Mr. Read: Our coverage list extends from the large caps down to the small caps. Our focus favors offshore drillers and capital equipment companies. So we extend from Halliburton (HAL) on the transition and larger cap driller side down through several of the offshore drillers all the way to TODCO (THE). In the case of the service names, it's National Oilwell Varco (NOV), Cameron (CAM) and Grant Prideco (GRP) on the equipment services side, as well as companies like CARBO Ceramics (CRR). A couple on the engineering and construction side of the business are Dresser-Rand (DRC) and McDermott (MDR).
TWST: As you look back at 2006, how did the group perform from a business
perspective?
Mr. Read: From a business perspective, 2006 was a very good year. A few
companies had some issues in the fourth quarter, with weather in Canada and
things like that, but most companies saw 2006 results that were better than what
you would have expected at the beginning of the year, especially for the fourth
quarter. It was only in the stock market that we saw any real challenges.
Tickers included in this excerpt: CAM, HAL, MDR, RIG
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