INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

PROCESSING

SHELL U.K. LTD. and Esso U.K. Ltd. will upgrade their gas liquids processing and transportation facilities in Scotland following agreements to handle NGL from Amerada Hess's Ivanhoe and Rob Roy fields and Mobil North Sea's Beryl field in the U.K. North Sea. Planned are a new manifold and tie-in pipeline at St. Fergus gas plant and a 100 million ($160 million) expansion of Shell-Esso's Mossmorran fractionation plant in Fife.

INDIA'S MADRAS refineries submitted to the government a feasibility study for a $70 million plant to process 3.727 million bbl/year of crude oil and separate about 123,000 bbl/year of liquids from associated gas in the Cauvery basin.

EXPLORATION

WEST AUSTRALIAN PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. tested its 1 Cowie at 8,390 b/d of oil and 1.95 MMcfd of gas through an 80/84 in. choke with 600 psi wellhead pressure from an interval at 1,098-1,100 ft. Site is 8 km south of Saladin oil field on the Northwest Shelf off Australia. More testing is planned, but the discovery could be brought on stream within 12 months.

MAXUS ENERGY CORP. obtained exploration Permit T89-4 off western Tasmania. Maxus plans seismic reprocessing and will acquire new seismic data on the 1.4 million acre permit, which carries a 6 year term.

RAS AL-KHAIMAH, United Arab Emirates, awarded Amoco Corp. all open acreage off the emirate. Amoco plans an extensive seismic survey and, depending on results, will drill a well.

TEIKOKU OIL CO., Tokyo, acquired a 10% interest in Premier Consolidated Oilfields' PPL 063 and PPL 085 licenses in the Gulf of Papua off Papua New Guinea. The first well on PPL 063 is to spud soon.

KELT ENERGY PLC is studying development options after its 2 Caythorpe discovery flowed 10.5 MMcfd of gas from Rotliegendes and 7.7 MMcfd from Kirkham Abbey near Bridlington, Humberside, U.K. Kelt operates nearby Malton, Kirby Misperton, and Marishes gas fields.

OIL INDIA LTD. asked for government approval of its proposed acquisition of a 30% interest in an undisclosed license held by Premier Consolidated in Papua New Guinea for $10 million. Premier is offering 60% of its interests in the license.

MARKETING

SPAIN'S Repsol Petroleo SA acquired full control of Enpetrol Portugal SARL, a Portuguese distributor of fuel oil and gas oil in which it held a 50% interest, as part of plans to expand foreign operations.

TRANSPORTATION

CUBA completed a 29 mile, 12 in., 50,000 b/d products line from the port of Matanzas on its north coast to a power plant in northern Havana. Spain's Empresa Nacional de Ingenieria y Tecnologia SA handled engineering services.

PAKISTAN plans to add a $14 million oil terminal at Karachi by 1992 to boost its oil handling capacity there to 82 million bbl/year from 67 million bbl/year. The new terminal will replace two existing oil berths and be capable of handling vessels of as much as 75,000 dwt.

LNG

SPAIN'S Empresa Nacional del Gas SA (Enagas) plans to renew for 20 years its contract to buy LNG from Libya after expiration in 1991. Enagas also plans to increase commitment volumes from the current 33 bcf/year.

COMPANIES

BRITISH GAS PLC paid $76 million to increase its holding in Catalana de Gas SA, Spain's largest private gas company, to 7.75% from 1.2%.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

UNOCAL NETHERLANDS started production from Haven oil field in the Dutch North Sea. Two horizontal wells are producing 4,700 b/d, moved through the existing infrastructure for the nearby Helder complex.

INDIA'S Oil & Natural Gas Commission will cut production by 106 MMcfd from 424 MMcfd in South Bassein gas field for lack of demand and to accommodate increased production of associated gas in the offshore Bombay High complex. South Bassein capacity is 706 MMcfd. At the same time, India's new government wants to boost natural gas use to warrant a production increase to about 1.413 bcfd in 1990 from about 777 MMcfd in 1985.

ACQUISITIONS

SANTOS LTD., Adelaide, Australia, agreed to acquire for an undisclosed sum Ste. Nationale Elf Aquitaine's Australian subsidiary Elf Aquitaine Australia Exploration Pty. Involved are interests in four permits in the Timor Sea-Bonaparte Gulf region off Northwest Australia. Santos interests in the four permits would rise to 18.845% from 6.87% in AG/P2, 47.48% from 15% in NT/P28, 62.5% from 7.5% in WA/18P, and 100% from zero in NT/P4.

AMOCO (U.K.) EXPLORATION CO. acquired Floyd Oil Ltd. from Ferrum Holdings plc. Terms are not disclosed. The deal gives Amoco a 33.3% interest in southern North Sea Block 42/23, adjacent to Amoco's 42/28a block, and a 10% interest in onshore Northwest England license EXL 038, an extension of offshore Blocks 113/29 and 113/30, awarded to Amoco in the 11th offshore licensing round.

CANADA SOUTHERN PETROLEUM LTD., Calgary, agreed to purchase about 48% of outstanding common stock of Probe Exploration, also of Calgary, in an exchange for authorized but unissued Canada Southern voting stock that will account for about 2.3% of its outstanding stock when issued. Probe owns interests in 30,800 gross acres in western Canada, including some producing leases.

TRICAL RESOURCES INC., Calgary, completed acquisition of Freeport-McMoRan Inc.'s 95% owned Canadian unit Voyager Energy Inc. for $247 million (Canadian) (OGJ, Dec. 18, 1989, p. 26).

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

TURKEY will import about 164 million bbl of crude oil in 1990, up from about 139 million bbl in 1989, said Turkish Petroleum Refineries Co. That will push Turkish refinery runs to about 179 million bbl this year, with domestic crude production expected to reach about 15 million bbl. Turkey also will buy 304,000 tons of diesel oil each from Iraq and the U.S.S.R.

JAPAN'S oil imports in November jumped 14.8% from a year earlier to 18.78 million kl because of increased demand for products and a sixfold increase in Japanese exports of fuel oil to Asia. Japan's imports from the Middle East in the period climbed 27.3% from November 1988.