http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20000210_3932.html

just off the wire...

-- mutter (murmur@ya.com), February 10, 2000

Answers

Wow what a success story here. The price of heat has already fallen and temps have warmed up. To little to late. Start thinking about gasoline there Billy.

Seriously folks, extending hours for truckers, giving money to low income folks, handing out loans to stupid heating oil dealers (few of them hedged when they should have) and building some fictitious heating oil storage facility are all admirable gestures.

However, they do nothing to help fill the void where a coherent international energy policy should be. Let's see if old Billy Richardson can talk the Sauds out of 30 dollar oil. I keep hearing everyone talking about incremental barrels ramping up. I'm certain they are, slowly but surely. However, the pace of the decline in stocks can't be overcome in a month or even two months of rescinded cuts. It will take 3-4 mos of real production increases to bring us back down into 25 dollar land. I'm not certain the Sauds are on board for that ride either.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), February 10, 2000.

Is this finally the governmental admission that there is a problem? They are putting a awful lot of people in harms way by waiving Hours of Service, deferring Routine Maintenance, suspending the Clean Air Act. A joint study on impacts and reestablishing the Energy Emergency Office gives the appearance that they envision this being a longer shortage then reported.

Did the groundhog see his shadow? I shouldn't joke, this is serious. I wouldn't want to see anyone go without heat.

-- Trish (adler2@webtv.net), February 10, 2000.

Gordon, I think you're right on the money on this one, the gestures listed above won't do a thing to prevent price gouging again. Our tax dollars at work, where they won't fix a thing...

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), February 10, 2000.

This is either too little too late OR,

the problem is bigger and maylast longer than we know. Planning budget allocations from 2001 budget suggest this will last into next year's winter.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), February 10, 2000.

And of course it won't work

Fair Use for Educational and Research Purposes:

Oil up on U.S. vow to not use reserves And: Rally builds on Iraqi refusal to allow U.N. inspections

By Myra P. Saefong, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 5:29 PM ET Feb 10, 2000 Agriculture Outlook Futures News

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Oil futures rose Thursday after a published report said that the U.S. energy secretary reiterated his stance against using the oil reserves to lower heating oil prices for consumers.

Today on CBS MarketWatch Dell profit matches reduced estimates Nasdaq soars; Dow burdened by bonds Office Depot sales rise Bond auction fails to win fans Airline stocks dive More top stories... CBS MarketWatch Columns Updated: 02/10/2000 5:53:04 PM ET However, the strength of crude's price rally gained momentum when the official Iraqi News Agency reported that Iraq's Vice President, Taha Yassin Ramadan said the country won't allow the United Nations' weapons inspection team to restart disarmament activities.

"It's causing concern that if Iraq decides not to play ball with the U.N. Security Council, it opens a lot of scary possibilities," Phil Flynn, vice president of Chicago-based Alaron.com said. "This could cause a repeat of the late last year stoppage of Iraqi oil, because that's their biggest weapon to make a stand with." With supplies as tight as they are, the news could cause a panic, he said.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March crude rose as high as $29.52 a barrel and closed at $29.43, up 66 cents.

March heating oil fell 0.14 cent to 74.46 cents a gallon after Richardson said he'll unveil plans to help lower home heating oil costs for consumers sometime over the next few days, according to a Bridge News report.

March unleaded gasoline rose 2.09 cents to 81.75 cents a gallon. See latest commodity prices.

According to a Thursday report in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said that President Bill Clinton has ruled out using the strategic petroleum reserve to help ease rising home heating oil prices.

Richardson also said that the White House is "trying to find other ways to mitigate this problem," the newspaper reported. The White House has seen pressure from congressmen who are pushing for the release of 560 million barrels of the reserve oil to bring down prices, according to the Journal.

"We just took out the 20-day high on the March [crude] contract," David Jesser, managing director of Alaron.com's San Francisco branch said. "As long as we maintain prices above $28.70 for the next two days basis March, it looks like everything is set up for this market, crude oil, to move towards toward $31."

It's a "strong bull market" and will remain "until there's some sign through price movement that we have peaked and that sign might be a sharply higher day that closes sharply lower. All the technicals are in place and there is no overwhelming fundamental negative to change the story," he added.

Market fears of a possible hike in oil-producer output was eased on Wednesday by reports that Venezuela's oil minister, Ali Rodriguez, said it was too early for OPEC to make a decision regarding a possible increase or extension of production curbs.

