Updates

Forecasting an excellent 2001, Houston-based Ocean Energyoutlined its latest forecast Thursday, and announced it hascompleted the acquisition of Texoil Inc., which is expected togreatly impact 2001 operations.

Unocal re-evaluated its third quarter estimate yesterday toannounce that it expected earnings not to be 70 cents per share asannounced on July 27, but that its earnings would be between 90-95cents per share. The new expectation beats First Call/ThomsonFinancial’s consensus estimate of 79 cents by at least 11 cents.

Exxon Mobil Corp. continues to tout the benefits of the mergerthat created the new company. “When we announced plans for themerger — about a year ago — both companies recognized this wasa once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Chairman Lee Raymond.”Since that time, we have further refined the opportunities andbenefits available to the merged company.” The synergy benefits ofthe merger are expected to be greater and realized sooner thanpreviously thought, Raymond said.