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

To: marc chatman who wrote (37004)	2/7/1999 11:46:00 PM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Respond to of 95453

marc, In OS stocks, an important API Report to read is the "Quarterly Completion Report". It was just released for the Fourth Quarter...Whew! I'll type this out by hand....Please forgive typographical errors! "Completions of US oil wells, natural gas wells, and dry holes declined by 26% in fourth quarter 1998, compared with same period 1997.Oil well completions dropped 45% and natural gas completions fell 14% for the fourth quarter compared to 1997. 5,631 oil wells, natural gas wells, and dry holes were completed in the fourth quarter. In 1997 there were 7576 completions. For the last quarter of 1998 gas completions were down 14% to 2701; oil well completions declined 45% to 1555, and dry holes were down 13% to 1375. Exploratory well completions were down 33% while development completions were down 25% for the fourth quarter. API also reported a 21% decrease in footage drilled for a total of 32,272,000 feet. Well completions for all of 1998 showed a 13% decline compared with 1997.. Altogether 24,884 oil, gas, and dry holes were completed. There were 8720 oil well completions down 24% from a year ago; 10,711 gas well completions down 6%; and 5453 dry holes down 8%. Completions of exploratory wells were 18% lower in 1998 while completions for development wells were down 13%." The API Report shows the impact of the price decline in oil on the drilling/completion activity. Note the bigger declines in oil-related versus gas-related OS business. Also exploratory well activity dried up much more rapidly than in-fill development well drilling- probably just lots of replacement wells. But the figures show all segments impacted such as makers of tubular goods too. Also note that the declines in drilling activity were larger than the declines in ongoing service work. This suggests that service companies are a little more smooth in revenue streams than drillers over the long run- but that drillers offer bigger upside than service compnies when things turn for the better..... Anyway this is a good API report to watch too..... Well guys subsequent to a frac job, we'll be at the Big Pines Lodge in Karnack, Texas next friday night about 7:00 pm. That's right near Caddo Lake and the Caddo Indian Mounds just west 15 miles of the Louisiana border up in NE Texas (That's about 110 miles SW of President Clinton's hometown of Hope, Arkansas if that helps). You take a barely two lane wide run-down farm-to-market road back into this swamp- the road is enclosed by Bald Cypress Trees covered with Spanish Moss for about eight or nine miles-very spooky. (I keep my windows rolled up when it's foggy- ever see the horror movie-"The Fog"??. Also it's rumored that "Swamp Thang" lives back here). It's a smoky low-ceilinged down home dining room that makes seafood absolutely to die for. Coming into crawfish season down in Louisiana now in the Atchafalaya Swamp Basin, so they'll be servin' Crawfish Pie, Crawfish Etoufee, Crawfish Remoulade, Fried Crawfish, along with Texas Toast, Barbecued Catfish, Jalapeno Butter, Boudin, Jambalaya, Turtle Soup, and Gumbo which is just unbelievably good- mmmm! Just tell them to send you over to Seleta's table with the oilfield guys. we'll kick around the state of the industry over a couple of Lone Star beers.......