INDUSTRY BRIEFS

Exploration

Phillips Petroleum International Exploration Inc. signed a technical cooperation agreement with South Africa National Oil Co., gaining exclusive rights to assess oil and gas potential on Blocks 17 and 18 covering 15 million acres in the Indian Ocean off South Africa (see map, OGJ, Dec. 5, 1994, p. 34). During the 8 month agreement term, Phillips will reprocess and reevaluate all existing geophysical and geochemical borehole data with a view toward applying for exploration rights to the acreage.

Hunt Oil Co. Apr. 1 will spud a wildcat in French waters of the English Channel to test a prospect on trend with the U.K.'s producing Wytch Farm oil field. The $6 million 2 Pointe de Barfleur well is projected to 1,500 m 48 km off Barfleur on Normandy's Cotentin Peninsula. The Neddrill 9 drilling rig is on location for the 4-6 week job on Hunt's Barfleur permit (see map, OGJ, July 3, 1995, p. 71).

Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd. acquired an interest in a wildcat being drilled in St. George's Bay, Newf., by Talisman Energy Inc. from an onshore site. CanOxy will pay 37.5% of the well's estimated $10 million cost and assign Talisman an interest in a Saskatchewan property to earn an 18.75% share in the 43,506 acre exploration license Talisman operates. The well, spudded Feb. 24, is expected to take 6 months to probe an Ordovician carbonate structure. Other partners are Newfoundland's Vinland Petroleum Inc. 50% and Oilexco Inc. 12.5%. CanOxy, Talisman, and Oilexco are Calgary companies.

Western Mining Corp. Ltd. (WMC), Melbourne, and partners will collect 158 sq miles of marine 3D seismic data in 1996 and drill two wildcats in 1997 in the WA-264-P permit area in the southern Barrow subbasin of the Carnavon basin, about 22 miles off Entrance Point, Western Australia. Designated W95-6 in a 1995 exploration bidding round, WA-264-P lies in 165-525 ft of water about 13 miles south of Griffin oil field. WMC, Santos Offshore Pty. Ltd., and Idemitsu Oil & Gas Co. Ltd. each owns a 33.33% interest in the permits.

Gas processing

Westcoast Energy Inc., Vancouver, B.C., received regulatory approval for its $398 million (Canadian) Aitken Creek gas gathering/processing project north of Fort St. John, B.C., but says it must retest producer demand. The Aitken Creek gas project was delayed when Canada's National Energy Board ruled in May 1995 it does not have jurisdiction to regulate the project. The Federal Court of Canada reversed that ruling. Westcoast will poll producers again to determine if the proposed capacity of 320 MMcfd is still needed.

Shell U.K. Exploration & Production, North Sea operator for Shell U.K. Ltd. and Esso Exploration & Production U.K. Ltd., withdrew an application to expand its Mossmorran natural gas liquids fractionation plant and associated Braefoot marine terminal at Fife, U.K. Shell Expro had planned to install a fourth process module at Fife and an extra jetty at Braefoot. However, the company failed to secure processing of Eastern Trough Area Project gas at Mossmorran. Shell Expro will maintain capacity at Mossmorran for some years to come but will try to cut costs and bolster efficiency there.

Drilling-production

FINA Inc., Dallas, and Shell Western E&P Inc. plan a carbon dioxide flood on FINA's West Brahaney Unit in Yoakum County, Tex. The project calls for drilling five infill and three replacement wells, design and construction of an 81/2 mile, 6 in. CO2 pipeline and injection facilities, and improvements to production equipment. Shell will supply CO2 for the project from its McElmo Dome field in Southwest Colorado. An eight pattern first phase of the project is to be complete by yearend and yield an incremental 3 million bbl of oil.

Amerada Hess Ltd. won U.K. Department of Trade & Industry approval to develop its Fergus discovery on North Sea Block 39/2. Development will involve a single subsea well tied back to Fife field, placed on stream in August 1995 with the Uisge Gorm floating production/storage ship. Fergus, to start up in third quarter 1996, holds estimated reserves of 6 million bbl of oil. Fergus production is pegged at 12,000 b/d of oil. Fife has plateaued at 40,000 b/d.

