Table of Contents

• DOT mandates API document for leak detection
  A manifold array along a segment of Enbridge Pipelines' system is one of areas modeled in the company's CPM system. (Photograph from Enbridge Pipelines Inc., Edmonton; copyright Merle Prosofsky Photography Ltd., Edmonton) Beginning July 6, 1999, all operators of U.S. hazardous liquids pipelines engaged in pipeline leak detection known as "computational pipeline monitoring" (CPM) must use, by reference and with other information, the document API 1130.
• PC-based scada installed on Russian crude-oil system
  This active screen provides the top level view and navigation to deeper levels of detail. Four levels are shown: map, pipeline (by region), pumping station down to the individual device (pump, valve, pressure or flow sensor; Fig. 1 [42,955 bytes]; photograph from Iconics Inc., Foxborough, Mass.). The automated leak-detection system enables identification of the problem location and dispatch of repair resources. The benefits of the system are realized through reduced waste, lower costs, and
• Low-emissions turbine headed for U.K. gas system
  !-- -- Copyright 1998 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
• Modular J-lay spread used in late 1998
  
  
  Exxon Co. U.S.A.'s Harmony-Heritage pipelay, offshore California, was the site in late 1998 for the first use of Coflexip Stena Offshore Inc.'s MJ-Lay (modular J-lay) spread. Coflexip's CSO Constructor served as lay vessel. The project was in approximately 300 m of water laying a 12-in., 13-km line between the two platforms. It was initiate
• Associations, government help U.S. independents grapple with low oil prices
  U.S. CRUDE PRICES SLIDE [56,681 bytes] The U.S. Department of Energy and oil associations are scrambling to help smaller U.S. producers survive a deep oil price depression that has no end in sight. They are examining short and long-term measures to help independents, reeling from the 5-month-old oil price slump. But most of the actions will take time, and independents are being told they must remain patient and optimistic.
• Senators ask for hearing on continued Iraqi oil exports
  Two Oklahoma senators have asked for hearings to explore how Iraq has increased its oil production without complying with all United Nations resolutions. Don Nickles and James Inhofe, both Republicans from Oklahoma, asked the energy and foreign relations committees to hold a joint hearing on the issue shortly after the Senate reconvenes this month. They said, "We should not continue to tolerate increased production from Iraq, particularly in light of its continuing refusal to comply with
• Nebraska wheat prices could portend $6/bbl crude oil
  There isn't an actual relationship between oil and wheat prices, but in Nebraska, they're both headed down in lockstep. William Sydow, director of the Nebraska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, Sidney, Neb., said that, out of curiosity, the commission examined trends in oil and agricultural prices together this fall, "since both of the industries are in serious peril. "The analysis found an incredible relationship between the prices of the two products. The price of oil has responded
• Canada's independents expect tough year
  Canadian independents are bracing for an uncertain year in the face of low oil prices that have chilled earnings, drilling activity, and spending plans. One bright spot was the arrival in late December of below-zero temperatures in many parts of Canada and the U.S. That bumped demand and prices for natural gas after temperatures had remained unseasonably high well into the prime heating season.
• BP-Amoco finish merger after FTC approval
  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has allowed British Petroleum Co. plc and Amoco Corp. to merge if they sell 134 gasoline stations and nine terminals and allow more than 1,600 independent gasoline stations to switch suppliers. On Dec. 31, BP and Amoco completed the $53 billion merger transaction, announced Aug. 11 (OGJ, Aug. 17, 1998, p. 34). The companies closed the transaction shortly after 9:00 p.m. London time on Dec. 31, when the shares of the merged group, BP Amoco plc, were listed on
• Next: Exxon-Mobil
  The Federal Trade Commission's approval of the British Petroleum Co. plc and Amoco Corp. combination will likely make it tougher for Exxon Corp. and Mobil Corp. to merge. BP's and Amoco's operations fit quite well together with relatively little overlap. FTC had been expected to approve their union by early December, requiring only the sale of some terminals. But the Exxon-Mobil announcement Dec. 1 changed things. FTC reconsidered the BP-Amoco merger for nearly a month: it knew that
• PetroFinance: Saudis on brink of financial crisis
