FGI seems to have weathered the downturn quite well with respect to earnings. Unfortunately, their price has been pulled down in sympathy with the whole OS sector. Thanks-

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (35432)	1/20/1999 3:11:00 PM
From: JungleInvestor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Deepwater has held up relatively well under low oil prices. Does Big Dog see any future deepwater vulnerabilities in the horizon (e.g., rig rates coming down significantly, contract cancellations, reduced deepwater seismic exploration, etc.)?

To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (35432)	1/20/1999 3:39:00 PM
From: The Ox	Respond to of 95453

Hi Doug, here are a couple of questions that I've wondered about: We continue to see rigs being pulled off production, contracts cancelled and numerous reductions in E+P budgets for 1999. Does Big Dog see any companies attempting to capitalize on this downturn by purchasing rigs at relatively low prices or is it too early in this cycle for such a move? We've seen similar situations in the oil patch before, most recently in the 80s. I wonder if the Big Dog could compare today's situation with that of previous down turns? Especially with respect to the number of rigs being used today in the GOM in comparison to 80s. I believe in the 80s, there were thousands of rigs being used, where today we have less then 700 currently in use. How does this difference effect the offshore drillers ability to rebound from today's troubles? With more rigs being stacked weekly, I wonder which sub-sectors in the OS industry are the most greatly affected? Seismic, Transportation, Drillers, Service Cos, Fabs, etc... I look forward to your interview and the best of luck to both you and HulaDog... Michael