INDUSTRY BRIEFS

GAS MARKETING

WESTERN GAS RESOURCES INC. unit Western Gas Resources Storage Inc., Denver, New York Mercantile Exchange, and Enersoft Corp., Richardson, Tex., propose to provide for electronic trading of gas at Western's Southeast Texas Katy hub and gas storage site. Trades are expected to be made via the Channel 4 on-line trading and information management system.

WILLIAMS COS. INC. units Williams Energy Ventures Inc., Tulsa, and Northwest Pipeline Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah, agreed to establish the Rocky Mountain market center this fall on Streamline, a computerized network for cash market gas trading. Northwest will operate the center, serving California, the Pacific Northwest, and Midcontinent.

GAS PROCESSING

LOTEPRO CORP., Valhalla, N.Y., let contract to Glitsch Technology Corp. for supply of a CO2 removal system for a hydrogen production unit Lotepro is designing and building for an undisclosed specialty gas producer on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The system will use a high pressure amine absorber to remove CO2 from reformed gases, reducing CO2 content to 30 ppm from 7%. The modular unit and two freestanding towers are scheduled for delivery in September.

COMPANIES

QUANEX CORP.'S Gulf States Tube division, Rosenberg, Tex., filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission alleging that imports of carbon and alloy seamless standard, line, and pressure pipe as large as 4 1/2 in. OD from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, and Italy are being dumped in the U.S. The division alleges imports from Italy are subsidized.

PARKER & PARSLEY PETROLEUM CO., Midland, Tex., increased its cash offer to 900 (Australian) (660 U.S.)/share for Bridge Oil Ltd., Sydney, from 80/share (OGJ, June 27, p. 28). The offer closes July 13. Parker & Parsley received 497,619 shares in response to its offers as of June 24.

MITCHELL ENERGY & DEVELOPMENT CORP., The Woodlands, Tex., increased its drilling and production budget by $11.8 million to a total of $115.9 million for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 1995. It will use $10 million of the increase for more development drilling, with the rest earmarked for well workovers and other production work.

RUSSIA'S Nizhnevartovskneftegaz (NVT) ordered a $2 million shipment of low speed/high torque downhole motors from Bafco International Co., Houston, a unit of Schoeller-Bleckmann GmbH, Ternitz, Austria, for a production remediation project in western Siberia's Tyumen region. NVT plans to mill electric submersible pumps in wells shut in because of downhole equipment faults, then either recomplete the wells or deepen them for completion in deeper zones.

TEXACO INC. offered $36.4 million (Canadian) for outstanding common shares of its subsidiary Texaco Canada Petroleum Inc., Calgary. It offered $1.32/share to minority shareholders for the stock, which closed at 900 last month on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Texaco sold most of its Canadian interests to Imperial Oil Ltd. in 1989 for $4.9 billion.

AMOCO CORP. expects to receive a $440 million refund, including interest, from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service following settlement of seven cases filed in U.S. Tax Court by Amoco Production Co. and units. The suits contested IRS claims that Amoco underpaid its windfall profits tax liability during 1980-86. The refund is expected to add $270 million after federal income taxes to Amoco's second quarter earnings.

SPILLS

SOUTH AFRICAN marine authorities believe the Chinese ore carrier Apollo Sea and a crew of 34-36 persons sank off its coast last month, causing an oil spill that washed up at Cape Town. The vessel, carrying 2,427 metric tons of heavy fuel, 167 tons of gas oil, and its cargo of iron ore, is believed to have sunk June 20, although its owners reportedly waited several days before notifying South African maritime officials.

PETROCHEMICALS

FORMOSA PLASTICS CORP.'S olefins plant at Point Comfort, Tex., is producing specification grade ethylene after start-up in May. The plant uses M.W. Kellogg Co.'s Millisecond furnace technology. The facility is part of a seven plant, $1.5 billion expansion program that includes ethylene glycol, ethylene dichloride, polyethylene, and polypropylene plants.

SAUDI BASIC INDUSTRIES CORP. bought Amca Chemie & Plastiques SA, Paris, with plans to expand Sabic's European petrochemicals marketing capability. This follows creation of Sabic affiliates in Germany and Italy last year.

