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

To: Razorbak who wrote (45819)	6/2/1999 10:02:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

$600m oil well to test Caspian potential - The world's most sensitive well Financial Times, June 3 By Robert Corzine in Almaty Drilling at the world's most politically sensitive oil well will start in the next few weeks. The $600m investment in an exploratory well at the Kashagan field in the northern Caspian Sea is the biggest commitment for decades to a single well. Nine of the world's leading oil companies, including Royal Dutch-Shell and BP Amoco, are involved. The drilling, which is starting a year late, will answer questions about the viability of the region as a major oil producer and exporter. The Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company (OKIOC), the consortium overseeing the project, has based its commitment and expenditure on seismic evidence suggesting it is one of the world's last great undiscovered oilfields. The Kashagan structure, which lies more than 14,000ft below the shallow waters of the remote northern Caspian, is three times the size of nearby Tengiz. That field, operated by Chevron of the US, is the largest oil reservoir discovered in the past 25 years and contains about 6bn barrels of recoverable reserves. A 1bn barrel oilfield is now considered to be a major world class find. Kashagan's seismic profile is similar to that of Tengiz, but consortium officials at their headquarters in Atyrau, the provincial capital on the Ural River, say there is only a 20 per cent chance of a discovery. "It will probably be nothing or a very big find," says Paul Jeffery, operations manager for the project. The consortium already has 40 experts in The Hague working on possible development options, suggesting optimism among shareholders, which also include Mobil of the US, Total of France, Agip of Italy, BG of the UK, Statoil of Norway, Philips of the US, and Impex of Japan. Last year the latter two companies paid the Kazakh government $500m for a combined one-seventh share in the project. A commercial discovery at Kashagan would spark renewed investor interest in the Caspian basin, hit by last year's collapse in oil prices. OKIOC has discovered several other large structures nearby. Each of the consortium's members has rights to additional exploration blocks. A big find would not only transform the Kazakh economy, it would also be a big boost to US policy in the Caspian Sea region. If Kashagan's reserves prove as large as geologists suspect, it could support the construction of a major export pipeline, such as a trans- Caspian link to Baku in Azerbaijan and then on to Ceyhan, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Such a pipeline is a priority of US foreign policy, as it would help wean the former Soviet republics along the Caspian away from Russia while undermining growing commercial interest in using Iran as an oil export route. Moscow has expressed concern about the possible environmental implications of the project.

To: Razorbak who wrote (45819)	6/2/1999 10:58:00 PM
From: Ken Robbins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Not everyone has been bullish on MEXP: Message 9457010

To: Razorbak who wrote (45819)	6/7/1999 11:36:00 PM
From: Think4Yourself	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

Better late than never?? I own a substantial position in MEXP, so I can at least tell you why. Before I add a stock to my portfolio, there is one criterion the company must almost always pass: insider buying. Since published numbers are fairly easy to fudge ("Figures don't lie, but liars figure"), I rely heavily on the breadth and width of insider buying to determine how many shares I want to acquire. I am comfortable with my MEXP position, despite their current debt troubles. That's why I bought and am holding. Hope it helped.