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

To: Mike from La. who wrote (36887)	2/5/1999 1:05:00 PM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

New York, Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil was little changed close to a two-week low on signs that oil producers are failing to live up to their pledge to cut supply and end a glut that's caused a yearlong, 28 percent drop in prices. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in January achieved only 74.1 percent of the 2.6 million barrels of planned cuts in output, down from a revised 78.3 percent compliance in December, a Bloomberg survey found. The group will meet March 23 with some OPEC officials seeking greater output cuts. ''The OPEC meeting is out there and it may prevent prices from collapsing completely,'' said Tom Blakeslee, a trader at Eildon Marketing LLC in White Marsh, Maryland. ''But if OPEC isn't seen as getting its house in order, we have a good chance of revisiting'' December's 12-year lows. March crude oil was recently little changed at $11.99 a barrel, 3 cents lower, after falling as low as $11.85, the lowest since Jan. 20 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, March Brent crude oil was recently $10.56 a barrel, down 1 cent on the International Petroleum Exchange. March heating oil fell as much as 0.25 cent, or 0.8 percent, to 31.10 cents a gallon. March gasoline was 0.15 lower at 35.60 cents a gallon. Blakeslee said that if crude oil closed below $11.84 a barrel, a key support level for traders who use charts and graphs to track historical pricing trends, the 1998 low of $10.35 a barrel was possible within a few days and the all-time low of $9.75 was ''within striking distance.''

To: Mike from La. who wrote (36887)	2/5/1999 1:07:00 PM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

NEW YORK, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Schroder & Co. analyst Michael Mayer said in a research report that he had raised his recommended weighting on major oil shares to 175 percent of market weight from 150 percent. -- Added Texaco Inc. <TX.N> and USX-Marathon Group <MRO.N> to recommended list on valuation grounds and upgraded Exxon Corp. <XON.N> to outperform from perform in line. -- Says that major oil shares are discounting $15 oil and the group is within 8 percent of the absolute lows seen during mid-1986, when oil prices were $10 to $11 per barrel and the outlook was worse than now. Texaco stock added 2-7/16 to 50-11/16 and Marathon added 11/16 to 23-11/16, both in composite New York Stock Exchange trading.

To: Mike from La. who wrote (36887)	2/5/1999 1:09:00 PM
From: gregor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Mike : "ditto's" on nat gas. Heard a meterologist last night speaking of the la nino effect. Typical is a late and cold winter in the northeast and a cold spring. Lot of precip, snow cover, cloudy days......nat gas may surprise most all.

To: Mike from La. who wrote (36887)	2/5/1999 1:09:00 PM
From: Platter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

CARACAS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Venezuela's new President Hugo Chavez was expected to meet with International Monetary Fund officials and Houston oil company executives when he visits the United States later this month, presidential palace sources said on Friday. The visit builds on a pledge made by Venezuela's new leader in his inaugural speech on Tuesday to pull the world's second-largest oil exporter out of a deep economic crisis caused by a slump in oil prices. Latin America's fourth largest economy has been ravaged by the worst oil price crash in 12 years. The state is virtually broke, with a bulging fiscal deficit estimated at 9 percent of gross domestic product, or $9 billion. The country's GDP contracted 0.7 percent in 1998. U.S. diplomatic sources in Caracas said U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson would accompany Chavez to Houston on Feb. 25 to meet oil industry executives. Venezuela is the United States' largest supplier of oil. Earlier this week Foreign Minister Jose Rangel said Chavez would also meet IMF officials to discuss his economic plans. The three-day trip, from Feb. 23-25, is the Venezuelan leader's second to the United States in a month. It will start in New York and on Feb. 24 Chavez will attend an anti-corruption conference hosted by U.S. Vice President Al Gore in Washington. Until his landslide election victory on Dec. 6, Chavez had been denied a U.S. visa due to the bloody coup attempt he led seven years ago. But U.S. officials have recently praised Chavez, who met President Bill Clinton in Washington on Jan. 27, as "a changed man." Richardson led the American delegation attending Chavez's inauguration and described the former paratrooper as "a potential leader in the hemisphere" and "a very bright, street-smart individual who has a vision." Chavez, 44, was forced to cut short his previous trip to the United States due to a stomach illness, canceling a planned address to investors in New York. Prior to the U.S. visit, Chavez will make his first foreign trip as president to Montego Bay, Jamaica on Feb. 12 to attend the last day of the annual summit of the group of 15 developing countries, a Jamaican embassy official said.

To: Mike from La. who wrote (36887)	2/5/1999 1:12:00 PM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

Volume surging on FGI, now asking 12.31, Look for 14.00 by Tuesday's close.