Table of Contents

• BP Amoco-ARCO combine not expected to inhibit U.S. oil price recovery, production
  BP Amoco plc's proposed acquisition of ARCO is almost unique among large, integrated company mergers.
• Elf planning to fight TotalFina takeover
  Elf Aquitaine SA is preparing a plan to fight off a takeover bid by TotalFina SA, but exactly when details of the plan will be announced is not clear.
• Takeovers backlash
  Aftershocks will follow the takeover by Norsk Hydro AS of Saga Petroleum AS and the anticipated takeover of Elf Aquitaine SA by TotalFina SA (see story, p. 23).
• Repsol-YPF to sell Argentina R&M, gas assets
  Repsol-YPF SA plans to sell some of its refining and marketing assets in Argentina, held by its Astra unit, as part of its plan to divest assets following Repsol SA's takeover of YPF SA last month (OGJ, June 28, 1999, Newsletter).
• KN Energy makes deal to buy Kinder Morgan
  KN Energy Inc., an integrated natural gas company based in Lakewood, Colo., has signed a definitive merger agreement with pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Inc., Houston.
• Mexico: Grim repercussions loom if anti-dumping petition succeeds
  Mexico Energy Secretary Luis Téllez said he is confident that an anti-dumping petition targeting his country, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq by a group of independent U.S. producers would be rejected by the U.S. International Trade Commission, but he also painted a bleak scenario should the petition be successful (see related articles on this page and p. 32).
• API opposes independents' dumping petition
  The American Petroleum Institute is opposing a petition by some independent U.S. producers that alleges other nations have dumped oil on the U.S. market at prices below fair value.

• Recipe for a third oil shock:
  Undermine Saudi pro-Americanism and hyperventilate OPEC
  Imagine an unexpected arrival at the end of the second millennium of an oil economist from Hell.
• Sanctions issues
  The U.S. has thwarted, at least for now, a move in the United Nations Security Council to lift economic sanctions against Libya.

• Sedco Forex Offshore to merge with Transocean
  Schlumberger Ltd., Paris, has agreed to spin off its offshore contract drilling unit, Sedco Forex Offshore, in order to unite it with Transocean Offshore Inc., Houston.
• ARCO exits Venezuelan oil megaproject
  ARCO has sold its 30% working interest in the Hamaca integrated heavy oil project in Venezuela's oil belt to two of its partners in the joint venture.

• Russia's refinery utilization plummets to 55%
  The Russian refining industry is in deep crisis. Throughput at refineries owned by Russian firms fell to 165.7 million metric tons last year vs. 294.6 million tons in 1990. This decline has brought average capacity utilization down to a dismal 55%.
• Singapore all-catalytic lube plant perfoms well
  The performance of Mobil Corp.'s first all-catalytic lube basestock plant, built in 1997 in Jurong, Singapore, has been successful.
• Performance of stainless steel in plants surveyed
  Details of the performance of chloride stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) resistant stainless steels (SS) in Japan operating plants have been collected and reported.

• Aging Canadian product line inspected internally ultrasonically
  Intensive internal inspection and repair programs undertaken in the last 2 years by Enbridge Pipelines Inc., Edmonton (formerly Interprovincial Pipe Line Inc.), have significantly improved the integrity of an aging pipeline exhibiting some unique corrosion problems.

• BP Amoco details Caspian gas giant discovery
  BP Amoco plc has confirmed a major gas-condensate discovery in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan with a wildcat drilled on the Shah Deniz license area.
• Nicaragua exploration round on tap
  Exploration contractor Fugro-Geoteam AS, Oslo, has disclosed the availability of nonexclusive seismic data for Nicaragua's Caribbean continental shelf, ahead of a bidding round expected to open in early 2000.
• Great South basin, New Zealand, might hold considerable potential
  New Zealand's underexplored Great South basin covers an area of about 100,000 sq km off the southeast coast of the South Island. Much of the basin lies beyond the modern continental shelf area in 100-1,250 m of water (average about 700 m). Port facilities are at Bluff near the small city of Invercargill, about 150 km from the basin center.

• The natural gas vision -- 1
  Blackouts of electrical power in the U.S. East this month show that work remains to be done in the growth market for natural gas.

• Industry Briefs
  Shell Philippines Exploration BV
  let a multimillion-dollar contract to Foster Wheeler Corp., Clinton, N.J., for the engineering, procurement, and construction of an onshore Philippines gas processing plant. The plant, which comprises the last phase of the Malampaya deepwater gas-to-power project off the Philippines, will be built in the Tabangao area on Luzon Island. The plant will deliver 500 MMscfd of sweet, dry gas via an onshore pipeline system and will have two parallel gas proces

OGJ Newsletter

• OGJ Newsletter
  Oil market fundamentals are improving by almost all measures, according to the latest IEA figures. IEA's June data indicate that oil prices and demand are up, while production and stocks are down.

Journally Speaking

• Rats and other vectors
  Vectors in this case are disease carriers such as rodents, mosquitoes, and ticks.

Area Drilling

• Area Drilling
  Morocco - Onarep granted a 1 year reconnaissance permit to Skidmore Energy Inc. covering 3,318 sq km onshore in the Essaouira basin. Three other such permits granted to Skidmore last year in other areas of Morocco expire Nov. 22, 1999 (OGJ, Nov. 30, 1998, p. 84).