11.   Six years after the Soviet breakup, a vast tide of oil profit is about to hit this Caspian Sea nation, a new darling of Western strategic thinkers.

12.   Some government and Pemex officials agree that Tabasco has received only the slightest slice of oil profits.

13.   Some of his shareholders, including prominent American financiers, have similarly complained in legal filings in Russia that he has spirited away oil profits from Yukos subsidiaries.

14.   The United Nations would also continue to administer Iraqi oil profits.

15.   U.S. stocks rose for the first time in a week, led by Exxon Corp. and Chevron Corp. amid optimism about oil exploration company profits.

16.   When oil profits are up companies tend to increase oil exploration efforts.

17.   While it is true that oil profits have soared this year, longer term they are nothing to write home about.

18.   Without new rigs, rents are expected to keep rising, raising oil service company profits.

19.   With oil profits collapsing, the people in those countries are becoming more unsettled.

20.   But they refused to make any payment because it would violate U.N. sanctions that put Iraqi oil profits under U.N. monitoring.