Deep Water Discoveries Marked Year

In Like a Lamb, Out Like a Lion

What a year it was.

When the final year of the 1990s opened, the price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude was $12.33 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Stock Exchange.

As the year ended, the price per barrel had more than doubled, staying above $20 a barrel for most of the latter half of 1999. Average price for 1999 was $18.74.

With a laggardly start to the year and prices muddling below $20 until about July, exploration activity was spotty at best. The awaited approvals of the mergers of Exxon/Mobil and BP/Amoco/Arco added even more uncertainty to the business climate through the year.

But price conquers all and on July 1 the future looked brighter. Budgets were re-adjusted at about mid-year ? and a flurry of activity was reported in the last quarter of the millennium.

Meanwhile, the list of discoveries internationally continued to grow.

Listed here are selected major discoveries of 1999 as compiled by the IHS Energy Group's International Oil Letter.