	bp bp offer raises expectations for oil values british petroleum plc s plan to pay billion dlrs for less than half of standard oil co has signalled higher values in the u s oil patch analysts said i think that bp s bid is a very strong affirmation and clear signal that they have confidence in the u s and they think the barrel of oil in the ground is going to go higher said sanford margoshes of shearson lehman brothers inc bp earlier today said its u s unit planned to tender at dlrs per share for the pct of standard it does not already own it s a billion dlr price that shows opec has won the war and oil prices are not going to crack said prescott ball and turben analyst bruce lazier behind that is a huge implication for the rest of the energy issues out there in the stock market particularly those that are acquisition targets lazier said one of those mentioned by lazier was usx corp an energy steel concern which had been courted by investor carl icahn and drew the attention of australian robert holmes a court last year rumors continue to swirl around its stock margoshes said he does not foresee major u s oil firms falling into takeover situations for several years with the exception of possibly amerada hess corp ahc he said most of the majors found partners in the last round of matchmaking which ended two years ago and others restructured to the point that they have become unattractive u s oil stocks rallied in response to the offer exxon corp xon rose to chevron corp chv jumped to and texaco tx climbed to unocal corp ucl rose while occidental petroleum corp oxy climbed to amoco corp an rose to standard oil s stock was up in heavy trading to earlier in the session it had been at a high of wall street has speculated british petroleum may boost its offer by several dlrs per share but the company maintained it would not raise the dlr bid british petroleum stock rose to analysts said the fact british petroleum made such a bid in the first place indicates that the british oil giant has changed its outlook for the oil industry analysts said last year british petroleum held one of the more bearish positions on oil prices they said the real price of oil would stay at dlrs a barrel for several years and i think they beat a hasty retreat from that point of view margoshes said they are more appropriately today looking more optimistically i believe they are looking at dlrs long term also in their heart of hearts they believe that will be exceeded margoshes said the u s benchmark  west texas intermediate was trading today around dlrs per barrel analysts said british petroleum might have been able to buy up the rest of standard oil for about dlrs per share when oil prices were falling last year they said standard oil s brightest asset is its slightly more than pct ownership of the alaskan prudhoe bay oil field analysts also said the company has other interests in the alaskan north slope analysts said the standard investment is extremely attractive to bp because the u s is the largest oil market and has hard to replace reserves i think it just fits in with their long range plans to increase their position in the u s market dean witter analyst eugene nowak said analysts said it also raises bp s visibility ahead of the british government s announced disposal of pct of bp stock the u k government said it would dispose of the holding sometime in the year beginning april one after acquiring all of standard most of bp s reserves would be in the u s but only about six pct of its stock is held in the u s the only way they can sell all that stock is to move it into the united states no other market can handle all that stock said l f rothschild analyst rosario ilacqua in standard oil had net losses of mln dlrs on revenues of billion dlrs compared to a profit the year earlier of mln dlrs on revenues of billion dlrs reuter 