Dragon Oil plc, London, plans to raise $58 million on the London and Dublin stock exchanges through share issue to fund development on Block II off Turkmenistan, where Dragon recently bought a 30% interest from operator Larmag Energy NV, Amsterdam (OGJ, Jan. 30, 1995, p. 36).

Phillips Petroleum Co. U.K. Ltd. let contract to AMEC Process & Energy Ltd., Wallsend, U.K., for manufacture of a 700 metric ton, 200 MMcfd capacity gas injection module. It will be installed on Judy platform to reinject gas sold under contract but not initially bought by Enron Europe Ltd. (see related story, p. 42). The module is slated for completion in mid-December.

Texaco Ltd. let an $18 million contract to Kvaerner Oil & Gas Services Ltd., Aberdeen, for maintenance work on all its U.K. offshore installations. The contract runs for 3 years, with two options of 1 year each.

Elf Exploration U.K. plc let contract to Kvaerner Oil & Gas Services for front end engineering design for its Elgin/Franklin gas/condensate fields development in the U.K. North Sea.

Norsk Hydro AS let a $20 million contract to Kvaerner Energy AS, Oslo, for gas turbine generator sets for its Visund oil field development in the Norwegian North Sea. Kvaerner will supply two sets with total capacity of 44,000 kw for delivery in May 1997. Visund is expected to begin production in June 1998 via production semisubmersible.

LNG

Oman LNG LLC signed a heads of agreement with Korea Gas Corp. (KGC) for the sale of 4 million metric tons/year of liquefied natural gas starting in 2000 from the Oman LNG export project. The companies and South Korea's government also signed a memorandum of understanding on sale of 5% of Oman LNG Co., set up to develop the plant, to KGC. Before the new agreement, Oman LNG partners were Oman 51%, Royal Dutch/Shell 34%, Total 6%, Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. 3% each, Partex 2%, and Itochu Corp. 1%.

EnergyPlus Marketing Co. (EPM), a unit of PanEnergy Corp., Houston, on Apr. 1 will auction firm peaking gas services to begin November 1997 to customers in the U.S. Northeast. Backed by a network of LNG facilities in the region, EMC at first would be able to provide about 2 bcf of winter gas supply and transportation services at rates of as much as 200 MMcfd or 10 MMcf/hr. Delivery will be through Algonquin LNG Inc. facilities at Providence, R.I., that can receive LNG by barge or truck for redelivery as gas or liquid.

Lubricants

Finland's Neste Oy will build a lube base oil plant at its Porvoo refinery, with initial capacity to produce 50,000 metric tons/year for use in lubricants blending. The $52 million plant will start up in fall 1997, with construction to begin this spring.

Petrochemicals

Montell Polyolefins, a venture of Shell International Chemicals Ltd. and Montedison SpA, chose its Berre, France, complex as the site for a new 250,000 metric ton/year polypropylene plant based on Montell's Spheripol process. Montell produces ethylene and propylene at Berre and runs a 150,000 metric ton/year slurry process polypropylene unit there. The old unit will be used for specialty products, while the bulk of production will be transferred to the new plant. Detailed engineering will begin immediately. A decision on construction timing will be made by the end of September.

Japan's Mitsui & Co. scrapped plans to build a 120,000 metric ton/year polypropylene plant in Bataan, Philippines. The $130 million unit was expected on stream by 1998, but Mitsui said a planned government cut in Philippine tariffs on imported petrochemicals made the project no longer viable.

Shell Chemicals Europe Ltd. plans to begin construction soon on a vinyl esters plant at its Moerdijk, Netherlands, petrochemical complex. The new unit is expected on stream late in 1997. There is one vinyl esters plant at the site, and the new unit will increase total productive capacity to 55,000 metric tons/year.

Amoco Corp. acquired Albemarle Corp.'s alpha olefins and related businesses for more than $400 million. Included in the purchase are Albemarle's alpha olefins, polyalpha olefins, and alcohol product lines and plants in Deer Park and Pasadena, Tex., and Feluy, Belgium. About 550 Albemarle employees are to transfer to Amoco's chemical intermediates business group, which will include the acquired businesses.

