INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

Dec. 10, 1990
RAS TANURA refinery in Saudi Arabia caught fire Nov. 30, burning for about 2 hr, according to press reports from the Persian Gulf. The fire was believed to have started in the 450,000 b/d refinery's naphtha reformer. Cause was not determined at presstime. POLIMEX-CEKOP LTD., Warsaw, let contract to KTI Group BY, Zoetermeer, Netherlands, to build a 700,000 ton/year crude catalytic reformer unit based on UOP platformer technology to produce unleaded gasoline at Mzrip Plock, Poland. KTI,

REFINING

RAS TANURA refinery in Saudi Arabia caught fire Nov. 30, burning for about 2 hr, according to press reports from the Persian Gulf. The fire was believed to have started in the 450,000 b/d refinery's naphtha reformer. Cause was not determined at presstime.

POLIMEX-CEKOP LTD., Warsaw, let contract to KTI Group BY, Zoetermeer, Netherlands, to build a 700,000 ton/year crude catalytic reformer unit based on UOP platformer technology to produce unleaded gasoline at Mzrip Plock, Poland. KTI, working with parent Mannesmann AG, expects to complete the project by yearend 1993,

GENCOR GROUP of South Africa plans to spend $265 million to upgrade and expand capacity at its 65,000 b/d refinery in Durban. The project is to be complete by third quarter 1992.

EXPLORATION

MALTA awarded Texaco Exploration Malta Inc. an exploration license in two offshore blocks covering 760 sq miles in the strait between Malta and Sicily near Vega oil field. Malta earlier this year awarded a license to a combine of Amoco Corp. and BHP Petroleum Pty. Ltd. Exploration off Malta has been in limbo for 2 years while it sought to resolve a territorial dispute with Libya in the World Court.

INDONESIA'S PERTAMINA 1-B Sangatta Sangkimah discovery well flowed a combined 5.32 MMcfd of gas from 3,202-209 ft and 4,511-16 ft. Site is about 6 km south of Sangatta field in Kalimantan.

OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP. unit Damascus Petroleum Ltd. and state owned Syrian Petroleum Co. signed a production sharing agreement covering the 1.7 million acre Al-Nabk block in Southwest Syria. Oxy plans a 1,000 line km seismic survey and four wells the first 3 years on the block, which is immediately north of the 2.8 million acre Bosra block an Oxy group acquired in 1988.

ELF NIGERIA LTD. 1 Amenam wildcat off Southeast Nigeria on OPL 93 permit flowed 2,200-3,000 b/d of oil without water. Elf said it appears to be the most important discovery by the venture of Elf and state owned Nigerian National Petroleum Co. in 10 years.

GAS PROCESSING

NORSKE SHELL and its Troll gas field partners let contracts to M.W. Kellogg Ltd., Amsterdam, and Norwegian Petroleum Consultants for preengineering of the Troll gas terminal at Kollsnes, Norway. NPC will manage the project and Kellogg will develop basic process design. Total Troll project investment, including offshore and onshore pipelines, is expected to be about 24-28 billion kroner ($4.1-4.8 billion).

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

BOW VALLEY INDUSTRIES LTD., Calgary, says it will spend $265 million to develop its share of East Brae field in the U.K. North Sea. Bow Valley has a 13-28% interest in a group led by Marathon Oil U.K. Ltd. The company said its interests represent 37 million bbl of liquid hydrocarbons and 200 bcf of gas. Oil production is scheduled to start up December 1993 and gas production in early 1995.

IRAN'S 5 Dehloran blowout in IIam field, which had burned out of control for 3 years, was extinguished, reported Iran's official news agency IRNA. The well was in the border zone occupied by Iraqi troops until late August.

AMOSEAS GROUP brought on stream the 20-25 million bbl Anoa field off Indonesia near Malaysian waters. Nine production wells have been drilled through a fixed platform linked to a leased floating production/storage vessel moored about 1 mile away. Development cost is $77 million. Peak production of about 20,000 b/d is expected next year.

MARAVEN S.A. of Venezuela let 1 year dayrate drilling contracts with two 1 year options to Cliffs Drilling Co., Houston, for two jack up rigs. Cliffs' Marquette jack up is to begin working in Lake Maracaibo this month and LaSalle in late January 1991.

ANADARKO ALGERIA CORP. let contract to Enterprise Nationale des Travaux aux Puits to begin in May 1991 a multiwell drilling program in Southeast Algeria. In November, Western Geophysical began a multiyear seismic program with a 500 line km survey in Anadarko blocks in Ghadames and IIIizi basins. Anadarko's Algerian exploration license covers 5.1 million acres in the Sahara's Grand Erg Oriental.

PETROCHEMICALS

YUKONG ARCO CHEMICAL LTD., a 50/50 joint venture of Yukong Ltd. and ARCO Chemical Korea Inc., began commercial production of propylene oxide and styrene monomer at its plant in Ulsan, South Korea. With design capacity of 1 00,000 metric tons/year of PO and 225,000 tons/year of SM, it can also produce smaller volumes of polyols and glycols.

ARCO CHEMICAL CO., JSP Corp., and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. Inc. will install a polypropylene engineering foam resins plant at ARCO's complex at Rieme, Belgium, near Ghent. Completion and start-up of the plant, to produce expanded polypropylene using a chlorofluorocarbon free process, is planned for fourth quarter 1991.

COMPANIES

SANTOS LTD. signed final contracts to sell 8 million bbl of full range naphtha from Australia's Cooper basin into Japanese markets the next 2 years. Cooper basin producers will receive additional revenues of about $8 million/year from the sales. For delivery to Japan, naphtha will be loaded at Port Bonython, near Whyalla, South Australia, with the first shipment scheduled in February 1991.

SHELL CANADA LTD. plans to sell certain coal assets, including Line Creek open pit coal mine in southeastern British Columbia, in order to focus resources on oil and gas. Line Creek is operated by Shell Canada unit Crows Nest Resources Ltd.

SAMEDAN OF TUNISIA INC. will become operator of Isis, Birsa, Oudra, and Tazerka concessions, and Metloui production sharing contract in Tunisia, after acquiring 20-100% interests in the properties from Royal Dutch/Shell Group units. Five wells in Tazerka oil field, in 400 ft of water in the Mediterranean Sea 35 miles off Tunisia, produced 2,750 b/d of oil the first 10 months of 1991. Samedan Tunisia, a unit of Noble Affiliates Inc., Ardmore, Okla., also increased its interest in Zinnia concession.

ACQUISITIONS

NUMAC OIL & GAS LTD., Edmonton, acquired 1,214,645 shares of Giant Reef Petroleums Ltd. common stock, and now holds about 4.2 million shares, or about 99%, of Giant Reef outstanding stock. Numac plans to acquire the remaining shares of Giant Reef. Terms aren't disclosed.

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