Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Wed, Apr 22 1992 Date: Wed, 22 Apr 92 05:41:50 EDT Message-ID: 04-22 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update April 22, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network OIL PRICES SLIGHTLY HIGHER: Oil futures prices closed a bit higher Tuesday at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in May settled at $20.25 a barrel, up 1 cent. It was the final day for trading the May contract. Oil for delivery in later months also rose 1 or 2 cents a barrel. Lower-grade sour crude for delivery in May settled at $17.85 per barrel, up 1 cent. HEATING OIL HITS HIGH: Heating oil hit a four-month high Tuesday, with the May contract rising .69 cent to settle at 57.36 cents a gallon at the Mercantile Exchange. It was the highest close since Dec. 4. Among other refined products, unleaded gasoline for delivery in May settled at 62.48 cents a gallon, up .70 cent. Natural gas for delivery in May settled at $1.468 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 5.1 cents. DRILLING MOVING WAY OFFSHORE: As goes the business of mining oil and natural gas from the sea, so goes the economic fortune of a large part of Louisiana's coastal economy. And the offshore drilling business, facing a crippling combination of falling fossil fuel prices and rising environmental awareness, is going overseas. Now the offshore drilling's exodus from the Gulf of Mexico is commanding serious attention. (For more, see special Offshore package below.) AMOCO EARNINGS OFF: Amoco Corp. Tuesday blamed weak sales and lower crude oil and natural gas prices for a 52% decline in its first-quarter earnings. Net income for the period ended March 31 fell to $234 million, or 47 cents a share, from $492 million, or 98 cents a share, a year ago. Amoco said the weak results have prompted it to re-evaluate its $3.7 billion full-year capital and exploration budget. DOE ANNOUNCES SOLAR PROJECT: Seven companies will participate in a three-year, $50 million project to develop the USA's solar-power industry, the Department of Energy said Tuesday. The project - jointly underwritten by the government and the solar-power industry - is designed to take the solar-generating industry from its research and small-scale manufacturing stage to commercial sales internationally. SMOG FUTURES MARKET APPROVED: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved Tuesday the launch of Clean Air Allowance Futures - contracts for future delivery of government-issued permits to pollute. The Chicago Board of Trade plans to begin trading the so-called smog futures in 1993. Starting in 1995, the EPA will issue sulfur-dioxide-allowance permits to polluters - mostly coal-burning utilities in this case. CERTIFICATES TO BE TRADED: Under the 1990 Clean Air Act, each of the sulfur-dioxide-allowance certificates to be issued to polluters beginning in 1995 allow the emission of one ton per year. Polluters can either cut their emissions or buy enough certificates to cover them. Cleaner plants can sell unneeded certificates on the open market. That's where the Chicago Board of Trade comes in. PITTSTON RELEASES COAL RESULTS: The Pittston Co. Tuesday reported first quarter operating earnings of $7.3 million in its coal operations, vs. $11.5 million in the same quarter of 1991. Joseph C. Farrell, chairman and chief executive officer, said the coal results were impacted by continued weakness in coal pricing. Coal sales amount to 5.3 million tons including 3.1 million tons in overseas markets. LOWER PRICES IMPACT NORCEN: Norcen Energy Resources Ltd. said Tuesday that it estimates net earnings in the first quarter will be $17.0 million, compared to $37.0 million a year ago, largely due to lower oil and gas prices and the continuing effects of the recession on propane marketing operations. The company expects actual results to be available towards the end of the month. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON OFFSHORE: EUROPE, ASIA NEW HOT SPOTS: The most profitable, easy-to-reach oil and gas reserves in the western and central Gulf of Mexico are tapped. And other rich U.S. offshore areas are sealed off under federal orders. So drilling rigs that once crowded the coasts of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, are being shipped to Europe and Asia, where drilling is less restricted and gas and oil can be mined at less cost. JOBS LEAVING USA TOO: Oil industry jobs following the offshore drilling to Europe and Asia. "It's not a pretty picture," said Bob Stewart, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, national lobby of offshore drillers. But it's a picture policy-makers are being forced to study as they try to draft an energy strategy that will steer the USA away from dependence on foreign oil. FIERCE DEBATE STIRRED: Questions of whether to boost reliance on offshore oil and gas reserves - which hold a third of the nation's recoverable crude and natural gas - are stirring fierce debate. In short, industry leaders want access to sealed-off coastal areas, as well as tax breaks and other financial incentives, to counter the impact falling prices have had on their ability to invest in exploration. ENVIRONMENTALISTS HAVE MOMENTUM: Environmentalists counter with renewed charges that drilling is a short-sighted answer to energy needs and a menace to marine ecosystems and coastal resources. And momentum is with them: In the past decade, such arguments have spurred a 385-fold increase in the number of offshore acres closed by the federal government to exploration - up to 283.7 million last year from 736,000 in 1981. (End of package.) Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM