New Projects and good prospects. will be the winner in 2004. IMO
25p in early 2004

Thanks for all these Xmortal. Not the best end to the week, but at least we held at 14p. Better than in the red! Bring on Monday!

U.S. addiction to foreign oil deepens
Mon 19 July, 2004 09:09



By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. domestic oil production has dropped five percent since this year's peak in February and near-record oil prices are unlikely to inspire drillers to slow the country's deepening dependence on foreign oil, experts say.

"Why on earth would you drill here when we've been drilling here for 120 years and when there's vast untapped regions across the globe?" said Kyle Cooper, analyst at Citigroup Global Markets in Houston.

U.S. pumps pulled 5.43 million barrels per day of oil in early July compared to 5.70 million bpd in early February, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. The United States uses all of its domestic crude production. It relies on imports of crude and oil products for the remainder of the approximately 20 million bpd of oil it burns daily.

As domestic output dropped this summer, crude imports averaged more than 10 million bpd for a record two months, the EIA said this week.

U.S. production often falls in the summer as workers repair Alaskan oil infrastructure during the thaw. But rarely has the summer production droop been so deep.

Last year in early July, for example, domestic output was slightly above February production. By August, production had only slipped about two percent below February output.

A six-week outage of Royal Dutch/Shell's 150,000 bpd deepwater Mars platform this summer in the U.S. Gulf coast helped to cut output.

But the impact of outages is intensified by a long-term drop in U.S. oil output, said Mir Yousufuddin, who tracks oil production for the EIA in Dallas. U.S. oil output peaked during the Arab oil embargo of 1973 when production was 9.3 million bpd.

U.S. production in 2003 fell 1.5 percent to about 5.7 million bpd, and the trend is on track to fall.

GULF BOOM WONT CUT ZOOM IN FOREIGN IMPORTS

New production from the U.S. Gulf deepwater oilfields next year will help cut the U.S. decline, but a long-term drop in California production, the nations fourth largest oil producer, combined with rising U.S. demand, and a fall in domestic drilling since 2001 wont cut reliance on record imports, experts said.

Seven new field start-ups in the U.S. Gulf in the second half of 2004 as well as BP's Holstein and Thunderhorse fields in 2005 could add as much as 450,000 bpd at peak if all goes well.

But that will not stem the decline of production of mature fields in Texas and Oklahoma, and especially California. In the Golden state, output has fallen about from 842,000 bpd in 2000 to an average of 742,000 bpd from October last year to March this year, according to state records.

And U.S. petroleum demand will rise 380,000 bpd this year and another 300,000 barrels next year, the EIA estimates in its latest monthly report.

U.S. President George Bush's plan to tap the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, believed to hold as much as 16 billion barrels of crude, has so far been thwarted by environmentalists. Even if ANWR was tapped, production would take about 10 years to begin according to government estimates.

What's more, record prices for oil futures of over $42 per barrel hit this summer have failed to dramatically boost oil exploration drilling, except in California.

Despite record oil futures, there were 168 rigs searching for oil in the United States last week, up 14 from last year, but down 55 from the same week in 2001, according to the Baker Hughes rig count.

"We've expected an increase for almost a year now," said EIAs Yousufuddin. "The industry for some reason is holding tight. They are investing in repurchasing their own stock, investing somewhere else, not in exploration drilling."

Virgin oilfields in Africa and Latin America have made major U.S. oil companies explore elsewhere. "When the fields and the production rates are so much higher, when your environmental, regulatory issues and labor costs are so much lower, you can afford pay $3.50 to $4.00 (a barrel) in transportation costs to ship oil from there to here," said Cooper. He said lifting costs can average as much as $10 a barrel abroad and as much as $20 a barrel in the states.

The impact on increased foreign oil demand on U.S. consumers is debatable.

Some see the lower lifting costs abroad as a bonus. Others see the growing dependence on foreign oil as a potential problem, especially with American drivers fondness for big automobiles.

"Its not good for the consumer to rely on foreign oil," said Jack Aydin, analyst at Keybanc Capital Markets. "But lets put it in perspective. Europe has relied on foreign oil all along. It hasn't hurt them, except they cannot have cars getting 12 miles a gallon (19.2 kilometers per 3.8 liters)."

