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

To: Big Dog who wrote (45066)	5/19/1999 9:45:00 PM
From: Aggie	Respond to of 95453

Hey......You know how names get contracted when corporations get taken over - like National Lead turning into NL (Baroid)? Well - if Diamond Offshore takes over Falcon Reading & Bates, and rig rates continue to decline - could we then call'em Diamond Re-Bates? Just an idle thought... Aggie

To: Big Dog who wrote (45066)	5/20/1999 4:18:00 AM
From: dfloydr	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 95453

A disturbing thought ... maybe nothing more than a passing night mare. But lets pretend for a moment. We the members of this thread win a grand slam lottery ... perhaps $700 million. Throw in Slider's well earned gains and we are in business. We like the oil patch. So we set out to drill for oil. We have some choices: Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran and various gulf countries have oil that is cheap to drill for and they are knocking on our tree house door. Come to the Gulf! We are inviting Americans to come into our region again on terms that you should find pretty appealing. Jet off to Europe on week-ends, learn to ride camels .... US Navy handy bye to keep things peaceful. RIG, FLC, et al ... the big deep water rig guys are knocking at our other door. Come drill in deep waters with us. You'll need all your money plus some borrowed funds because the day rates are staggering ... get wet and cold or hot and wet ... live on a tin island in the middle of a vast sea. Sometimes we find oil. That then requires "rube goldberg" technologies to get into a customers hands. Sometimes we spill some and law suites follow. If we find oil you will have to play loud Ozzy Osbourne music at night to drive away the local pirates. Once in a while a hurricane may require you to return to dry land. The above pretty well describes the alternatives confronting the big money players in the patch ... Shell, BP, Exxon, et al. Saudi Arabia and others have been making some well publicised offers to western oil powers. I have no idea what strings may be attached, but the possibility exists that the relatively cheap cost and the rather high success rates in the Gulf region might leave some fancy rig iron stranded for quite some time. Contrary to the movie myth, just 'cause someone built it, does not mean the people will come. It comes down to where will the funds flow that will develop the hydrocarbon sources for the next twenty years? Upon awakening, I bailed out of everything that owns or builds rigs and have parked most of it in stocks that already own and are producing oil or gas.