INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

REFINING

CHINESE PETROLEUM CORP. let contract to Foster Wheeler Conception Etudes Entretien for design, procurement, and construction of a hydrotreater/ reformer unit at its Taoyuan, Taiwan, refinery. The reformer will have a capacity of 25,000 b/sd. Design will be based on technologies licensed by the Institute Francais du Petrol. Plant commissioning is scheduled in 1994.

ALBANIAN REFINERY WORKERS in the southern town of Fier went on strike the first week in September, demanding higher pay, shorter working hours, and a profit sharing arrangement. About 2,000 workers were included in the strike, which the refinery director said costs Albania's economy $100,000/day.

EXPLORATION

TEXACO LATIN AMERICA/WEST AFRICA'S 1 Airoga discovery well off Northwest Angola on Block 2 flowed a combined rate of more than 1,800 b/d of 28-29.1 gravity oil from two intervals at 5,036-5,288 ft in Cretaceous Middle Pinda dolomite. Total depth is 8,577 ft. Airoga follows three recent discoveries on the block (see map, July 8, p. 20), by a Texaco group that includes Soc. Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola, Total Angola, and Petrobras Internacional SA.

MOBIL OIL CANADA and Phillips Petroleum Resources Ltd.'s Sukunka 6-86-1/93-P-4 wildcat in the foothills of Northeast British Columbia flowed a combined 40 MMcfd of sour gas from three intervals in Triassic Pardonnet and Baldonnel, extending the gas trend in Sukunka and Bullmoose fields. Mobil and Phillips hold 9,484 acres around the discovery and spudded a second wildcat in June, scheduled to reach total depth later this year.

VENEZUELA'S Lagoven SA drilled a light crude oil discovery in Chaguaramal, 400 miles east of Caracas, with reserves estimated at 25 million bbl. China's Xinhua News Agency quoted officials as saying production from the find could reach 3,646 b/d.

PAKISTAN'S Oil & Gas Development Corp.'s oil discovery at Meyun Ismail in Sind Province flowed 1,320 b/d of 44' gravity oil and 73 Mcfd of gas from a zone at 2,370 m. The well marks OGDC's sixth discovery this year.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

UNION PACIFIC FUELS INC., Fort Worth, agreed to purchase as much as 50 MMcfd of gas for 15 years from ProGas Ltd., Calgary. Sales are to begin in late 1993 when the Altamont gas pipeline from the Alberta line to Opal, Wyo., is scheduled to be complete. The gas will be transported from Opal to California via the Kern River pipeline, which is to start up early in 1992.

COMPANIES

PETRO-CANADA will write down its carried interest in the Syncrude oilsands plant in Alberta by $138 million, citing current market conditions and recent talks with prospective purchasers. It also is considering sale of all or part of its one-third interest in an Edmonton methyl tertiary butyl ether plant and Offshore East Coast interests, including interests in Hibernia and Terra Nova fields.

HOME OIL CO. LTD. plans to reorganize and cut its Calgary office staff by about 25%, or 145, to streamline the organization and trim operating costs. Home blames persistent low natural gas prices and flat crude prices for the cuts. Cuts will be made via early retirement or severance packages. Home plans to focus on cutting debt, maximizing crude production, and pursuing longer term gas sales.

GOVERNMENT

CANADA'S National Energy Board began operating from its new Calgary headquarters Sept. 3. The move from Ottawa was announced in February and involved relocation of more than 300 persons.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

MOBIL CANADA installed the first Soviet designed and built submersible pump outside the U.S.S.R. in Pembina field at Drayton Valley, 100 km west of Edmonton. Mobil purchased the pump from Alnas, a joint venture of an Aberdeen contractor and a Soviet company headquartered 280 km east of Moscow who sent it to the distributor in Aberdeen, who delivered it to Mobil's Drayton Valley office, all during the failed coup attempt.

EVERGREEN RESOURCES U.K. LTD. obtained from the U.K. Department of Energy 6 year exploration licenses in England and Wales granting 100% working interest in seven onshore prospects totaling more than 2,600 sq km. The prospects are near gas pipelines and customers. Evergreen was given approval for a 4,500 ft coalbed methane and oil and gas test well on one prospect it plans to drill before yearend (OGJ, Aug. 26, p. 40).

WOODSIDE PETROLEUM PLY LTD., Melbourne, let contract to the American Bureau of Shipping to provide classification and verification services for design, fabrication, and installation of a floating production, storage, and offloading unit for Cossack field in 250 ft of water off Northwest Australia (OGJ, Apr. 8, p. 39). Design, construction, and installation will take about 2 years.

ARAMCO OVERSEAS CO. let contract to Sulzer (U.K.) Pumps Ltd., Leeds, to supply five 2,500 cu m/hr water injection pumps for development of Saudi Arabia's Hawiyah oil field (OGJ, Sept. 2, Newsletter). Sulzer said the pumps are among the biggest injection pumps in the world, with discharge pressure of more than 2,900 psi. Deliveries are to begin in May 1992.

READING & BATES CORP., Houston, may become a majority shareholder with Sonat Offshore Drilling Inc. in Arcade Drilling AS, under an agreement reached by the three companies. Arcade owns and operates two fourth generation semisubmersibles, Henry Goodrich and Sonat Arcade Frontier, with main work off Norway. Sonat Offshore will continue to manage operation of both rigs under existing 5 year agreements.

PETROCHEMICALS

HULS AG let a $10 million contract to Germany's Fluor Daniel GmbH for detailed engineering of a polypropylene compounding line at its plant at Scholven, North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. The unit is scheduled for completion in December 1992.

MARKETING

NORWAY'S Den norkse stats oljeselskap AS signed a letter of intent to buy a 35% interest in Mabanaft Ltd., a supplier of petroleum products to the U.K. independent market. Mabanaft, the British subsidiary of Marquard & Bahls GmbH of Germany, has had a supply contract with Statoil the past 2 years.