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Gold/Mining/Energy : Pride Petroleum Services (PDE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Zeman who wrote (392)	3/7/1999 11:18:00 AM
From: Stormweaver	Respond to of 454

Your right there are no real indicators that this stock is going to take off in the near future. There's a lot of positive sentiment on this thread but at this point there are no signs that the industry will be picking up anytime soon.

To: Bill Zeman who wrote (392)	3/8/1999 5:04:00 PM
From: DEER HUNTER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 454

from the other thread....... To: Platter (39277 ) From: Platter Monday, Mar 8 1999 3:59PM ET Reply # of 39298 N.Y. Crude Jumps to 4-Month High as Saudi Arabia, Iran Agree to Seek Cuts Crude Oil Rises as Iran, Saudi Arabia to Seek Cuts (Update2) (Adds background on Iran in 3rd paragraph and comment and background on OPEC production beginning in 9th paragraph.) New York, March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose more than 5 percent to a four-month high after Saudi Arabia and Iran said they would work together to win further production cuts when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets March 23. The joint statement by the two oil producers means ''there is something in the wind that's going to result in less'' oil, said Alan Struth, chief oil economist at Bartlesville, Oklahoma- based Phillips Petroleum Co. Saudi Arabia and Iran said more production cuts are needed to boost prices that have fallen about 35 percent in the last two years. Iran's statement was significant because OPEC contends the country has been the group's biggest over-producer. April crude oil rose as much as 73 cents, or 5.5 percent, to $14.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest price since Nov. 13. In London, April Brent rose as much as 58 cents to $12.14 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange. Oil prices have risen 12 percent in the past week, boosted by an unexpected drop in U.S. inventories and speculation that OPEC may agree to further output cuts. Prices are half what they were in January 1997, when they reached a six-year high. While crude oil inventories have fallen close to year-ago levels, according to the American Petroleum Institute, it will take some time to work through gasoline inventories that are about 5 percent higher than a year ago before the start of the warm-weather driving season. Excess heating oil inventories have weighed on crude oil prices in recent months as mild weather reduced demand. U.S. heating oil inventories as of Feb. 26 were 20 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the API. Oil products also gained. April gasoline rose as much as 1.85 cents, or 4.5 percent, to 43.25 cents a gallon on the Nymex; while April heating oil rose as much as 1.85 cents, or 5.3 percent, to 36.60 cents a gallon. 'First Step' World oil producers need to reduce output by about 1 million barrels a day to bring supply and demand into balance, Struth said. While Struth said he was skeptical OPEC would agree to further cuts this month, the joint statement from Iran and Saudi Arabia is ''a good first step. We'll take it.'' In February, 10 OPEC members, excluding Iraq, achieved 79 percent of their goal of reducing output by a combined 2.6 million barrels a day, according to Bloomberg estimates. Saudi Arabia, OPEC's biggest producer, met 92 percent of its promised cutback of 725,000 barrels a day, while Iran's compliance is being disputed. Iran achieved only 1 percent of its promise to reduce production by 305,000 barrels a day from a February 1997 base line computed by OPEC. Iran contends that it already has met the goal when the change in its daily output is computed using its own base line figure. The question is, ''Are the Iranians going to cut and what level are they going to cut from?'' Struth said. ''The devil's still in the details.'' Phone Call The joint Saudi-Iranian statement was issued after a telephone conversation between Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz and Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, the Saudi Press Agency said. Iran and Venezuela, OPEC's second- and third-largest producers, are to meet in Venezuela before the OPEC meeting to discuss oil production cuts, Iranian officials said. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi will meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Energy and Mines Minister Ali Rodriguez during his trip to Caracas March 17-18, a spokesman at the Iranian Embassy said. Venezuela's oil workers union said the government had indicated it won't agree to new production cuts. Still, Nauman Barakat, vice president of futures investments at Prudential Securities in New York, said he was ''doubtful about this until we hear the official word from the (Venezuelan oil) ministry.''

To: Bill Zeman who wrote (392)	3/13/1999 12:04:00 PM
From: DEER HUNTER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 454

Hey Bill......the situation is looking up. Take a look at this article found on the 'strickly drilling thread'. Message 8299648 To: A. Fineigler (39825 ) From: Captain James T. Kirk Saturday, Mar 13 1999 8:11AM ET Reply # of 39837 March 12, 4:48pm Oil Chiefs Agree To Cut Production By MIKE CORDER AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Major oil-producing nations pledged Friday to slash production in an effort to relieve the worldwide glut of oil that has depressed prices for months. OPEC members, except Iraq, reached agreement with two non-OPEC exporters to reduce overall production by 2 million barrels a day. The news sent crude oil prices to five-month highs on commodity markets, before dropping back slightly on profit-taking. After years of seeing OPEC promise cuts only to cheat on quotas, traders are optimistic that these cuts may stick because producing countries can't afford to let prices fall further. But some analysts remained wary that members of the dysfunctional OPEC family may renege on the pledge in fear of losing oil income. ''We'll need to see it to believe it,'' said economist Peter van Doesberg with Dutch brokerage Stroeve. ''It's not guaranteed that other countries will stick to the agreement. It's a fragile cartel.'' OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria and Venezuela, together with nonmember Mexico, thrashed out the production-cut agreement during two days of meetings in the Netherlands. The deal must be formally approved at a March 23 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said non-OPEC members Mexico and Oman have also committed to the cuts, and discussions are under way with other non-OPEC countries. The cuts, effective April 1, amount to 2 million barrels a day and would be added to existing OPEC and non-OPEC cuts of 3.1 million barrels a day agreed upon last June, he said. ''Any higher than this and I think it would have got into the range of implausible. This is about the maximum people can stomach,'' said analyst Janelle Matharoo of Bankers Trust in London. Algerian Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi, who is also OPEC president, said a more precise figure and a breakdown of the cuts would be given at the March 23 meeting. Kate Warne, an analyst with the investment firm Edward Jones in St. Louis, said OPEC members are still exceeding their self-imposed production quotas by 1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day. So if there is no cheating on this agreement, it would make headway in reducing the glut, she said. Oil prices have been rising in recent days as traders grew optimistic that some cutbacks would be announced before the OPEC meeting. Friday's announcement pushed up contracts for April delivery of light, sweet crude 18 cents to close at $14.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after hitting an intraday high of $15.11 -- the highest since early October. The rally has pushed oil prices up 35 percent from December's 12-year lows. In London, North Sea Brent Blend crude oil rose 42 cents to $12.60 per barrel at the International Petroleum Exchange, after hitting an intraday high of $13.19. Brent crude last settled above $13 per barrel in November Analysts estimated that crude prices could rise to $16 to $20 per barrel by year's end if oil producers adhere to the cutbacks. James Van Alen, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott Inc. in Philadelphia, said the market is more willing to believe that the cuts will stick because producers have been suffering so long from depressed prices. ''What you're seeing is that they're a little more scared,'' Van Alen said. Also raising optimism was a pledge last month by the president of Venezuela -- seen as one of the largest overproducers -- to comply with the previously announced cutbacks. One of the major obstacles to a new agreement had been the issue of Iran's production. Iran has insisted that any cuts be made from a base production level of 3.925 million barrels a day, while other oil producers claim that figure should actually be 3.623 million barrels a day. The oil ministers declined comment Friday on the issue, but consultations between Saudi Arabia and Iran and also between Gulf Cooperation Council members appear to have broken the stalemate. OPEC members are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. ------ EDITOR'S NOTE: AP Business Writer Eric R. Quinones contributed to this report from New York.