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World and nation 6 F
The Battalion
Wednesday, January 30,
Oil, gas exploration in U.S.S.R.
Soviets, Westerners cooperate
HOUSTON (AP) — Plans for the
first competitive sale of oil and gas
leases in the Soviet Union, touted as
a dramatic departure from past pol
icy, were announced Tuesday by So
viet representatives and officials of a
Denver-based company.
Some 90,000 square kilometers of
the Soviet Turkmen Republic will be
available for sealed bids by non-So
viet oil and gas firms in an arrange
ment made during the past year by
Geointertech, a joint venture of the
Ministry of Geology of the Soviet
Union and Wavetech Geophysical,
Inc., of Denver.
Bids will be taken until Sept. 25
for blocks of about 100 square kilo
meters in the primarily desert re
public in the southwestern part of
the Soviet Union, bordering the Cas
pian Sea, Iran and Afghanistan.
“I don’t think the current political
situation should greatly concern
Western companies,” said G.A. Ga-
brielyants, the Soviet Minister of Ge
ology, referring to the turmoil in the
Soviet Baltic republics.
“There are problems I’m sure
you’re aware of. They’re natural
when going from one (economic)
system to another,”
He also noted that the Baltics
were thousands of miles from Turk
men Republic and have virtually no
these oil and gas reserves, providing
the world markets with an alterna
tive and long term source of petro
leum outside the Middle East,” Gen-
delman said.
N.T. Souyounov, a member of the
Turkmen Republic president’s
“After seeing the data, literally this is like
being a kid in a candy store.”
— Jack Holton,
Wavetech vice president
oil and gas potential.
Edward Gendelman, president of
Wavetech, said contract and lease
terms will replace the protracted and
often frustrating direct negotiations
that several Western oil and gas
companies have attempted with the
Soviet government.
“The utilitization of outside capi
tal, exploration and production ex
pertise and technologies will allow
relatively rapid development of
council and general director of the
production association known as
Turkmengeologia, estimated the re
serves in his area at more than 10
trillion cubic meters of natural gas
and about 1 billion tons of oil.
Officials said one ton of oil is the
equivalent of about seven barrels,
which is the method of mea
surement more traditionally used by
oil companies in the West.
“New thinking and perestroika of
foreign and home policy open ne.
ways of development of internii
tional economic relations, business
cooperations between the countrit
with different ideology and their
vestment of foreign capital in Sovitl
economy on a mutually beneficii!
basis,” S. Niyazov, president of tli
Turkmen Republic, said in i|
statement.
Gendelman, who also served m
translator for the Soviet delegate
during a Tuesday news conferenct
said oil companies would put iifj
cash bids and carry the explorate
expenses, then share expenses oner
production would begin. Profits alst
woidd be shared.
“We believe it’s going to be mil
tually beneficial to all sides,” saic
V.A. Dvurechensky, deputy chair!
man of the Russian State Geologic
Committee.
“After seeing the data, literal
this is like being a kid in a candi
store,” Jack Holton, a vice presides
at Wavetech, said.
U.S. military orders boost economy only slightly
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. facto
ries for big-ticket items surged 4.4 percent in De
cember, but the total for the year was down 1.6
percent from 1989, the government said Tues
day. Analysts attributed much of last month’s
gain, the best since March, to the military
buildup in the Persian Gulf.
“This is the start of the orders for ... Desert
Storm,” economist David Wyss of DRI-McGraw-
Hill in Lexington, Mass., said. He said continued
military spending could make the recession
shorter and milder.
The Commerce Department reported that De
cember orders for durable goods — items, like
cars and computers, expected to last more than
^d
three years — totaled a seasonally adjusted
$121.6 billion. It was the steepest increase since a
6.7 percent gain last March.
Orders had plunged a revised 10.1 percent in
November, the worst fall since a 10.5 percent
drop in January 1990. Nevertheless, the revision
was an improvement over the 10.7 percent esti
mate reported earlier this month.
November’s posting was the sixth decline in
1990, when orders totaled $1.49 trillion for the
year, down 1.6 percent from 1989 and the first
drop since they fell 6.4 percent in the recession
year of 1982.
And excluding the defense and civilian air
craft categories, orders fell 3.4 percent in Decern
ill.
ber as wel
“The recession just continues,” said economisi
Michael P. Niemira of the Mitsubishi Bank in
New York. “There’s no sign of a trough any time
soon” because the weakness in orders was so
broad-based.
