INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

PETROCHEMICALS

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO METHANOL CO. (TTMC) let contract to John Brown E&C Inc., Houston, to provide process and basic engineering services for its 140,000 metric ton/year methyl tertiary butyl ether complex at Point Lisas, Trinidad, scheduled for start-up late in 1993. Brown will supply a butane isomerization unit under license from Engelhard Corp. Butane feedstock will come from the Phoenix Park gas processing plant (OGJ, Aug. 5, p. 31).

PIPELINES

BRUNEI SHELL PETROLEUM CO. SDN. BHD. let a contract valued at $16 million to OPI International Inc., Houston, to lay 16 miles of marine pipeline and perform other marine construction services off Brunei in Iron Duke, Champion, and Amca fields. Pipeline construction is to begin in late September, and work is to be complete in May 1992.

CHEVRON NIGERIA LTD. signed a letter of intent with OPI for marine construction services for the Opuekeba flow station project off Escravos, Nigeria. OPI will provide design, procurement, fabrication, transportation, installation, hookup, and commissioning of three platforms with interconnecting bridges. The project is to begin this month, with completion scheduled for May 1993.

SPILLS

GREEK FLAGGED Dimitrisn tanker, berthed in a commercial port at Odessa, U.S.S.R., spilled about 185 bbl of petroleum product into the Black Sea through a crack 200 mm wide. Workers collected about 150 bbl of the product by Sept. 20, and cleanup was continuing. Soviet news agency Tass said the owner of the tanker, who was undisclosed at press time, will have to pay about $1 million in damages based on preliminary estimates.

EXPLORATION

MOBIL EXPLORATION NIUGINI INC. obtained three licenses to explore 9.5 million acres in the Ramu and Sepik basins of Papua New Guinea. The licenses are designated 144, 145, and 146 and cover seismic exploration and related work to be conducted in three phases during 6 years.

A GROUP led by Texaco Exploration Penyu Inc. will spend $20 million in 4 years to explore a 4,200 sq mile area off Malaysia under a production sharing contract with Malaysia's Petronas Carigali Bhd. Three wells are to be drilled by yearend, and three more are planned during the next 3 years. Partners with Texaco 37.5% are Petronas 25%, Clyde Expro plc 22.5%, and Santos Ltd. 15%.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

WESTERN SIBERIAN petroleum engineers conducted a study showing equipment produced in the U.S. is able to pump twice as much oil from wells than similar Soviet made equipment. The finding was based on evolution of results achieved by the White Nights joint venture in western Siberia, with partners Anglo Suisse Inc., Houston, and the Soviet's Varyeganneftegas.

ELF AQUITAINE OFFSHORE ASIA BV'S 1 Jamalulalum Barat delineation well off Brunei flowed 29.3 MMcfd of gas with 566 b/d of 42 gravity condensate from one zone and 1,710 b/d of 30 gravity oil from another, confirming Elf's 1 Maharaja Lela oil and gas/condensate discovery drilled last year (OGJ, May 21, 1990, p. 31). It is the third well on the structure following 1 Jamalulalum, tested earlier this year (OGJ, Apr. 22, p. 48).

MEXICO'S Petroleos Mexicanos will drill 113 wells and install nine platforms and related oil production equipment and pipelines in the Bay of Campeche, with the assistance of almost $1 .3 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. Export-Import Bank (OGJ, Sept. 23, Newsletter). Plans call for 15 delineation wells at several sites, 40 wells and four platforms in Caan field, 23 wells and two platforms in Maloob field, and 35 wells and three platforms in Zaap field.

AMPOL EXPLORATION LTD. and Oil Search Ltd., two Australian partners in the 200 million bbl Kutubu oil development project in Papua, New Guinea, signed limited recourse project financing totaling $324 million. Ampol holds a 16.45% interest in the project and raised $220 million, while Oil Search holds a 7.76% interest and raised $104 million. A syndicate led by Bankers Trust Australia Ltd. provided the loans, expected to be repaid 4 years from the start of commercial production in 1992.

ORANE-NASSAU ENERGIE PARTICIPATIE MIJ. BV acquired an added 10.81% interest in Spain's Casablanca oil field in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as interests in two exploitation concessions in Spain. Orane-Nassau Onepm already held a 10.45% interest in Casablanca field (OGJ, July 16, 1990, p. 48). The acquisition makes the company the second largest oil producer in Spain, after Repsol SA.

PETROLEOS BRASILEIRO SA signed a formal agreement to buy Chiles Offshore's Intrepid semisubmersible rig (OGJ, July 8, p. 24). It is to pay about $25 million by the end of October. Chiles agreed to fund about $17.3 million for upgrades and modifications to the rig, secured by a letter of credit from Petrobras.

STRACHAN & HENSHAW, part of the U.K.'s Weir Group, will locate its new RA-D remotely operated drilling rig at the International Drilling and Downhole Technology Center, Aberdeen, through the construction, commissioning and final testing phases.

COMPANIES

AMOCO CANADA LTD., Calgary, filed a $62.8 million suit in the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench against Alberta & Southern Gas Co., Calgary, and parent Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Francisco, for alleged failure to take delivery of natural gas under contract between 1958 and 1974. Amoco also wants a court order to have Alberta & Southern take minimum gas deliveries under the old supply contracts. Alberta & Southern said it was reviewing the Amoco claim and had no comment.

REFINING

MALAYSIA'S Petronas Penapisan Sdn. Bhd. let a turnkey contract valued at about 85 billion yen to JGC Corp., Tokyo, and C. Itoh & Co. Ltd., Osaka, to build a 100,000 b/d refinery in Tangga Batu, Malacca, on the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula. Partners in the project have been shuffled recently (OGJ, Sept. 2, Newsletter), but the refinery is to start up in July 1994.

NIPPON OIL CO. will acquire an added 189,000 sq m of land in Kudamtsu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan for construction of its refining complex a joint venture with Saudi Aramco (OGJ, Aug. 26, p. 19). Nippon Petroleum Refining already owns a 699,000 sq m site adjacent to the tracts to be purchased. Next step is a feasibility study on construction of the two proposed refineries, which will have capacities of 150,000 b/d and 120,000 b/d.