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The Daily Dow LEXINGTON, KY. (September 3): After opening sharply lower, the U.S. stock markets rebounded, actually closing with a fair gain for the day. The big news (besides this morning's interest rate worries) is, of course, the U.S. military action against Iraq, which sent oil stocks into play today. All three Dow oil stocks were up sharply.
Needless to say, the Foolish Four, with Chevron as the doubled-up position and DuPont (which holds Conoco as a subsidiary) as two of the four holdings, benefited from today's session. Without making any political commentary whatsoever, it is nevertheless difficult to cheer for gains which come about as a result of military action. I know how powerful are the emotions surrounding money, my own included, but in my mind anyway, they must be secondary to the emotions evoked by any potential war we could become involved in. My ignorance of the political levels involved in these situations would be enough of a deterrent in making any judgment on the rightness of the military action we've taken as a country, but my response as a private citizen is one of concern for all involved. Let's hope everything is done to resolve the conflicts as peacefully as possible. Then we'll cheer the great days the Foolish Four will have with gusto.
That said, on to the company news. At ceremonies held in Beijing, Chevron Overseas Petroleum Limited, in partnership with Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the Malaysian state oil company, signed a production sharing contract with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to explore for oil in the Liaodong Bay portion of Bohai Gulf.
The 2,000 square-mile (5,250 square-kilometer) offshore tract is approximately 250 miles (400 kilometers) northeast of the capital city of Beijing. The new acreage area, designated Block 02/31, is located in the North China Basin, where some of China's largest oil fields (Shengli and Liaohe) are found. It is adjacent to the producing Suizhong-36 field which is operated by CNOOC. The Suizhong field is estimated to have over 1.5 billion barrels of oil in place.
And in other news from the international oil patch, Conoco's Killingholme refinery in northeast England will receive its first cargo of acidic crude from the North Sea's Heidrun field this week after the start-up of a new vacuum unit. According to a Conoco spokesman, an 860,000-barrel cargo "is going to unload in the middle of the week."
The new vacuum distillation unit, which started up last month, is the first in Europe to be able to process 100 percent runs of acid crude from fields such as Heidrun, in the Norwegian North Sea.
Transmitted: 9/3/96
Today's Dow Numbers
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