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

To: Post_Patrol who wrote (43853)	5/4/1999 8:20:00 AM
From: Fitz	Respond to of 95453

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) - Oil futures in New York touched $19.00 a barrel for the first time since late 1997, again lifting oil shares, which were also buoyed by the Dow Jones Industrial Average move beyond 11,000 for the first time in history. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil prices surged to $19.00 a barrel, before settling at $18.80, up 19 cents on theday and marking six up sessions in a row. Among the oil companies, Atlantic Richfield Co (ARC - news), the Los Angeles-based oil major, reported first quarter profits well above consensus forecasts, helped by a more than six-fold rise in refining and marketing earnings. ARCO, which has most of its business on the West Coast where gas prices have remained very high, finished up up $1.25 at $85.1875 on the New York Stock Exchange. Other oil majors gained, with Exxon Corp. ending up $3 at $86.0625, Mobil Corp. surging $3.9375 at $108.6875, Chevron Corp. adding $2.3125 at $102.0625 and Texaco closing up $1.625 at 64.375. ''People are surprised at what is happening in the oil markets, but there is the realization among oil companies that oil at $12 a barrel is over,'' said David Garcia, an analyst at Everen Securities. Indeed, despite lower first quarter earnings turned in by oil majors in the past two weeks, industry captains see better financial results in the upcoming quarters in view of the 84 percent rise in oil prices since the trough in December. Underpinning that rise is the latest production cuts pledged by major producers belonging to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producers such as Mexico and Norway. The new cuts went into effect April 1 and early estimates suggest a high rate of compliance among OPEC members. All oil industry indices rose on Monday, reflecting the sector's gains in the session. The Standard & Poor's International Oil Index, which tracks major global integrated oil companies, ended up 26.57 points, or 2.69 percent, at 1013.37 points. The S&P Oil & Gas Producers Index gained 2.03 points, or 3.33 percent, to to 62.92 pts while the S&P Oil and Gas Refining Index added 0.68 points, or more than half a percentage point, at 123.71 pts. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Oil Services Index, which gauges performance of drillers and similar companies, ended another big day, gaining 4.28 points or 5.6 percent at 80.67 points. In the futures market, traders are waiting for the weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), due out late on Tuesday. Last week, the data showed a big draw in U.S. oil inventories of more than four million barrels, which traders took to mean that production cuts in April by major producers in April were already helping shrink the global glut.