Some good posts on the TMF oil and gas board todayon the Tunisian prospects.

Just out:

Petroceltic International PLC
20 July 2004

Petroceltic International plc

20 July 2004


Petroceltic International plc ('Petroceltic' or the 'Company')

Holding in Company

The Company has received a notification dated 19 July 2004 from FMR Corp. and
Fidelity International Limited (together 'Fidelity') stating that, following an
acquisition of shares, Fidelity hold 35,544,294 ordinary shares representing
7.17 per cent. of the Company's issued ordinary share capital. The shares are
held on behalf of a range of clients with the following nominee/registered
names;

Mellon Bank 21,067,934

Chase Manhattan Bank, London 7,575,811

Brown Brothers Harriman Ltd., LUX 930,228

Deutsche Bank AG London 467,046

HSBC 5,503,275


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

We have blue this morning!

Doing well this morning. Now up 7.5%

Now up 9.4%

Now that Fidelity has increased it's shareholding, the major shareholders are now as follows:

Gartmore 38,945,349
Fidelity 35,544,294
Carmignac Gestion 19,600,000
BARNARD NOMINEES LTD 14,000,000
MR JOHN CRAVEN 12,000,000
MS MARIA ROCHE 11,005,470
BARNARD NOMINEES LTD 10,000,000
MS MARIA PEARL ROCHE 10,000,000
VIDACOS NOMINEES LTD 9,940,275
DAVYCREST NOMINEES LTD 8,650,000
APOLLO NOMINEES LTD 8,604,651
MR GRAHAM WRAFTER 8,533,333
LIROFF SECURITIES LTD 6,880,263

It's looking good this morning. 2.16 million buys v 167K sells and 150K unknowns

Percentage Gainers

EPIC Name Price Change(%)
1 (1) ASC Asos 66.5 12
2 (2) RGT Regen Therapeut 2.25 12
3 (3) HSD Hansard GRP 41.0 11
4 (4) FLG Flightstore 5.25 10
5 (5) CTM Colt Telecom 41.75 8 A
6 (6) PRI Palandri 31.5 8
7 (7) HYS Honeysuckle Gp. 0.18 8
8 (8) PCI Petroceltic 14.5 8

Morniing Grevis.

Good to see an excellent start to the day after yesterday's RNS. Looks like those that sold out last week will be buying back in again! Looks as if I sold my ASC too early though! Least it enabled me to get in here at the 7p mark!

Morning gavdfc. Up late this AM I see!

I think there is a chance that we will soon be revisiting 17p at this rate.

Was up early to take in the buying, lovely sight!! Had to go to garage to get new mirror for car, some moron broke it off last night, 118! Not best start to day, but at least PCI moving up helps! 17p soon would be nice.

118 for a mirror? Gold plated I suppose!

We've moved from 8th to 7th. Looking to top the tree!

Percentage Gainers

EPIC Name Price Change(%)
1 (1) RGT Regen Therapeut 2.25 12
2 (2) SBM St.Barbara 2.25 12
3 (3) ASC Asos 66.5 12
4 (4) HSD Hansard GRP 41.25 12
5 (5) FLG Flightstore 5.25 10
6 (6) HYS Honeysuckle Gp. 0.18 8
7 (7) PCI Petroceltic 14.5 8

Was a bit of a shock for me as well, and that doesn't even include fitting! Moving up nicely, but will we beat ASC! That just keeps rising.

gavdfc: There was a time when cars cost less than the price of your mirror!

Well I'll give you a real laugh then. Went to look at getting a new car earlier today, looked to spend about 5k on a good small used one. Saw one i liked then the guy looked at mine. Came back with an offer of a trade in at ....... 100! Said they would just send it to auction and it would only get 100! Then upped it to 200 offer. Told him to sod off and came home. Not the best start to the day, but PCI and SEY made up for his cheek! LOL

Was he offering to buy the other wing mirror?

LOL He was offering to buy the whole car! Think I'll just keep it! See we've hit 14.5 on the bid now.