U.S. BRIEFS

COMPANIES

ORYX ENERGY CO. closed its Midland, Tex., production office July 19. Oryx will maintain its presence in the Permian basin with about 250 employees at field offices and gas processing plants in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. Oryx consolidated regional production offices in Midland and Oklahoma City into Oklahoma City earlier this year.

PETROCHEMICALS

CDTECH, Pasadena, Tex., and BP Oil Co. agreed to combine key features of BP's Etherol technology with Cdtech's methyl tertiary butyl ether and tertiary amyl methyl ether technologies. Cdtech licenses the resulting new process, which combines Etherol's trifunctional catalyst with Cdtech's reactor and catalytic distillation technologies. Cdtech partners ABB Lummus Crest Inc. and Chemical Research & Licensing are completing basic engineering for three BP projects using the joint technology.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

ENRON GAS SERVICES, Houston, bought a $9.2 million production payment from Hogan Exploration Inc., Columbia, La., including interest in reserves and producing leases equivalent to about 7 bcf of gas in 29 fields in North Louisiana effective July 1 . Enron also signed a contract allowing it to purchase excess gas from the fields through the term of the production payment. Enron will market and arrange transportation for the gas delivered under both contracts.

PLAINS PETROLEUM OPERATING CO., Lakewood, Colo., agreed to pay $18.5 million to Arch Petroleum Inc., Fort Worth, for interests in 197 wells in 20 fields in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. The deal is to close by end of August, subject to definitive agreement and possible adjustment following completion of Plains' review.

SIXTEEN U.S. oil and service companies are conducting joint research on horizontal well gravel packs. Marathon Oil Co. is overseeing the project, which uses its 100 ft, full scale, high pressure well bore model to study gravel packing parameters. The U.S. Justice Department granted the companies an antitrust exemption for the joint research.

PIPELINES

KERN RIVER GAS TRANSMISSION CO. closed a $685 million financing package for its Wyoming-California pipeline project. Barclays Bank plc, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Credit Lyonnais, and Fuji Bank Ltd. will equally provide funding through a loan syndication expected to be complete by end of this month. The package will cover about 70% of total costs of the 904 mile pipeline.

QUESTAR PIPELINE CO., Salt Lake City, filed a competitive application with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for construction and operation of new compression and a 46 mile, 20 in. pipeline in southern Wyoming and eastern Utah to increase system capacity by 153 MMcfd. Questar estimates cost at $28 million and wants the proposal compared with Colorado Interstate Gas Co.'s proposed $85 million, 223 mile pipeline project (OGJ, Feb. 18, p. 26).

QUESTAR is offering as much as 5.3 bcf of interruptible storage service capacity at its Clay Basin storage reservoir in Utah. Agreements are valid for 1 year, and all gas must be withdrawn from the site by Mar. 31, 1992. Clay Basin's current injection capacity is 30 bcf/year. Questar is evaluating requests for firm storage and may sign firm storage agreements at any time.

GAS CO. OF NEW MEXICO plans start-up soon of an interconnect with Northern Natural Gas Co. that will allow Permian basin gas producers their first front haul capability to move gas to eastern U.S. markets. The interconnect, in Lea County, N.M., near Phillips Petroleum Co.'s Eunice gas processing plant, will be able to move more than 30 MMcfd into Northern's system.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION'S office of pipeline safety (OPS) adopted a tougher approach toward pipeline operations. Previously, when OPS determined a pipeline's safety plans or procedures were inadequate, it could only require changes. A rule change will allow OPS to also assess civil or criminal penalties.

INTERSTATE NATURAL GAS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

plans to create a database of common codes for critical points on interstate pipeline systems. Coding receipt, delivery, and other gas transfer points will simplify electronic exchange of information for shippers transporting gas on any pipeline system. Completion is due in early 1992.

MICHAEL CURRAN & ASSOCIATES INC., Ashland, Wis., plans to resume blasting at a Great Lakes Transmission LP pipeline construction project north of Brule, Wis., where a July 9 explosion killed three workers (OGJ, July 22, p. 34).

COASTAL CORP. is nearly finished cleaning up a 4,000-6,000 gal fuel oil spill in Florida's Tampa Bay area caused by a July 17 pipeline leak. Most of the spill was contained in the basin at Port Manatee, but about 1,000 gal leaked into the main shipping channel.

REFINING

A FIRE at Amoco Oil Co.'s 415,000 b/d Texas City, Tex., refinery July 22 resulted in shutdown of a 220,000 b/d crude unit. The unit, one of two, was shut down for less than 12 hr, and product deliveries were unaffected. The blaze occurred in a pipe still at about 1 p.m. and was extinguished by 1:35 p.m. Cause was unknown at presstime.

TUBING ERUPTED July 22 inside a coker furnace at Mobil Corp.'s 290,000 b/sd Beaumont, Tex., refinery as Mobil was bringing the furnace on line following routine maintenance. The accident caused minor injuries to three Mobil employees. Two other coker furnaces were firing at the time, and refinery operations were unaffected. Cause is being investigated.

BP OIL CO. received a $135,710 fine for safety and health violations related to a Jan. 19 explosion at its 77,000 b/d refinery near Ferndale, Wash., which resulted in one death and six injuries. The explosion occurred when workers cleaning a crude oil heater failed to remove flammable hydrocarbons from connecting equipment and gases ignited. BP said at least some of the 20 charges will be appealed.

GAS PROCESSING

VALERO NATURAL GAS PARTNERS LP plans to increase capacity of its gas processing plant near Freer, Tex., to more than 300 MMcfd by installing an 11 MMcfd turboexpander next to an existing refrigeration lean oil unit. When the project is complete in February 1992, the combined plants will recover more than 8,000 b/d of ethane and other NGLs. Included in the $11.5 million expansion are plans to lay a gathering system in Webb County, Tex., fields.