U.S. BRIEFS

EXPLORATION

ARKLA EXPLORATION CO., Shreveport, formed a joint venture with Oneok Exploration Co., Tulsa, and a private investor for onshore exploration and development on the Texas Gulf Coast during the next 3 years. As operator of the joint program, Arkla will bear 55% of the projected $25 million cost on selected prospects in the Yegua, Wilcox, and Frio trends. Oneok will pay 20%, the private investor the remaining 25%.

GHK CO., Oklahoma City, started an exploration program in the Arkoma basin of Arkansas and Oklahoma with the acquisition of more than 1,500 miles of seismic data and about 15,000 acres of leases. It plans to drill six wells in the next 18 months.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

EXXON CO. U.S.A., 58.2%, and partner Enserch Exploration Partners Ltd., 41.8%, are evaluating logs and cores after recording oil and gas shows in an appraisal well on Garden Banks Block 388 off Louisiana, site of a discovery that cut about 250 ft of net oil pay in first quarter 1989. The appraisal, third well on the prospect, is being drilled below 9,800 ft in the main objective, which appears to correlate to the main pay zone in the partners' discovery.

NOBLE DRILLING CORP., Houston, consolidated its Rocky Mountain division in Denver with its Midcontinent division in Oklahoma City. Rocky Mountain field operations will continue at Evanston, Wyo., and Williston, N. D.

SEAGULL ENERGY CORP., Houston, will sell a portion of its U.S. oil and gas reserves off Texas and onshore in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and the Rocky Mountain region. Reserves to be sold total about 8.3 bcf of gas and 1.5 million bbl of oil. Sale efforts are to begin late this month.

UNION PACIFIC RESOURCES CO., Fort Worth, and partners tested five wells on South Timbalier Block 198 in the central Gulf of Mexico at a combined rate of 67 MMcfd of gas and 285 b/d of condensate from four productive sands.

DEVON ENERGY CORP., Oklahoma City, purchased for $7.4 million an approximate 88% interest in six producing gas wells and associated leasehold in LaSalle and Webb counties, Tex. Devon estimates acquired reserves at 9.6 bcf equivalent.

EBCO AUCTIONEERS INC., Oklahoma City, auctioned in Dallas 380 oil and gas leases in 15 Midcontinent and Rocky Mountain states, raising more than $3 million for 19 sellers.

COMPANIES

A REORGANIZATION PLAN of Texas International Co., Oklahoma City, is to become effective this week. Among other things, it will involve a name change to Phoenix Resource Cos. Inc., cancellation of all old Texas International securities, issuance of new Phoenix securities, and establishment of a new board of directors.

VARCO INTERNATIONAL INC., Orange, Calif., signed a letter of intent to acquire the assets of Cooper Industries Inc.'s Martin-Decker unit, Cedar Park, Tex., for about $30 million in cash. Martin-Decker, with sales of about $25 million/year, manufactures and sells instrumentation, force measurement and monitoring systems, and pipe handling equipment.

SOUTHMARK CORP., Dallas, and MGF Oil Corp. consummated agreements with Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. in which all MGF common stock held by Southmark and MGF's minority shareholders was sold. MGF also agreed to sell assets to Kaiser-Francis for about $26 million, after which MGF and a wholly owned subsidiary of Southmark merged.

COURTS

ONEOK INC., Tulsa, settled a take or pay lawsuit filed in state court against its subsidiary ONG Western Inc. The suit, brought by Sylvia H. Golsen and Zelda F. Brown, involved one well in Oklahoma County, Okla. No details of the settlement were disclosed.

FOREST OIL CORP. won a summary judgment from a West Texas federal district court in a lawsuit filed by Texas Utilities Fuel Co. The court tentatively ordered that Tufco will receive nothing on its claim against Forest for alleged overpayments of $26 million arising from gas sales to Tufco from 1983 to present.

PIPELINES

BUCKEYE PIPE LINE CO. LP, Emmaus, Pa., is continuing cleanup and repair efforts after a landslide damaged one of its pipelines, resulting in a release of about 75,000 gal of petroleum products into a stream feeding the Allegheny River. The spill threatened to disrupt water supplies to as many as 1 million people in the Pittsburgh area. The pipeline is expected to be out of service at least 1 week.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS CO. plans to buy 770-990 MMcfd of spot gas for April at a weighted average price of $1.44/MMBTU. Through Mar. 20, SoCalGas paid $1.45/MMBTU for 495 MMcfd of spot gas.

PROCESSING

ANDREWS PETROLEUM INC., Costa Mesa, Calif., completed start-up of a butane isomerization unit at its Lone Star Gas Liquids Processing Inc. subsidiary near Bakersfield, Calif. Andrews said the unit is the first merchant isomerization unit in the western U.S.

EBASCO CONSTRUCTORS INC., Santa Ana, Calif., will construct onshore process units for Exxon Co. U.S.A.'s Santa Ynez Unit expansion project in Las Flores Canyon, 20 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, Calif. The Exxon contract is valued at more than $100 million. Construction will begin in third quarter 1990, with completion scheduled for mid-1992.

EXXON CHEMICAL CO. expects to complete installation of paraxylene and benzene units at its Baytown, Tex., aromatics plant by mid-1991. The units will increase Exxon's paraxylene capacity by about 150 million lb/year and benzene by 22 million gal/year.

QUANTUM CHEMICAL CORP., New York, resumed operation of its Morris, Ill., ethylene unit, after completing repairs to a propylene purification section, which had been shut down since a June 7, 1989, fire.

LATEST DATA list these capacities for Sohio Oil Co. (BP America) refineries at Belle Chasse, La., crude 220,000 b/sd; and Ferndale, Wash., crude 90,000 b/sd, vacuum distillation 33,000 b/sd, TCC cat cracking 28,500 b/sd (fresh feed), cat reforming 16,500 b/sd, cat hydrotreating 17,000 b/sd, HF alkylation 5,000 b/sd (production), polymerization 900 b/sd (production). The information arrived too late to include in the annual U.S. refining survey (OGJ, Mar. 26, p. 77).

MOBIL OIL CORP. and Badger Co. Inc. will offer for license a new technology for upgrading light olefins, Mobil Olefins to Gasoline. The process, based on a new ZSM-5 catalyst, produces high octane gasoline from light olefins, including ethylene, in low value refinery streams such as FCC offgas.