THAI NITRATE CO. LTD., Rayong, Thailand, let a contract worth $25 million to Uhde GmbH, Dortmund, Germany, to design and build a synthetic fertilizer complex at Rayong, 200 km southeast of Bangkok. The project includes a 210 metric ton/day nitric acid plant based on a Uhde process, a 220 ton/day ammonium nitrate plant based on French technology, and related storage tanks and silos.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

A UNIT of Sundowner Offshore Services Inc., Houston, and a unit of Oil Drilling & Exploration Ltd., Sydney, agreed to a 50-50 venture to operate the Sundowner VI platform workover rig in the Caspian Sea off Turkmenistan. The 3 year agreement is with the 50-50 venture of Bermuda's Larmag Energy Assets Ltd. and Turkmenistan's Chelekenmorneftegas production association.

COFLEXIP SA units won four contracts worth a combined $75 million for flexible flow lines, risers, jumpers, and umbilicals to be installed in the next 2 years off Brazil, Australia, Norway, and Congo.

CMS ENERGY CORP. unit Nomeco Oil & Gas Co., Jackson, Mich., paid $22.5 million to Sun Co. Inc. for all the stock of Sun Colombia Co., which owns a one third working interest in the 250,000 acre Espinal block in Colombia. The acreage, 120 miles southwest of Bogota, produces 5,000 b/d of oil from two wells.

ALBERTA ENERGY CO. LTD. (AEC), Calgary, effective June 30 acquired from Stealth Resources Ltd., Calgary, 150 bcf of proved and probable gas reserves and a two thirds working interest in more than 750 sections of Bluesky shallow gas rights around AEC's 50 section Boyer gas production center 200 miles northwest of Grande Prairie, Alta. In exchange, AEC agreed to pay Stealth $51 million (Canadian) cash and preferred shares and assume $11.7 million debt.

MAXUS ENERGY CORP., Dallas, closed on its $54 million sale of two Gulf Coast producing leases to units of Burlington Resources Inc. It sold McFarlan field in Wharton County, Tex., to Meridian oil Inc. and Grand Isle Block 25 off Louisiana to Meridian Offshore Co.

SHELL U.K. EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION let a contract worth more than 10 million ($15 million) to Stena Offshore Ltd.. Aberdeen, for pipeline work in Barque field in the U.K. North Sea. Terms call for design, procurement, fabrication, and installation of pipelines that tie an unmanned platform in Barque to the nearby Clipper complex (OGJ, Jan. 31. p. 48). Installation is scheduled for second and third quarter 1995.

BHP PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. let an 80,000 ($120,000) contract to Lintott plc, Norwich, U.K., for refurbishment of the wellhead control system on the Deepsea Pioneer production semisubmersible. The converted rig is in Singapore for refitting before its use in development of Dai Hung field off Viet Nam later this year (OGJ, Feb. 21, p. 32).

ARCO BRITISH LTD. installed a third compressor on the Thames gas platform in the southern U.K. North Sea. The 14,000 bhp unit increases combined compressor capacity to 24,000 bhp. It will handle gas from Orwell field, a subsea satellite development 35 km away from the platform. ARCO Shut down Thames production June 1 to install the unit and resumed operations June 15.

RECYCLING

WESTERN ENERGY INC., Los Angeles, let contract to Jacobs Engineering Group, Pasadena, Calif., for design and engineering of the U.S.'s first plant to convert 100% of waste refining catalysts to salable products. The final engineering report, equipment specifications, and engineering data are expected early in August. Construction may start by yearend.

REFINING

JAPAN'S Mitsubishi Oil Co. unit Tohoku Oil Co. Ltd. chose Chevron International Oil Co. to provide its residuum desulfurization (RDS) hydrotreating technology to build a 45,000 b/d RDS unit at Tohoku's 100,000 b/d Sendai, Japan, refinery. The plant is 230 miles north of Tokyo.

THAI OIL CO. LTD. plans a stock offering on the Bangkok exchange to raise $120 million for debt reduction and refinery expansion. The partly state owned company is Thailand's largest refiner, operating a 177,000 b/d plant at Sri Racha.

