RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
ETHYL CORP. dedicated its $70 million Richmond, Va., petroleum additives research complex. The center also will support company development and tests of gasoline and diesel engine lubricants, hydraulic fluids, auto and industrial gear lubricants, transmission fluids, and gasoline and diesel fuels.
SPILLS
AN ALASKA superior court jury Sept. 24 awarded a combined $7.9 million to six Alaska native companies and the Kodiak Island borough as compensation for land and archeological damages stemming from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
PIPELINES
ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE CO. agreed to pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a $714,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated the Clean Air Act at a Cadiz, Calif., pump station. It built the station without obtaining an air emissions permit or installing technology to meet Nox emission limits, EPA said.
NOVAGAS CLEARINGHOUSE LTD., Calgary, plans to lay a $13.6 million (Canadian), 12 in. pipeline to a gas field in Northeast British Columbia. The pipeline will tie Home Oil Ltd.'s Kahntah gas field to Nova Corp.'s Alberta pipeline system. The 35 mile line is scheduled for completion in April 1995.
IRAN and Pakistan chose gas input and delivery points for a proposed $4.6 billion, 1,880 km project to move 1.6 bcfd to Pakistan from Iran's 100 tcf South Pars field. Input will be at Assaluyeh on Iran's southern coast and delivery at Gadani near Karachi. Three routes are under consideration, including one through Oman and Qatar, with a chance of eventually extending the line to India (OGJ, Dec. 20, 1993, Newsletter).
COLOMBIA'S Orito-Tumaco pipeline, damaged by guerrilla attacks last summer, resumed its previous throughput rate of 30,000 b/d. For the past 2 years Petroecuador has used the southern Colombia line to move 30,000 b/d of Ecuador's crude production to market because of lack of capacity in its Lago Agrio-Balao trunk pipeline in Ecuador.
COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION CORP. signed two consent orders with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in connection with alleged violations of polychlorinated biphenyl rules at sites along about 20,000 miles of Columbia pipeline. Among other things, Columbia agreed to pay a $4.9 million penalty and perform cleanups as required by EPA in a program that may require 12 years.
REFINING
VITOL SA plans to invest $30 million (Canadian) the next 2 years in its 105,000 b/cd Come By Chance, Newf., refinery, Reuters reports. The plant is expected to resume full operation this month, after being shut down since April because of a fire. The spending is designed to help the plant meet environmental standards for gasoline sold in the U.S.
TONEN CORP. will install a 25,000 b/d Hydrocarbon Research Inc. H-Oil unit at its 228,000 b/cd Kawasaki, Japan, refinery.
COASTAL CORP. unit Coastal Eagle Point Oil Co.'s 125,000 b/d Westville, N.J., refinery started a turnaround Sept. 30. The crude unit will be shut down 1 month, the 50,000 b/d FCC unit 6 weeks.
PETROECUADOR received bids from five companies or groups on a $200 million project to expand its Esmeraldas refinery capacity to 110,000 b/d from 90,000 b/d. The expansion will include modifying process units to handle lower gravity crudes of 24-25 gravity that will represent future production from Oriente jungle fields. Six companies or groups had prequalifed to bid (OGJ, May 23, p. 40).
NATIONAL REFINERY LTD., Karachi, plans to install an isomerization unit and a wax fractionation unit at a cost of $50 million at its 60,000 b/d Karachi refinery. The units are slated for completion in 1997. Other projects under way with World Bank financing at the refinery include a 660 b/d naphtha platformer and a 7,500 kw cogeneration plant, along with a lube oil unit revamp.
STE. NATIONALE ELF AQUITAINE, China Petrochemical Corp., and Shanghai Energy Go. Ltd. are about to complete a feasibility study for a Shanghai refining/marketing project that includes a 160,000 b/d refinery and marketing infrastructure in eastern China.