Chevron USA Products Co. is conducting basic engineering studies for installation of a 450,000 metric ton/year Eluxyl unit at its Pascagoula, Miss., refinery. Eluxyl is a paraxylene extraction process developed by Institut Francais du Petrole, Rueil Malmaison, France, and proven in a demonstration unit at Chevron's Pascagoula refinery.

Eastman Chemical Co. let contract to Foster Wheeler International Corp. for engineering, procurement, and construction of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant at Zarate, Argentina. The 130,000 metric ton/year plant is to start up in first half 1998. Eastman earlier disclosed projects that will double its PET capacity to 1.5 million metric tons/year. Among them is a 130,000 ton/year plant at San Roque, Spain, slated for start-up early in 1997.

Hyundai Petrochemical Co. let contract to Institut Francais du Petrole and its HRI unit to design an aromatics complex at its Daesan, South Korea, petrochemical complex. The project will include pyrolysis gasoline hydrotreating, hydrodealkylation for benzene production, and sulfolane extraction of aromatics. Feed will be streams from Hyundai's new steam cracker.

Phillips Petroleum Co. let contract to Bechtel Corp. to modify and restart an idle hydrotreater at a cost of more than $10 million at its Sweeny, Tex., refining/petrochemical complex to produce dicyclopentadiene (DCPD). Phillips in 1997 will begin producing 40 million lb/year of polyester grade DCPD as a byproduct of its ethylene operations at Sweeny, where ethylene capacity is being increased to 4.5 billion lb/year from 3.6 billion lb/year.

Pipelines

U.S. Transportation Department's Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) withdrew a proposed rule to limit levels of hydrogen sulfide allowed in natural gas transmission lines. An advisory panel told RSPA in 1992 the proposed rule was not needed.

RSPA scheduled a Mar. 25 session in Washington, D.C., to hear comments on an American Petroleum Institute proposal for a risk based alternative to pressure testing of older hazardous liquid and carbon dioxide pipelines. The agency noted pipeline operators have objected to a June 1994 rule requiring hydrostatic pressure testing of certain older pipelines.

Refining

Petron Corp. selected UOP's CCR platforming process for a 17,000 b/sd catalytic reforming unit to be built at its 147,250 b/d refinery at Limay, Philippines. The unit will produce a high octane component for blending unleaded gasoline.

Foster Wheeler Power Systems Inc., Chile's state owned Empresa Nacional de Petroleo (ENAP), and ENAP unit Petrox SA Refineria de Petroleo closed a $236 million financing package for an integrated refining/cogeneration project at Petrox's 89,300 b/cd refinery at Talcahuano, Chile (OGJ, Mar. 11, p. 46).

ABB Lummus Global, Bloomfield, N.J., acquired all of Texaco Development Corp.'s fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) technology assets. Lummus and Texaco have been jointly marketing and licensing Texaco's FCC technology since 1993, with both parties providing design and technical services. As of Jan. 1, Lummus has exclusive rights to market and license the technology and provide design services to licensees. Included in Texaco's process are direct coupled cyclones and Micro-Jet feed injection nozzles.

API Raffineria di Ancona let contract to UOP NV, Belgium, for a Polybed PSA hydrogen purification plant to be built at its 78,000 b/d Ancona, Italy, refinery. The unit will purify steam reformed naphtha to produce 8,500 normal cu m/hr of 99.9% purity hydrogen for use in a hydroprocessing unit. The Polybed process produces hydrogen at pressure in a single step and uses the byproduct inerts and carbon oxides to fuel steam reforming furnaces.

Spills

Cleanup crews last week in Galveston Bay recovered most of 1,500 bbl of virgin gas oil released when the MV Merraro tugboat gouged a 5 ft gash 3 ft above the water line in the hull of the MV Mare Queen oil tanker. The tanker was moored at Dock 6 of Exxon Co. U.S.A.'s 396,000 b/cd Baytown, Tex., refinery. Exxon notified federal and state agencies of the accident and deployed booms at the site, preventing the spill from reaching environmentally sensitive areas. Officials briefly halted traffic on Houston Ship Channel as a safety precaution.