Deepwater Natural Gas Discovery News

'Fairmount Summit' & 'Fairmount Alpine' tow laden barge from Corpus Christi US to Mediterranean offshore field. Both tugs towed the barge on which the 18,500 ton jacket was loaded from the US to the field South-East of Cyprus. In Corpus Christi the jacket was loaded on Heerema Marine Contractor's 260 meters long barge H-851, the world’s largest launch and cargo barge. From this port the convoy set sail for the 9,000 miles voyage, which took only 54 days at an average speed of 6.9 knots to deliver the barge in the Tamar field.

The third quarter proved to be a prosperous one for oil companies, as most of our sampling realized substantial gains in net income and net operating income for the period, as compared to 1998's third quarter. A higher average worldwide crude oil price was chiefly responsible for the increases, although in some cases, cost-cutting measures also contributed heavily to the financial results. Exploration and production net operating income was up, nearly across the board. However, for the first nine months of 1999, earnings and net income are still down from the same period in 1998. Phillips Petroleum Company reported third-quarter net income of $221 million up from $46 million for the same period last year. Total revenues were $3.8 billion, versus $2.9 billion a year ago.