"It may be too soon for OPEC to commit publicly to a definite course of action, but we think it is too late for incremental supply to prevent a run to new highs," analysts at Thomson Global Markets said in a daily report.

The petroleum market was also supported by this week's data on U.S. supplies, which revealed a much greater-than-expected decline in distillate stocks due to the recent cold Northeast weather.

This week, the American Petroleum Institute reported that distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, slipped 5.9 million barrels last week, while the Department of Energy's data showed an even bigger 6.9 million barrel decline. According to a survey conducted by Bridge News, the market was looking for only a 4 million and 5 million barrel drop.

CL H0 NYME Last Chg. 2943 +66 % Chg. Vol. +2.29% 86,908 Day Lo. Day Hi. 2865 2950 Open Prev. 2880 2877

As of Feb 10/00 8:36 pm ET Last Trade 2877 30 MIN. DELAY

The API also reported a 1.9 million barrel climb in last week's gasoline stocks, on the high-end of expectations for a rise as high as 2 million barrels. However, the Department of Energy unexpectedly said gasoline supplies actually fell 500,000 barrels.

Crude supplies were up 689,000 barrels, according to the API, but climbed 3.5 million barrels, according to the Energy Department.

In other energy news, the American Gas Association reported a 213 billion cubic foot decline in U.S. natural gas stocks, surpassing market expectations for a 200 billion to 210 billion cubic foot drop in supplies.

March natural gas rose 5.2 cents to $2.592 on Nymex.

"The emergence of a 389 billion cubic foot year-on-year deficit and the erosion of the storage surplus relative to average levels down to 105 billion cubic feet means that the natural gas market may be vulnerable to any late winter cold snaps," a report from Thomson Global Markets said.

Gold futures shine

Gold futures rose Thursday on speculation that the U.K. is thinking of halting its gold sales, an analyst said.

However, the Bank of England had just made an announcement about two weeks ago that it plans to continue the planned sales, Dave Meger of Chicago-based Alaron.com said. The U.K. treasury has also denied the speculation, Bridge News reported.

April gold closed at $318.70, up $10.10 on the Commodities Exchange division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Meanwhile, the market continues to find support from Barrick Gold's (ABX: news, msgs) positive outlook on gold. This week, the gold producer announced a reduction of the amount of gold committed to its Premium Gold Sales Program to 9.8 million ounces at year-end 1999, from 18.8 million ounces at the end of the third quarter.

GC J0 COMX Last Chg. 3175 -12 % Chg. Vol. -0.38% 43,956 Day Lo. Day Hi. 3170 3201 Open Prev. 3183 3187

As of Feb 10/00 8:36 pm ET Last Trade 3187

The news disappointed traders who were expecting the producer to announce a full suspension of the gold sales, but Barrick's chief executive, Randall Oliphant alleviated the disappointment by stating that, "the substantial reduction we made to our hedge book enhances our leverage to rising gold prices and reflects our positive outlook for gold."

In other news, Comex gold stocks, as of late Wednesday, were down 298 ounces to 1,391,183 ounces. Silver stocks were up 1,222,390 75,589,086 ounces.

In other metals highlights, March silver fell 0.5 cent to $5.425 an ounce. April platinum fell $11.70 to $517.90 an ounce while March palladium lost $10.15 to $580 an ounce.

March copper rose 2.75 cents to 84.95 cents a pound. The London Metals Exchange warehouse said stocks were down 625 metric tons to 802,525 metric tons as of early Thursday. Comex stocks fell 203 short tons to 95,997 short tons.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Stocks Index (XAU: news, msgs) rose 1.1 percent to 68.34.

Bridge/CRB Index The Bridge/CRB Index, a broad-based measure of commodity futures markets, rose 1.1 percent to 215.06.

Livestock

April live cattle fell 0.375 cent to 71.30 cents a pound. March feeder cattle fell 0.175 cent to 83.275 cents a pound. March pork bellies rose 0.975 cent to 89.775 cents a pound. April lean hogs added 0.150 cent to 59.10 cents a pound.

Grains/Food/Fiber

March sugar rose 0.03 cent to 5.52 cents a pound. March cocoa fell $8 to $776 per metric ton. March coffee rose 1.05 cent to 108.75 cents a pound. March frozen orange juice added 0.5 cent to 83.40 cents a pound. March cotton rose 1.74 cents to 57.54 cents a pound. March soybeans were up 9 1/4 cents to 513 cents per bushel. March wheat added 6 1/4 cents to 271 3/4 cents per bushel. March corn was up 3 cents to 225 1/2 cents per bushel

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), February 10, 2000.