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

To: Wowzer who wrote (45710)	6/1/1999 9:46:00 AM
From: ChanceIs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Oil slides on Iraqi production increase. infoseek.com I thought that Iraq was at or near its physical (vice UN sanctioned) production limit. It appears that they are sucking a lot of water from the chat on this board. The Simmons article suggested that they were near their physical limit. Does anybody have better information?? Separately, I keep reading about refinery margins and dropping demand for crude. Isn't it the case that the world was building refineries (especially in the Pacific rim) like chip factories circa '97. Could it be the case that we have an oversupply of refineries and that the price of crude isn't heavily coupled to refinery activity?

To: Wowzer who wrote (45710)	6/1/1999 10:14:00 AM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

New York--Jun 1--NYMEX crude and product futures are seen lower in followthrough from Friday's weak close. Jly crude fell 24-cents in overnight trade and could drop to test $16.00, an 8-week low, as participants take profits amid renewed bearish sentiments in the market, brokers and traders said. * * * NYMEX Jly crude ended the overnight Access session down 24c at $16.60. Jly heating oil ended down 27 points at 39.36c, while Jly gasoline ended down 63c at 48.30c. In the absence of fresh news, Jly crude is expected to test support around $16.20-$16.30. If the contract fails to hold at this range, stop-loss orders to sell could be triggered pushing Jly crude down to $16.00 and later at $15.70. "A lot of this (weakness) is followthrough from Friday," one broker said. "The market is setting up to try and test $16.00 and downwards." The market is expected to be fairly low-volume, following a 3-day holiday weekend but several brokers and traders predict the trend is downward. "You'll see some profit taking but it is going to be pretty quiet with a lot of people coming back from vacation," a trader said. He added that poor refinery margins as BP Amoco announced that it has cut crude oil processing levels across its European oil refining systems due to poor margins, would pressure the market. "Obviously if BP Amoco cut (runs) at its refineries, it is going to be a problem for crude," he said. The market is also focusing on gasoline ahead of weekly inventory data, which showed a drop in implied demand the previous week. With the start of driving season, brokers and traders said that demand has to rise to pull the market higher. "People are keeping an eye on this gasoline market," a broker said. "We'll see what the APIs show." Meanwhile, the market is also awaiting OPEC compliance numbers for May. Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheikh Saud al-Nasser al-Sabah said that current oil prices are "satisfactory" but should improve in the second half of the year. Also, all members of OPEC favor extending the group's agreement made in March to cut its collective oil output by over 1.7 million barrels per day to support oil prices, a senior official at the Iranian oil ministry said. OPEC agreed in March to curtail its output by 1.7 million barrels per day for 1 year, starting Apr 1, in an effort to reverse a sharp 18-month decline in oil prices. "Everyone is in favor of an extension," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.