Outlining

In outlining his company’s strategy for this year, Union PacificResource’s CEO George Lindahl III said it will continue to focus ononshore North America plays. The company, he said, has budgeted$750 million for capital spending in 2000, including $100 millionfor property purchases. This budget should enable UPR to stabilizeproduction volumes by the middle of the year and increase volumesin the second half, while replacing over 100 percent of producedreserves. UPR also intends to continue the trend of increaseddrilling activity. Twenty-five rigs are now running in the U.S.,compared to 11 at this time last year and 17 at the end of 1999.Drilling in Canada has also picked up, with 11 rigs running today,compared to 13 in March of 1999 and four at year-end. Lindahlfocused on three specific areas that will be vital for thecompany’s growth: the Frontier play in southeast Wyoming’s GreenRiver Basin, South Louisiana’s Etouffee discovery and the Kluawells in British Columbia. “Our exploration activity in Wyoming,south Louisiana and British Columbia shows that we are making goodon our strategy, which is to find and produce natural gasopportunities onshore North America,” Lindahl said. “Our rig countshould continue to increase during the year. Development drillingis one of our strengths and we are hard at it onshore NorthAmerica, in the Gulf of Mexico and in Latin America..We believethat we are off to a good start to delivering value in 2000.”

Conoco Inc. filed a registration statement with the Securitiesand Exchange Commission (SEC) outlining a split-off plan fromDuPont that will establish Conoco as a fully independent company.The proposed split-off would be achieved through an exchange offerin which DuPont stockholders would be given an opportunity toexchange DuPont common stock for shares of Conoco Class B commonstock currently held by DuPont. The split-off is expected to becompleted in the third quarter. Last autumn, DuPont sold 30% ofConoco last October in the largest initial public offering in U.S.history. The IPO raised $4.4 billion and left DuPont with a 70%controlling interest in Houston-based producer.

A FERC options paper outlining various gas issues, whichCommission staff has been compiling since last fall, is scheduledto go to the full Commission next week – an indication FERC willtake action very soon. Commissioners are at odds, however, overwhether the gas issues will be addressed on a comprehensive basisor individually.