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To: Hrothgar who wrote (36612)	2/3/1999 11:41:00 AM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) - A flush of shortcovering pulled up front month crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange early Wednesday after opening lower in reaction to another bearish build in U.S. crude stocks, traders said. "You are again seeing a post-API recovery here," said Cresvale International analyst Tom Bentz. "People had been anticipating the big crude build in thepast two days and that brought prices down. We held earlier today as the big API build had been factored in," he added. At 1101 EST/1601 GMT, NYMEX front month crude was up 15 cents $12.45 a barrel, just beneath its early high of $12.46. The contract has touched an early low of $12.15. "After holding at near even money here and moving up a little on shortcovering, resistance is expected at around $12.50," said a NYMEX floor trader. He pegged support at around $12.10. Refined products opened lower and then turned mixed. Front month heating oil was up 0.26 cent at 32.60 cents a gallon, trading between 31.90/32.65 cents. The April heating oil contract was up 0.29 cent at 33.05 cents. Gasoline futures recovered a bit of lost ground but remained in negative territory. The front month contract traded at 37.40 cents a gallon, down 0.21 cent, near its early high of 37.45 cent. The contract has dipped to an early low of 36.80 cents. At 1103 EST/1603 GMT, March Brent on the International Petroleum Exchange in London was up 15 cents at $11.00, moving up after an earlier softness due to the API stockbuild. The API reported late Tuesday a 6.1 million barrel build in crude stocks, about twice more than had been expected. The increase pushed up the nation's crude inventories to 333 million barrels, raising the surplus from a year ago to 12.0 million barrels. The latest data put U.S. crude stocks back up to where they were at Christmas last year, before a huge 15 million draw was registered a week later in tax-related inventory shifts. The API data also showed a 2.27 million barrel draw in distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, cutting stocks to 148 million barrels, still a hefty 14.0 million barrels more than their levels a year ago. API's gasoline stockbuild of 2.49 million barrels raised nationwide stocks to 224.4 million barrels, pushing up the year-on-year surplus to 6.4 million barrels. DOE data, meanwhile, showed a lower build on crude stocks of 2.6 million barrels, a smaller draw in distillates of 200,000 barrels and a slightly slimmer build in gasoline stocks of 2.2 million barrels.

To: Hrothgar who wrote (36612)	2/3/1999 11:52:00 AM
From: Platter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Oil at 12.40 , up 10 cents, OSX up 1.64 points ..Good moves in RON, SLB and HAL..as usual the bluechips move first

To: Hrothgar who wrote (36612)	2/3/1999 12:30:00 PM
From: S. maltophilia	Respond to of 95453

If there's a glut it's not for lack of demand: dallasnews.com Clinton, Congress battle over unexpected gas-tax revenue GOP says law limits spending to road construction 02/03/99 Associated Press WASHINGTON - Falling gas prices have been a boon not only to American drivers but to Uncle Sam. Lower prices - and the popularity of sport-utility vehicles - have spurred fuel consumption, generating about $1.5 billion in unanticipated gas-tax collections, as well as a battle between the Clinton administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. The president wants to spend the money on an array of transportation programs, but Republicans say the new highway bill limits extra spending to road construction. "Instead of each transportation program receiving a proportional increase as was agreed to in the law, the president seeks to steer gas taxes away from flexible state programs to programs run by federal bureaucrats," said Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation Committee. The administration sees things differently. With about $25 billion already in the pipeline for highway construction projects, and $1.4 billion in extra gas-tax money now expected, the new Transportation Department budget proposes diverting some tax money to mass transit, research, rail and safety programs. In all, about half the money would be spent in ways other than those outlined in the highway bill. "We are proposing to direct those resources to programs that we think are strategic and are in keeping with the overall needs identified by the administration, where we focus on investments in the environment, safety, technology and the like," Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said Monday during a briefing on the department's $45.5 billion budget. Regardless of gas prices, drivers pay local, state and federal governments an average of 43 cents a gallon in taxes. The federal take is 18.4 cents. Congress and the administration appeared to end their battle over the money last June, when the president signed the biggest transportation bill in the country's history. The measure allocated $167 billion to improve and extend the nation's highway system through 2003, and $36 billion to improve mass transit systems. A hallmark provision of the bill requires the government to spend all future gas-tax collections on transportation projects - a major shift from past policy under which some money was used to reduce the size of the federal deficit. Any unanticipated tax revenues were to be spent on highway construction, traffic reduction and air quality improvements. Gas-tax revenue estimates used by the law's drafters are turning out to be low. Transportation officials attribute the windfall to extra driving and larger gas purchases, especially to fill the tanks in sport-utility vehicles.