COMPANIES
CHINA NATIONAL OFFSHORE OIL CORP. received a combined $50 million loan from five Japanese banks for use in South China Sea operations. Funds will help develop Liuhua 11-1 oil field in the eastern region of the sea and two other fields off Huizhou, Guangdong province.
PENNZOIL CO., Houston, agreed to pay a combined $2.6 million civil penalty to the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a dispute with the FTC. The settlement stems from Pennzoil's reliance in 1989 on the investment exemption under Section 7A of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act in connection with the company's purchase of Chevron Corp. stock.
KOCH OIL CO.'S request for a rehearing on an August court ruling (OGJ, Aug. 22, p. 26) was rejected by a Denver appeals court. That moved Koch closer to trial for alleged cheating of Indians and the U.S. government out of oil and gas royalties and taxes.
SYNCRUDE CANADA LTD., Edmonton, settled a $1 billion lawsuit against Stearns Catalytic Ltd. and Stearns parent Air Products & Chemicals Inc. out of court. The suit involved a ruptured pipe and fire that shut down the Syncrude synthetic oil plant 3 months and forced it to operate at 50% capacity for another 3 months. Stearns Catalytic installed the pipe.
PETROCHEMICALS
NOVACOR CHEMICALS LTD., Calgary, plans to build a $20 million (Canadian) polyethylene pilot unit at its St. Clair River Sclair polyethylene plant in Corunna, Ont. Work is to start this fall.
DAKOTA GASIFICATION CO., Bismarck, N.D., chose H.J. Baker & Bros. Inc., Stamford, Conn., to sell ammonium sulfate it expects to begin producing in fall 1996. The product will come from a scrubber being installed at the Great Plains syn-fuels plant in Bismarck.
THAILAND state company Thai Petrochemical Industry Co. Ltd. let a $500 million contract to build the country's largest petrochemical plant, reports Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Tokyo. The plant is scheduled to come on stream early in 1997. Production capacity is expected to be 232,000 metric tons/year of benzene, 52,000 tons/year of toluene, and 355,000 tons/year of paraxylene.
EPSILON PRODUCTS CO. will double polypropylene capacity at its Marcus Hook, Pa., plant using Unipol technology licensed by Union Carbide Corp. and Shell Chemical Co. The new unit, due on stream by third quarter 1996, will increase the company's total polypropylene capacity to 720 million lb/year.
TERMINALS
SHELL PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT CO. OF NIGERIA LTD. plans to spend $158 million to rebuild the Forcados oil terminal at Lagos, where fire damaged part of the facility this year. Shell let contract to Bouygues Offshore, Paris, to perform the work, which is to start immediately and take 31 months to complete.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES, Houston, and Ensco Technology Co., a unit of Energy Service Co. Inc., Dallas, teamed up to provide directional and horizontal coiled tubing drilling services worldwide.
READING & BATES DEVELOPMENT CO., a unit of Reading & Bates Corp., Houston, bought the Benvrackie semisubmersible drilling rig from Ben Line Atlantic Ltd. for $5.6 million cash. The rig, which will be converted to a floating production system for use in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, is stacked in Scotland's Cromarty Firth.
EASTERN STATES OIL & GAS, a unit of Eastern Group, Alexandria, Va., completed its $17 million purchase of Tri-arc Cos. Inc. unit Southeastern Gas Co. gas leases and other assets. The purchase includes interests in 413 wells, as well as gathering systems and more than 20,000 undeveloped acres in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
MCFARLAND ENERGY INC., Santa Fe Springs, Calif., completed its $6.4 million cash purchase of working interests in 15 operated and 33 nonoperated gas leases in Oak Hill field, Rusk County, Tex. McFarland figures the purchase adds gas equivalent proved reserves of 15 bcf, consisting of 14.7 bcf of gas and 135,000 bbl of oil.
