Hunt Oli-Richard Rainwater? You remember...Bush's partner

The Rude Awakening
Wall Street, New York
Monday, September 18, 2006

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Time to make a strategic jump onto the energy train,


Jacking up your profit potential with jacked-up rigs,


Oil and Rainwater do mix, the week in the markets and
more...
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Eric Fry, still in Baltimore, reports...

Houston, 1986. Oil prices are tumbling, real estate prices
are crashing, banks are going belly-up and no one wants
anything to do the oil business...Well, almost no one.

At this very moment, Richard Rainwater decides to start
buying oil-drilling rigs on the cheap. He arranges a clever
deal with Texas banks to snag 65% of the nearly bankrupt
Blocker Energy. Shortly thereafter, he scoops up Penrod
Drilling, the large offshore drilling rig company owned by
the infamous Hunt brothers of Dallas.

After Rainwater merges these two companies in the early
nineties, he finds himself atop one of the world's largest
drilling companies – the company we now call ENSCO
International (NYSE: ESV). Unfortunately, by the late
1990s, the oil sector's fortunes had failed to improve and
Rainwater's foray into oil-drilling begins to appear more
foolhardy than brilliant.

"Rainwater's empire is a mess," a 1998 issue of Business
Week declared. "His huge bets on three sectors - energy,
real estate investment trusts, and health care — 'are all
in the crapper at the same time,' says pal Henry R.
Silverman, chairman and CEO of Cendant Corp., though he
feels that Rainwater's bets will eventually pay off."

Eight years later, it's clear that Rainwater's "energy
bets" are paying off nicely. In an era of rising demand for
oil-drilling rigs, ENSCO International is flourishing.
Individual investors cannot duplicate Rainwater's gutsy
investment in the oil-drilling industry, but they can do
the next best thing...as Dan Amoss explains in today's
column.