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

To: wlheatmoon who wrote (45252)	5/21/1999 4:05:00 PM
From: Brent Hogenson	Read Replies (7) \| Respond to of 95453

Strange how FLC and RIG are stuck right where they are (10, 25). I wonder if the market maker for the options has anything to do with it. I am sure there will be a lot of options expiring worthless. I wish somebody out there would come up with companies that have large natural gas exposure (50% or greater), a market cap above 200 million, and a stock price greater then 10. I just can't buy these micro-caps. Years ago I met a guy in the library who was holding the value line folder that I wanted. We talked a while and the one thing I gained out of the conversation was this quote and I'll never forget it. "I would have avoided over 75% of my losses had I stuck to companies that have a market cap of at least 500 million and a stock price of at least $10. I know that some of these microcaps will explode but I think they are too risky, and slider thinks FLC is too risky, go figure.

To: wlheatmoon who wrote (45252)	5/21/1999 4:21:00 PM
From: hdrjr	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

To all, Good close at/or near today's high. Now for a little levity, sorry if this has been posted before. I am sure some of you in the industry have heard it before. Everyone was walking around with their (non-metal) hardhats tied to their belts. Thinking this was some obscure oilfield fashion I neglected to do the same,and was promptly told to get off the drill floor until rectified. I was then given the reason. But... before the story, just a quick background. Standard method of drilling an oil well is to drill a large OD hole and then cement a slightly smaller OD casing (tubular steel) in the hole to maintain hole integrity, by preventing caving in or to isolate pressure zones (amongst many other things). So you might drill a 12.25inch OD hole to a certain depth, isolate it with 9.625inch OD casing and then continue deeper using,say an 8.5in drill bit. The casing is cemented in place by pumping slurry down the interior and out through an orifice at the bottom of the casing(casing shoe), thence up and around the casing in the casing/hole annulus. OK. The Story: A few (mumble mumble) years back, while setting casing, a roustabout leaned over the open top of the casing and peered in. In doing so, his aluminium hard hat fell into the hole. The casing was at (mumble, mumble) feet,but generally deep, call it 10,000ft. Generally, if something is dropped down hole, you can a) cement it in place, b) drill or mill on it, or c)grapple it out of the hole. In case a), the casing had not been cemented, and the hardhat was blocking the casing shoe orifice so cementing was out of the question. b) was no good, cause it'd either damage the casing shoe or just squash the hard hat into the casing shoe, and you probably wouldn't get a decent cement job. Very important to get a good casing job. d) (previously not mentioned) which entailed pulling 10,000ft of casing back out of the hole, get the hard hat and then re-run the casing)would take hours, perhaps days. And time is money So c) it was. Numerous grappling tools were run. Couldn't use a magnet grapple, as you might for a sledge head, as the hard hat was aluminium. This operation took many (add a figure depending on how many beers the guys have bought you)days, and of course the daily running cost of a drilling rig is in the 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars a day. The hard hat is eventually wrested out of the hole at huge cost in time and money and the Toolpusher takes it over to it's owner and says, "here's your $&$&^^@#!#%# hat, you're fired". The now Ex-employee then replies, "Well, I won't be needing this then", and drops the hard hat back down the well and walks away.