SWIFT ENERGY CO., Houston, its Russian joint venture partner Senega, and Overseas Private Investment Corp. signed a protocol to pursue $160 million funding for a JV project to develop oil and gas in two undisclosed fields in western Siberia. Included in the deal is $5 million political risk insurance for Swift.
ADAMS RESOURCES & ENERGY INC., Houston, through Sept. 27 participated in the completion of nine horizontal wells in its planned 105 well Austin chalk drilling program in Grimes County, Tex. It expects to complete 11 more wells there by yearend.
PAKISTAN'S Oil & Gas Development Corp. plans to install compression facilities in Pirkoh gas field at a cost of $70 million.
LASMO PLC, London, let contract to Trafalgar House Offshore Holdings Ltd., London, for hookup and commissioning of a compression module for its J6A platform in the Dutch part of Markham gas field in the North Sea. Tow-out of the module from the contractor's Methil yard in Scotland is scheduled for September 1996. The module will be used in treatment of gas from the ST-1 platform.
ELF ENTERPRISE CALEDONIA LTD. let a 1 year drilling services contract to Noble Drilling (U.K.) Ltd., Aberdeen. Under the contract, Noble will employ 70 persons on Claymore platform in the North Sea to conduct maintenance, facilities engineering, and rig modifications.
CHEVRON OVERSEAS (CONGO) acquired a 22.5% interest in Elf Congo's N'Kossa oil field and Haute Mer permit 70 km southwest of Pointe Noire in 200 m of water in the Gulf of Guinea off Congo. Elf Congo, a 75-25 venture of Elf and the Congo government, will retain a 62.5% interest and operatorship. State owned Hydrocongo owns the remaining 15%.
EXPLORATION
APACHE CORP.'S 1 Seng gas/condensate discovery on the Bentu block in Central Sumatra, Indonesia, flowed 7.9 MMcfd and 170 b/d through a 1 in. choke at 671 psi from Tualang perforations at 1,112-16 m. The shallower Binio pay flowed 9.1 MMcfd through a 1 in. choke at 483 psi from 488-492 m. Apache suspended the 1,261 m well pending further development plans.
GLOBEX FAR EAST, a unit of Global Exploration LLC, Dallas, received offshore permit T/27P in Australia's Bass basin. The 7,303 sq km block lies midway between Victoria and Tasmania. Globex plans to reprocess seismic data, acquire a new 2D seismic grid, and integrate the information with its mapping and interpretation program.
PAKISTAN granted a 3 year extension on the Badin II oil and gas exploration concession in Southeast Pakistan's Sindh province to a group led by Union Texas Pakistan Inc., a unit of Union Texas Petroleum Holdings Inc., Houston. Terms allow three 1 year extensions starting in January 1995.
SNYDER OIL CORP., Fort Worth, acquired exploration rights to Block B4/32 in the Gulf of Thailand. The company holds a 100% interest in the tract but expects to seek industry partners to drill two prospects.
COGENERATION
CATALYTICA, Mountain View, Calif., and AES Project Development Inc., Tulsa, agreed to jointly develop the Catalytica-Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo KK ultralow emission combustion system for use in cogeneration systems manufactured by AES Manufacturing Services Inc. Catalytica and Tanaka developed the system to reduce NOx emissions from natural gas turbines used to generate electricity. AES is funding undisclosed cost of development.
ALTERNATE FUELS
TU ELECTRIC, a unit of Texas Utilities Co., Dallas, chose New World Power Corp., Lime Rock, Conn., to build a 40,000 kw wind power project near Big Spring, Tex. Average wind speed there is 16-17 mph, which will yield an expected combined production of 113 million kw-hr/year from 80 wind turbines. The site is expected to be in service by fall 1996.
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
UNOCAL unit Unocal Geothermal of Indonesia Ltd. started commercial operation of the second of two 55,000 kw geothermal energy plants at the company's first such development in Indonesia. The first plant started up in July. They fuel power plants in Gunung Salak geothermal field on Java.
