U.S. BRIEFS

EXPLORATION

PLAINS PETROLEUM CO., Lakewood, Colo., plans further seismic work to define step-out locations to its Minnelusa strike in the Powder River basin in Crook County, Wyo. MRA-Plains 31-28 Federal gauged 630 b/d of 21.7 gravity oil with no water from pay at 7,018-52 ft. Plains and McAdams, Roux & Associates Inc., Denver, each has a 50% working interest in the discovery and jointly own or control about 400 acres in the immediate area.

TRANSPORTATION

10,000 GAL OF GASOLINE spilled into the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh Jan. 1 when a runaway barge was damaged after being knocked from its moorings by rushing ice floes in the rain and snow swollen river. A second gasoline barge was recovered intact. The spill was contained the same day with little environmental damage expected. At least 55 barges were ripped from moorings along a 58 mile stretch of the river that day, and 30 sank.

CLEANUP CONTINUED last week of a spill of about 2,000 gal of marine diesel oil in Elliott Bay off Seattle. Source of the spill, spotted Dec. 29, was unknown. No wildlife appeared affected.

UNITED CITIES GAS CO., Brentwood, Tenn., completed acquisition of Union Gas System Inc. in Kansas from Union Holdings Inc. for $55 million.

UTILICORP UNITED, Kansas City, Mo., completed acquisition of a West Virginia gas utility from Cabot Corp. for about $3.5 million. Utilicorp will operate the system as a unit of its West Virginia Power division.

COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION CORP. started its first firm sales in North Carolina with completion of a 7 1/2 mile pipeline moving as much as 25 MMcfd of gas from existing facilities near Emporia, Va., to North Carolina Natural Gas Corp.'s system in Northampton County, N.C. A now compressor station under construction at Pleasant Hill, N.C., is to start up by the end of the month.

COLUMBIA GAS OF PENNSYLVANIA filed with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) for general rate hike of $49.6 million, of which $23.3 million in passthrough take or pay (TOP) costs is included as a contingency in case the PUC disapproves a separate TOP recovery filing Columbia made last month.

ACQUISITIONS

TORCH ENERGY ADVISORS INC., Houston, completed its purchase of Felmont Oil & Gas Co. from Homestake Mining Co. for about $100 million.

SEAGULL ENERGY CORP., Houston, completed acquisition of assets of Houston Oil Trust for cash and/or stock in a deal valued at $66.4 million to $79.4 million.

DRESSER Industries Inc.'s agreement to acquire Smith International Inc. expired of its own terms. Dresser is exploring other transactions regarding Smith.

PROCESSING

ASSOCIATED NATURAL GAS CORP., Denver, purchased two gas processing plants with combined capacity of 20 MMcfd and 40 miles of related gas gathering lines in Blaine and Custer counties, Okla., from Midstates Natural Gas Co. Terms are not disclosed.

GOVERNMENT

U.S. STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE added more than 1.2 million bbl of crude oil to its inventory last November, boosting total oil held in storage to 579.5 million bbl. SPR received more than 1 million bbl of sour crude at its West Hackberry, La., site, bringing the total there to 205.5 million bbl, or less than 14 million bbl shy of capacity. SPR also received last November 41,000 b/d of oil from Mexico's state oil company Petroleos de Mexicanos. SPR fill has averaged 58,000 b/d since October 1988.

MARKETING

FARMLAND INDUSTRIES INC., Kansas City, began expanding many of its service station/convenience stores in the Midwest by retrofitting them to Ampride outlets. Ampride, formed as a wholly owned Farmland Industries subsidiary last summer, plans to build a "significant number" of new stations.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

WOLVERINE EXPLORATION CO., Fort Worth, completed its first horizontal well on its Palmeras Ranch prospect in Dimmit County, Tex. The 179-1-H Little flowed 1,720 b/d of 37 oil and 670 Mcfd of gas through a 48/64 in. choke with 230 psi flowing tubing pressure.

NAHAMA & WEAGANT Energy Co., Bakersfield, Calif., completed the purchase of a lease in McKittrick field, Kern County, Calif., for 300,000 shares of common stock. The lease holds 70 Tulare heavy oil wells, which are shut in. The company assigned about 60% of the property interest to its 1984 Production Purchase Limited Partnership. Plans call for workovers of 15-20 wells and evaluation of the deeper diatomite formation for development potential.

GRACE DRILLING CO., Dallas, formed a southern division composed of its South Texas and southeastern divisions' operations. The new division, with headquarters in Houston, has 40 rigs in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, South Texas, and the Ark-La-Tex area.

TAYLOR ENERGY CO., New Orleans, will begin design and fabrication of a production platform after completing a third delineation of its North Padre Island Block A-59 gas discovery, about 65 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Tex. A confirmation well flowed 13.9 MMcfd of gas and 47 b/d of condensate through a 24/64 in. choke with 3,780 psi flowing tubing pressure from perforations at 7,445-72 ft. Taylor holds a 50% working interest with Canada's Coho Resources Ltd. 32.5% and Australia's Comada Energy Ltd. 17.5%.

ALTERNATE FUELS

CALIFORNIA ENERGY Co. Inc., San Francisco, completed the first phase of its $615 million, 240,000 kw Coso Geothermal Project in Inyo County, Calif. The project's final three units began commercial operation last month, supplying power to California customers.

ARCHER DANIELS Midland Co., Decatur, Ill., agreed to ship 100 million gal of fuel grade ethanol to Brazil's Petrobras beginning this month. ADM will produce the fuel at plants in Decatur and Cedar Rapids and Clinton, Iowa, from 40 million bu of American corn.

COMPANIES

ARCO, Lyondell Petrochemical Co., Lyondell officer-directors, and underwriters of the first public offering of Lyondell stock are defendants in a class action suit filed in Delaware. Charging misstatements and omissions in the prospectus for the offering, the suit seeks to recover damages for persons who bought Lyondell stock between Jan. 18 and Oct. 20, 1989. Defendants said the suit has no merit.