  The economy of Saudi Arabia is on the brink of a crisis, because of growing domestic and external deficits caused by the collapse of oil prices. This is the view of Petroleum Finance Co., Washington, D.C., which estimates that the kingdom's budget deficit was more than 9% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1998, with no relief expected in 1999. "Faced with the prospect of increasing economic difficulties in the medium term," said PetroFinance, "and continued erosion in both its market share
• Commerzbank: no improvement on horizon for oil prices
  Oil markets show virtually no signs of improvement, and the situation is expected to get worse before it gets better. The London branch of Commerzbank AG reckons that Brent crude oil futures will average $11/bbl this year, a drop of $3/bbl from its previous forecast. While the bank expects Brent futures to recover to an average of $13/bbl in 2000, it also fears that Persian Gulf producers may attempt to keep oil prices at $10/bbl for a number of years to squeeze out higher-cost producers.
• AGA predicts record gas demand for 1999
  The American Gas Association projects that U.S. gas consumption will reach a record 23.2 quadrillion BTUs (quads) in 1999. Richard Terry, chairman and CEO of Peoples Energy Corp., Chicago, and the new AGA chairman, said an anticipated return to normal weather patterns should put the industry back in line with the growth pattern of the past decade. He said U.S. gas consumption fell 2% in 1998 because-based on the first 10 months of the year-it was the second warmest year on record since 1895.
• GAO: few gas consumers opt for supplier choice
  Customer Choice Particiation Chart [107,397 bytes] U.S. consumers have been slow to participate in "customer choice" programs that allow them to choose their natural gas suppliers. The General Accounting Office, a U.S. congressional watchdog agency, reports that 43 gas utilities in 16 states have customer choice programs for residential and small commercial gas customers. Utilities in 11 other states and the District of Columbia are beginning or considering similar programs.
• U.K. slates electric power market reforms
  The U.K. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has published plans for reforming Britain's electric power market to cut prices to consumers. DTI and the government's Office of Electricity Regulation (Offer) produced outline plans for reform but said they had to work out how the new market will work and who will regulate it. Energy and Industry Minister John Battle called for nominations for a development and implementation steering group that is intended to ensure the new trading
• ONGC eyes $1 billion Russian investment
  ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas exploration arm of India's state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp., is screening international bankers to help it raise more than $1 billion in external commercial loans for investments in Russia.
• If oil were nations
  Calling at a gasoline station on my way to work after the New Year break, I imagined what would happen if the petroleum industry was run like politics. I had been listening on the car radio to a review of 1998 world events: in Washington, three crises linked to the Monica Lewinsky hearings, each followed by an air strike on Baghdad; in Westminster, a festering money-lending scandal; in Moscow, imminent anarchy; in Brussels, evidence of corruption.
• Latin America gas tops investor list
  International gas investors see Latin America as the most attractive region in the worldwide gas market, according to Datamonitor plc, London. A survey by the analyst of leading international gas players revealed that Latin America will require $100 billion in energy project financing up to 2005, of which $50 billion is expected to be spent on pipelines. Datamonitor said that foreign companies are the leading source of investment in Latin America, and that Brazil and Argentina are the most
• INDUSTRY BRIEFS
  Royal Dutch/Shell plans to spend $100 million to fix the Year 2000 computer glitch. The company was not correctly identified in this context in the third part of the OGJ Outlook '99 series that ran in the Jan. 4, 1999, issue of OGJ (p. 23, upper right hand column, third line from the top). A fire at the Novoufimsky refinery in Russia's Bashkiria republic killed one firefighter and seriously burned four others. The fire was in a diesel dehydration unit, according to local press reports.
• Area Drilling
  The Hartshorne Play in Southeastern Oklahoma: Regional and Detailed Sandstone Reservoir Analysis and Coalbed-Methane Resources, Special Publication 98-7, by Richard D. Andrews and Brian J. Cardott, published by Oklahoma Geological Survey, 100 E. Boyd, Room N-131, Norman, Okla. 73019-0628. 90 p., $10 plus shipping. Geology of the Hartshorne Formation, Arkoma Basin, Oklahoma, Guidebook 31, by Neil H. Suneson, published by Oklahoma Geological Survey, 100 E. Boyd, Room N-131, Norman, Okla.

