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

To: The Ox who wrote (42968)	4/22/1999 10:39:00 AM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

I'm not sure this has been posted yet: Schlumberger Q1 earnings hammered by low oil price NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) - Schlumberger Ltd.<SLB.N>, the world's number two oilfield services company, said on Thursday first-quarter earnings fell sharply as low oil prices led oil firms to curb their efforts to find and develop new reserves. Net income before one-time charges fell 53 percent to $179 million or $0.32 per share. Wall Street had been expecting earnings per share of $0.30, according to First Call Corp. which tracks analysts' estimates. Schlumberger said it was continuing to cut jobs during the first half of this year and is scheduled to eliminate a further 2,500 by the end of June, bringing the total to 10,000 since last July for a 21 percent reduction in its oilfield services headcount. The company took an after-tax charge of $90 million or $0.16 per share in the first quarter to cover the job cuts. Schlumberger said operating revenues fell 24 percent to $2.31 billion in the first quarter as low oil prices led to a 35 percent drop in the worldwide total of active oil drilling rigs, but the company said there were hopeful signs on the horizon. "Early signs of a recovery in oil demand, particularly in Asia, coupled with the decline in non-OPEC production due to reduced (exploration and production) spending by the oil companies, are setting the stage for a vigorous recovery in oilfield activity next year," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Euan Baird said in a statement. 09:50 04-22-99

To: The Ox who wrote (42968)	4/22/1999 10:40:00 AM
From: paul feldman	Respond to of 95453

Drilling for dollars: Oil services and oil drilling stocks hit their peaks in November 1997. While they've been on the mend lately, much of the recovery has been attributed to the recent rise in oil prices, and the recent rotation out of techs, rather than a fundamental improvement. But some analysts believe oil and gas prices really are headed higher, and "this sets a tone for the industry," says veteran oil industry analyst Mike Breard of the brokerage firm Dominick & Dominick in Dallas. "If oil companies get more confident that prices will improve, they will possibly revamp their budgets this summer. And if they decide to spend more money on drilling, there will be more demand for drilling rights. Once they've sopped up the excess supply of rigs, day rates [for the use of rigs] will rise substantially." A rig that may have rented for $40,000 a year ago is now at $15,000, "if it's working," Breard says. "So, there's tremendous upward leverage once rights go back to work." Breard, who has a solid following among hedge funds and others that drill for oil stocks, was especially impressed after getting off a conference call last week with Global Marine (GLM:NYSE), an operator of offshore rigs. Specifically, Global said that bid requests at its turnkey division, which rents rigs to oil companies at a fixed price, had hit a record in March. To an industry watcher like Breard, that's a sign that a turnaround in the oil patch is for real. "In the past," he says, "turnkey bid requests have been a reliable indicator of future drilling activity. You take bids in the first week in April, and you may not drill till June. But it indicates that despite the hard times smaller oil companies ran into in the last year or so, they're still interested in drilling wells. And they're becoming more interested in drilling wells." His opinion was reinforced yesterday when Ensco (ESV:NYSE), another offshore driller, said it believes the industry is past the trough of the bottom in the U.S. Beaten-up companies that could benefit, he and others say, include Global Marine, Ensco, Rowan Cos. (RDC:NYSE) and Noble Drilling (NE:NYSE). "It would raise the P/E ratio of the entire industry," Breard says. He adds that "you can't say anything for sure in this industry, but one thing you can say for sure is that every year the rigs are one year old, and nobody is building new rigs." Considering that it'll probably be two years before anybody starts ordering new rigs (assuming the oil industry really does rebound) and that it takes roughly two years to build a rig, Breard believes this could be the first stage of what could be a three- to five-year rebound for oil drillers

To: The Ox who wrote (42968)	4/22/1999 10:45:00 AM
From: Raven McCloud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Michael, thanks for your comments. You stated: "You can't prove today what's going to happen in the future. You can speculate, you can use directions and information to justify a position, but you can't PROVE that a future event will occur with any degree of assurance." Well, the mkt. is constantly attempting to "predict" the future; this is what creates huge valuations in the InterNut sector. Statements made by Talbert are in that vain. Remember that there's a huge population of traders who will look to trade the recent run-up and the talking heads will come out with their "speculations" to support the traders. I'm only playing the short term short game here. I do think long term OSS looks healthy. No FUD intended in my posts; just sharing my oppinion.