***TEXAS MARKETS SEE SEVERE PRODUCT OUTAGES

000-02-14 14:50:57 EST

***TEXAS MARKETS SEE SEVERE PRODUCT OUTAGES Several Texas markets are experiencing significant product outages. Koch notified its marketers that as of February 11, it would have no No. 2 oil or gasoline available in Corpus Christi, Waco, San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth at Koch terminals.

The most critical of the markets is Austin, where Koch is the only terminal operator, meaning that all suppliers in Austin have no product. Koch told jobbers that they would have no product "until further notice."

Numerous calls placed to various offices of Koch, including Wichita, Dallas and Corpus Christi, were not returned as of presstime.

There have been no reports of a refinery mishap so far. The terminals are supplied by a pipeline from Koch's Corpus Christi refinery complex. OPIS will continue to update this breaking story.

Diane T. Miller, dmiller@opisnet.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2000-02-14 14:50:46 EST

***WILLIAMS PROPANE LINE BACK IN SERVICE

The West Leg of the MAPCO Pipeline (a division of Williams) is now back in service, a company spokesman has confirmed. The pipeline, which had been shut down for nearly a week, was returned to service Sunday afternoon.

Service was shut from Greenwood, Neb. when a backhoe that was traversing the pipeline right-of-way sunk in soft soil and came to rest on one of three pipelines in the right of way. The other two pipelines are an ammonia line a gas liquids batch line.

Williams did not comment on the status of the allocations in place along the East and West legs of the MAPCO, which were in place prior to the backhoe accident, but the allocations are still in place, sources said.

Diane T. Miller, dmiller@opisnet.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2000-02-14 15:25:38 EST

***FUTURES ROAR ABOVE $30 BBL; HIGHEST NUMBERS SINCE JAN 1991

2/14 - - (3:20 P.M. EST) - Crude oil futures roared well past the psychologically important $30 bbl level this afternoon and traded as high as $30.30 bbl in a session marked by strong buying from speculators, fund managers, and local NYMEX players.

Although a settlement had yet to be rendered, last recorded sales on the NYMEX were at $30.25 bbl, up 81cts bbl on the day. Contracts added 25cts bbl very quickly when it became apparent that prompt crude would indeed close above $30 bbl in the session.

When the dust settles, today's close will be the highest close for crude since January 16, 1991. Today's buying came on the heels of reports from global analysts who warned that worldwide crude inventories can't drop further without risk of outages in some markets.

Gasoline, already at record territory, was last quoted up 2.53cts gal to 83.60cts gal for March futures and the Summer spec April contract traded for as much as 87.70cts gal. Heating oil added 1.48cts gal to 75.72cts gal, but that number represents a miserable refinery margin of just over $1.50 bbl.

- Tom Kloza, tkloza@opisnet.com

-- rocky (rknolls@no.spam), February 14, 2000

Answers

Rocky,

Thank you for this informative post.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 14, 2000.

OPIS Alerts are fun! You, too, can subscribe at: www.opisnet.com

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), February 14, 2000.

The first article said there would be no fuel in Austin starting on 2-11. It's the 14th, does anyone know if anything happened?

-- me-- (me@my.net), February 14, 2000.

What is No.2 oil or gasoline? Prices here in Austin have only risen 5 cents in the last week for unlead plus...

-- george (jones@choices.com), February 14, 2000.

Thanks for the post. This is informative...and not encouraging.

:v{

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), February 14, 2000.

George,

#2 usually refers to diesel fuel and/or heating fuel.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), February 14, 2000.

Confirmed: gas here is about 5 cents more than last week.

Haven't seen any lines, anywhere, though.......

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), February 15, 2000.