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NEWS - Unocal 3Q ignites investors



Unocal 3Q ignites investors 

            Shares in oil explorer heat up after earnings
            dip 69% but still beat Street

            October 27, 1998: 10:44 a.m. ET

            NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Unocal Corp. shares caught fire on
Tuesday
            after the oil-exploration company said the global petroleum
slump had
            not impaired third-quarter earnings as much as analysts had
feared. 

            Excluding a special accounting loss for three oil wells that
went dry in
            October, Unocal earned $54 million or 21 cents per share in
the
            period, a stark 69-percent plunge from $177 million or 70
cents per
            share in the applicable year-ago period. 

            Counting the $18 million loss, the company reported earnings
of 15
            cents per share. 

            Analysts had forecast a profit of 20 cents per share before
lowering
            their estimates to 6 cents per share after a profit warning
Sept. 30. 

            Unocal stock (UCL) surged on the news, up 1-7/16 at 36-3/8. 

            Revenue was flat at $1.39 billion, hurt by sagging crude-oil
prices and
            lower production caused by storms in the Gulf of Mexico.

            "Low commodity prices continued to exert a significant
downward
            pressure on our earnings," said chairman and chief executive
officer
            Roger C. Beach.

            In the current quarter alone, Beach said, the sluggish crude
oil market
            had accounted for $70 million in lost profits. The price of
benchmark
            Brent blend petroleum has fallen 35 percent from $21 in the
last twelve
            months to hover around the $13 per barrel threshold.

            However, the company remained optimistic about its ongoing
            exploration efforts in Indonesia and the Gulf of Mexico.

            For the year to date, Unocal has reported earnings of $159
million or
            66 cents per share, again sharply lower than the year-ago
period's
            $439 million or $1.73 per share. 

________________________________
            Related stories



                      Unocal won't leave Burma

                      Oil giant under fire, but says human
                      rights abuse allegations are
                      unfounded 

                      From Correspondent Casey Wian
                      January 14, 1997: 8:01 p.m. ET







  Pepsi gives
  into protests,
 leaves Burma
    - April 24,
       1996 



      Unocal
  Homepage 
              LOS ANGELES (CNNfn) - Politics and profit
              are clashing in Burma where alleged human
              rights abuses by the nation's military regime
              have convinced several companies to stop
              doing business there. 
                But Unocal is standing firm. The oil giant is
              taking heat, but refusing to back down.
                Demonstrators chained themselves to a
              Unocal tanker truck in Los Angeles, protesting
              the company's involvement in a billion dollar
              natural gas pipeline project running through
              Burma to Thailand. 
                Unocal's partners include Total, a French oil
              company, and the state-owned Mynama Oil
              and Gas Enterprise, which has been accused
              of involvement in heroin money laundering.
                Congress has urged the president to stop
              U.S. businesses from investing in Burma.
              Local governments, including San Francisco's,
              are also pressuring companies to stay out. But
              Unocal says that's misguided.
                "I think it's bad policy, and I think the way
              forward for Burma is to keep open the doors
              that have been opened the last several years,
              and engage the country constructively and help
              them improve their economy and therefore the
              economic well being of its people," Unocal
              president John Imle said. (WAV, 53K) or
              (AIFF, 53K) 
                Unocal's investment in Burma comes as the
              company is in the process of selling its U.S.
              refinery and marketing operations. The oil
              giant says the rapid growth of Asian countries
              like Burma offers greater opportunities for
              profit.
                But the company's U.S. union, which stands
              to lose thousands of jobs, wants the pipeline
              project stopped.
                "It's about time somebody said, 'Wait,
              timeout, you're a creature of law, you're a
              creature of this society, and we're going to
              hold you accountable, and we're not going to
              let you profit on the backs of the indigenous
              people all over the world,'" Robert Wages,
              president of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic
              Workers Union.
                "People have talked to Unocal about buying
              their investment in the Ydana field, which is the
              main field that they're going to produce from,"
              Ira Joseph, editor in chief of World Gas
              Intelligence, said. "But I don't think Unocal is
              going to give up so quickly."
                Unocal says it's improving the lives of
              people in Burma, by opening medical clinics
              and schools and providing agricultural loans,
              adding that allegations of human rights abuses
              by anyone involved in its project are
              unfounded.