In other economic reports Tuesday, the Labor
Department said Americans’ wages, salaries and
other benefits rose 4.9 percent last year, lagging
far behind the 6.1 percent rate of inflation. The
employment cost index is considered one of the
best gauges of inllationary wage pressures.
Texans see
state woes
above war
American Express
Announces A Great New
Travel Program.
Now students can get the Gird
and get 3 roundtrips on Continental
Airlines, for only $129 or $189 each.
There’s only one way to cover a lot of territory without spending
a lot of money And that’s by getting the American Express® Card.
It’s the only card that offers an exciting new travel program
exclusively for students—including three roundtrip certificates on
Continental Airlines.
Just look at the map and pick the place you’d like
to visit. If it’s on your side of the Mississippi River, you
can use a certificate to fly for only $129 roundtrip. Or,
you can cross the Mississippi for $189 roundtrip.
>ur pick or r
You have your pick of more than 150 cities in the
48 contiguous states. And you can fly almost any time—because
there are no blackout dates. But you must make your reservations
within 14 days of the day you leave. And the maximum stay is
7 days/6 nights and must include a Saturday night.
In addition to this great travel program, you’ll also enjoy all
the benefits of Cardmembership as well as other exclusive student
privileges. They include a quarterly magazine filled with informa
tive articles on summer jobs, careers, campus life. Plus valuable
discounts from leading retailers.
But remember, there’s only one way to get all this—and that’s
by getting the American Express Card. Just call us (have your bank
address and account number on hand). What’s more,
with our special student offer, it’s easier to get the
Card now while you’re still in school than it may
ever be again.
So get the Card. And get ready to cover new
territory on either side of our Great Continental Divide.
Membership Has Its Privileges'*
TRAVEL
Tagrjd RELATED
(SERVICES
CALL 1-800-942-AMEX
An American Express company
If you're already a Cardmembet; there’s no need to call. Information about your certificates will be arriving soon.
CONTINENTAL
WASHINGTON (AP) — Texan
in Congress Vowed Tuesday notio
let the war overwhelm their Hoik
front concerns, such as the dangei
of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
food safety and farm credit, out-of
control health care costs and a lad
of affordable housing.
On the mind of Republican Rep
Larry Combest are things like fare
loans, the fragile state of rural hosp
tals and the aomestic oil and gas in
dustry.
“Those things never end. Wan
come and go,” said Combest, who
represents Lub
bock, President
Bush’s weather
vane for Amer
ica, as Texans
gathered in
Washington
Tuesday for the
State of the
Union address.
On the eve of
the president’s
address, the tra
ditional kickoff of
Bentsen
the legislative year, Texans from
across the state were thinking abo®
their domestic agendas.
For Rep. Jack Fields, R-Humbk
it’s making sure the Coast Guard
gets equipment in place along tl
Gulf Coast to deal with an oil spil
For Rep. Dick Armey, R-Coppei
Canyon, it’s fighting any effort t«
raise taxes. For Rep. Lamar Smith
R-San Antonio, it’s campaign refont
and making sure the sanction!
against hiring undocumented wort
ers are working.
For Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a Demo
crat, it’s monitoring negotiations fw
a U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement
and holding down the costs of health
“I am also planning hearings on
the squeeze middle-income Amen
cans find themselves in with wage
declining and costs of necessities lib
housing and health care rising
Bentsen said.
For many Texans, health care, tin
economy and the need for a nations
energy policy that includes incer
lives for domestic production arcs
the top of the list.
“Lack of an effective national ett
ergy policy is a major reason we art
in a recession, a major reason tb
Persian Gulf is so important to oat
national interests,” Bentsen said.
Complete terms and conditions of this travel offer will arrive with vour certificates. Continental Airlines alone is responsible for fulfillment of this offer. American Express assumes no liability for Continental Airlines' performance. © 1991 American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
“We must reduce our dangero®
dependence on foreign oil by estah
lishing policies that will encourag
conservation and domestic prod®
tion.”
While Texans generally supptf
measures that will boost the oil a®
gas business, they’re split on whetfe 1
there should be some sort of rec®
sion relief.
Rep. Steve Bartlett, R-Dallas, sai‘
he believes Congress and the pres
dent should “jump start the ecot
omy through incentives for priva#
investment and private savings.”
W
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