INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

PROCESSING

LUCKY PETROCHEMICAL LTD., Seoul, let contract to ABB Lummus Crest Inc., Bloomfield, N.J., for basic engineering services for a 140,000 metric ton/year C4 hydrogenation unit at its Yeochon, South Korea, ethylene plant. The 350,000 metric ton/year ethylene plant is to be complete in mid-1991.

SAFERCO PRODUCTS INC., Regina, Sask., let contract to Uhde GmbH, Dortmund, West Germany, to design and build a fertilizer complex at Belle Plain, Sask., to produce 1,500 tons/day of ammonia and 2,000 tons/day of granulated urea. Contract value is about $295 million. Construction is to be complete by yearend 1992.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

NESTE OY agreed in principle to buy ARCO Norge's Norwegian offshore assets for $122-244 million, subject to Norwegian government approval. ARCO Norge has about 135 million bbl of crude reserves and 800 bcf of gas off Norway.

CALTEX PACIFIC INDONESIA started up steam injection at a fourth pattern in Indonesia's $1.8 billion Duri field steamflood project, the world's largest (OGJ, Jan. 29, Newsletter). When all 10 patterns are complete by 1995, oil production is expected to climb to 300,000 b/d from the current 160,000 b/d.

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM NORWAY group will shut down Albuskjell Foxtrot platform in the Greater Ekofisk area of the Norwegian North Sea in June to convert it to an unmanned, remote controlled platform. Production, currently 10 MMcfd of gas and 500 b/d of condensate, is not likely to resume before winter 1992. Albuskjell Alpha platform, producing about 35 MMcfd of gas and 3,500 b/d of condensate, also may be shut in temporarily the next 2 years.

AMERADA HESS LTD. let contract to Fairclough Norwegian Contractors Ltd. and Laing Contracting Ltd. for conceptual designs of a concrete gravity base for its Scott oil field development in the U.K. North Sea. Platform installation is scheduled for mid-1992, with start-up at yearend 1993. Evaluation of steel and concrete options will be made this spring.

MARATHON PETROLEUM INDONESIA LTD. started production from KF field on the Kakap production sharing contract in the Natuna Sea, 775 miles north of Jakarta. It is producing 4,800 b/d of oil from the first well. Production is to reach 40,000 b/d from 13 wells.

SHELL GABON completed Africa's first horizontal oil well, 53 Rabi in Gabon's Rabi Kounga field. Production is estimated at 6,000 b/d. The 2,147 m measured depth well made 300 m of vertical hole, built a 54 angle to 1,117 m true vertical depth, and had a 580 m long horizontal drainhole.

COMPANIES

AMOCO CANADA LID. completed a requirement to sell more than $460 million in assets as a condition of its $5.5 billion 1988 takeover of Dome Petroleum Ltd., Calgary.

INDONESIA'S PERTAMINA agreed to extend a production sharing contract 20 years to Aug. 7, 2018, for the Huffco joint venture, Union Texas Petroleum Holdings Inc. reported. The contract covers 1.5 million acres in East Kalimantan. Subject to government approval, the extension agreement is to be finalized in the second quarter. Roy M. Huftington Inc., Houston, this month will transfer management of the venture to partners Union Texas and Ultramar plc (OGJ, Jan. 8, p. 18).

EXPLORATION

ELF AQUITAINE SYRIA gauged 8,000 b/d of 360 gravity oil at its 101 Attala Nord wildcat on its 4,000 sq km Deir Ez Zor permit in Northeast Syria. It was the second well Elf drilled on the permit, where the company is drilling two other wildcats, Khayyer and Es Sjor.

CONOCO (U.K.) LTD.'S 49/22-6 wildcat flowed 44.8 MMcfd of gas and 122 b/d of condensate through a 60/64 in. choke from Rotliegendes Leman sandstone about 6 miles south of Victor field in the southern U.K. North Sea. The Arch Rowan jack up drilled the well to 8,830 ft. Appraisal drilling is expected later this year. Conoco's partners in Block 49/22 are BP Exploration, Superior Oil (U.K.) Ltd., and Statoil (U.K.) Ltd.

PETROFINA SA signed a production sharing agreement with Libyan National Oil Corp. covering 15,736 sq km of Sirte basin southeast of Zuetina, Libya. Fina Exploration Lib ya is committed to shoot 8,500 line km of seismic surveys and drill 12 exploratory wells in 6 years.

DELHI PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. plans to confirm a Queensland gas discovery. Delhi's 1 Ruby discovery well, drilled to 6,626 ft in Total 66 Block of ATP 259P, flowed 8.5 MMcfd of gas through a 1/2 in. choke on drillstem test at 5,953-6,041 ft. The well is 5 km east of 1 Dingera. Operator Delhi holds a 30% interest in the block, Santos Ltd. the rest.

UNITS OF SIMON GROUP, Swanley, Kent, U.K., completed a $1.75 million exploration program in Southeast Tanzania for Tanzanian Petroleum Development Corp. Sponsored by the World Bank, the project covered a 400 line km Vibroseis reflection survey and regional gravity survey in the Lindi and Mtwara districts.

TRANSPORTATION

HUNGARY received in February the first of a 1.5 million bbl purchase of Iraqi crude via the little-used Adria pipeline built 10 years ago from Yugoslavia's Krk Island marine terminal on the Adriatic Sea to Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Almost all of Hungary's oil imports in the 1980's came from the U. S. S. R.

FIREFIGHTERS Mar. 6 extinguished a fire burning for 13 days aboard a U.S. flag Kuwaiti tanker in the Persian Gulf 100 miles off Fujairah, U.A.E. The 69,991 dwt Surf City products tanker exploded Feb. 22 off Dubai en route to the Strait of Hormuz. The Chesapeake Shipping Co. tanker was left to cool 24 hr and then towed to another site for offloading to another vessel.

ALTERNATE FUELS

PETROLEOS BRASILEIRO SA bought another 15 million gal of fuel grade ethanol from Archer Daniels Midland Co., extending a 100 million gal sale made Jan. 3. Delivery is to be complete by June 30. Brazil, with the world's largest fleet of vehicles powered by ethanol and ethanol blended fuels, has a severe shortage of ethanol.

GOVERNMENT

THE SOVIET KGB halted smuggling of oil through the port of Murmansk. The scheme involved 60,000 metric tons of high quality crude exported illegally by labeling it as refinery waste byproducts.