***VENEZUELAN REFINERY PROBLEM PUSHES REFINED PRODUCTS UP FURTHER 1/18 - - Reports of a major problem with one of the largest catcrackers in the western hemisphere has sent refined products futures higher this morning, in some cases helping them surpass post Gulf War highs. Industry reports say that Venezuela has suffered a mechanical problem at its huge 635,000 b/d Amuay Bay refinery and the unit may be lost for as long as three weeks. The 110,000 b/d catcracker is Venezuela's largest producer of finished gasoline, and traditionally accounts for a number of cargoes each month to the U.S. East Coast. Gasoline futures were up some 2.03cts gal just after midday, with about a penny of the increase attributed to the refinery news. February no-lead stood at 76.55cts gal. While the unit's downtime shouldn't have much impact on distillate production, the news helped galvanize an already strong No. 2 oil futures market. Just after Noon EST, February No. 2 oil futures were up 2.345cts gal to 76.15cts gal. - Tom Kloza, tkloza@opisnet.com

-- Lee Barber (LeeeeeeB@webtv.net), January 18, 2000

Answers

Thanks Lee. You got a link to that?

-- Paranoia Will (Destroy_Y@BlackCopters.com), January 18, 2000.

Hang on to your.....................HAT !

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000.

Hang on to your hat, and kiss your ass goodbye.

-- Earl (earl.shuholm@worldnet.att.net), January 18, 2000.

Paranoia, if you look at the signature on the cut and paste, you'll notice that Leeeeeeebaby gave you a glimpse of an Oil Price Information Service (opis) report.

Try www.opis.com/

Don't know if this is on their website, but it is a standard OPIS alert that is distributed to subscribers.

Don't you wish people would tell you where it is they got the document?

-- rocky (rknolls@no.spam), January 18, 2000.

Sorry folks .... it came to me from the Opis Y2K Alert email list. What's more important though is that this is probably one of a few refinery biggies that has been rumbling in the oil rumor background (but not anywhere else) until OPIS brought it out in the open. If Venzuela does get it back up and operating in 3 weeks, we are talking manageable short term problems. If they don't though, it's moving closer toward the DD end of the month fuel shortage scenario. Only time will tell, but as we see .... the move up in oil last week had some teeth to it and not just fictional rumoring. As RC said ... Y2K is about OIL, everything else can wait. I say ... you can fix all the computers in the world, but if you don't have enough fuel to run them ... they are worthless. It is about OIL.

-- Lee Barber (LeeeeeeB@webtv.net), January 18, 2000.

Interesting......please keep us posted.

-- Exit 316 (exit316@kc-primary.net), January 18, 2000.

Correction on the quote .... it was JC, not RC ... we need a few more xxxxCs I think ... who said ... Y2K is about OIL, everything else can wait. I like that ... shows he just might be legit! Hope he comes forth as promised with his oil analysis.

-- Lee B (LeeeeeeB@webtv.net), January 18, 2000.