• Volatility and instability
  Oil industry managers once gave much thought to an ideal called stability. Now they spend less time trying to achieve stability and more time trying to survive an instability that seems destined to last. But is it? By "stability," most people refer to price and mean the opposite of "volatility." With crude oil and key products now traded as commodities, prices are indeed volatile.

• Unocal Thailand slashes well planning cycle time
  Integrated seismic and well planning (Fig. 1). UNOCAL'S GULF OF THAILAND GAS FIELDS [169,872 bytes] Prior to adopting integrated technology, Unocal geoscientists had to manually plot potential well paths on seismic sections and maps-a very time-consuming process (Fig. 3). [22,303 bytes] Interactive fault section with wellbores (Fig. 4). [84,527 bytes] Amplitude clouds (Fig. 5). [30,022 bytes] Unocal Thailand Ltd. has successfully reduced cycle times by integrating seismic interpretation and
• Use of mobile production units to increase
  Demand for mobile production units (MPUs) has increased rapidly during the 1990s, and technical development and the opening of new plays will ensure demand will continue to grow in the medium term. This is the view of Smith Rea Energy Analysts Ltd., Canterbury, U.K., which said the MPU has become accepted as a standard means of offshore production, not only where lack of infrastructure, small size of reservoir, and water depth render other types of production facility uneconomic, but as a base

• Refiners have several options to overcome FCCU opacity limitations
  Equations [276,334 bytes] A fluid-catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) operating at or near a stack-opacity limitation potentially can be the primary refinery-run limitation. Refiners can overcome opacity (that is, flue-gas particulate emissions) limitations in several ways: Identifying variables that affect opacity measurements Optimizing operating conditions Modifying catalyst physical properties Considering abatement-hardware options.
• EIA sees spurt in U.S. gas line construction
  The U.S. Energy Information Administration said that planned gas pipeline development and expansions could add as much as 16 bcfd of capacity to the U.S. transmission network during 1999-2000, at a total cost of about $9.5 billion. EIA said that, while all of the proposed projects may not be built because of changes in market conditions, total expenditures are expected to far exceed the $5.1 billion invested during the last major period of new pipeline development, in 1992-93.
• How fractured reservoirs and a tectonic province boundary relate: clues to possible giant fields
  The western portion of the Williston basin is an attractive exploration target for fractured carbonate reservoirs and large reserves. A Proterozoic tectonic boundary formed by the juxtaposition of the Wyoming and the Trans-Hudson Provinces has formed a suture zone that could contain very large oil and gas reserves. Many large oil and gas fields have been discovered within the area that overlies the suture zone ( Fig. 1 [228,009 bytes]
• API November U.S. well completions
  Copyright 1998 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.

OGJ Newsletter

• OGJ Newsletter
  U.S. INDUSTRY SCOREBOARD 1/11 [44,082 bytes] U.S. oil and service companies continue to reel from low oil prices. Phillips will cut 1,400 jobs, mostly E&P-related. The cuts will include 850 U.S. jobs-of which 400 will be lost at its Bartlesville, Okla., headquarters-and 550 elsewhere. The move is expected to pare costs by $230 million. "I cannot visualize year after year after year of these unhealthy-type margins," said Chairman Wayne Allen. "I can't tell you absolutely that this is the