ALTERNATE FUELS

CHINA'S Henan province, a large coal producing region, plans to spend 1.84 billion yuan ($220 million) to build a coal gasification network in a 3 year project scheduled to start in 1995. A gasification plant and pipeline network will be centered in Yima City, where first phase goal is production of 1.2 million cu m/day of coal gas, with 290,000 cu m/day of it destined for petrochemical production.

PIPELINES

ONTARIO'S government approved the $1.2 billion (Canadian) cash sale of British Gas pic's 85% interest in Consumers Gas Co. Ltd., Toronto, to Interprovincial Pipe Line Systems Inc., Edmonton. The sale was completed June 30.

PRAXAIR CANADA INC., Edmonton, will spend $12 million (Canadian) on what it believes is Canada's first high purity hydrogen pipeline. It will lay the 8 in., 30 km line in the Edmonton-Fort Saskatchewan corridor, carrying surplus hydrogen to Sherritt Inc. from Celanese Canada Inc. Work on the 6-8 week project will start in September, and deliveries of as much as 80 MMcfd are to start in May 1995.

GREAT LAKES

GAS TRANSMISSION LP, Detroit, will hold an open season July 18-Aug. 19 to determine customer interest for expansion of a gas pipeline in Michigan's northern lower peninsula to move additional supplies of Devonian Antrim shale gas (OGJ, May 30, p. 97).

AMOCO (U.K.) EXPLORATION CO. hired Allseas Marine Contractors SA, Geneva, to lay 43.4 km and 15.6 km of 16 in. pipeline for Davy and Bessemer field development in the North Sea 100 km east of Bacton, U-K. Work will begin in September. The 43 km line will run to Amoco operated Inde field from Davy, the 15 km line to Inde from Bessemer.

LANE STAR GAS CO., Dallas, will add 17,600 compressor hp by May 1, 1995, to its pipeline system to ship more gas to the Katy hub from the Waha hub in West Texas. The added compression will enable it to move an additional volume of at least 150 MMcfd.

EXPLORATION

SANTA FE ENERGY RESOURCES' 1 Mudi oil discovery on Java's Tuban block tested at a rate of 1 350 b/d of 320-360 gravity oil from Kunjung intervals at 8,443-8,795 ft. The 1 Mudi sidetrack hole, 1/2 mile northeast of the discovery, tested more than 2,000 b/d from pay at 8,418-8,800 ft.

KHALDA PETROLEUM CO. (KPC) logged and placed on production Egypt's second Shrouk area discovery this year. KPC's East Shrouk wildcat, 3.7 km east of the earlier discovery, formerly called Bassel-B, flowed 1,333 b/d of 400 gravity oil and 1.4 MMcfd of gas through a 42/64 in. choke with 345 psi flowing tubing pressure from Cretaceous Bahariya sandstone at an undisclosed depth.

MEMBERS of the geology committees of Russia and the Komi Republic in Denver July 27 will offer data on tracts in three parts of Timan Pechora basin in the republic's second international competitive bidding round. Wavetech Geophysical Inc., Denver, and JV GeoInterTech, Moscow, will help with the presentation.

MOBIL OIL CANADA LTD. reports an oil discovery in northern Alberta that will lead to drilling two production wells this year. The wildcat on the Dene Tha reserve at Assumption, 512 km north of Edmonton, tested 1,000-1,500 b/d.

TANKERS

TWENTY-TWO TANKER OPERATORS that load at the trans-Alaska pipeline's Valdez, Alas., terminal paid $4,545 each to settle Alaska charges for alleged failure to maintain a spill response barge there. The settlement includes an agreement to set up a working group with Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. and its marine terminal to improve spill readiness plans for Prince William Sound.

TOSCO CORP. unit Bayway Refining Co. signed a 12 year tanker charter agreement with Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. for three 100,000 dwt vessels that will be built to carry a large part of the crude supply to Tosco's 260,000 b/d Bayway refinery at Linden, N.J. First of the units is to be delivered in second half 1996.