INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

May 28, 1990
CHINA'S biggest foreign funded refinery is under construction in Hainan province. The $530 million, 115,000 b/d plant at Haikou, funded solely by U.K. company Haikou (Ko Fung) Comprehensive Refinery Co. Ltd., is to be complete in 1992. Feedstock will be Middle East crudes, with products earmarked for export to Europe, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.

REFINING

CHINA'S biggest foreign funded refinery is under construction in Hainan province. The $530 million, 115,000 b/d plant at Haikou, funded solely by U.K. company Haikou (Ko Fung) Comprehensive Refinery Co. Ltd., is to be complete in 1992. Feedstock will be Middle East crudes, with products earmarked for export to Europe, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.

INDIA gave tentative approval to refinery expansion plans by Cochin Refineries Ltd. and Indian Oil Corp. Cochin plans to boost capacity to 130,000 b/d from 90,000 b/d by installing a new crude distillation unit and debottlenecking the fluid catalytic cracker. IOC plans to install a 1,400 b/d catalytic reformer at its Digboi refinery and a 5,000 b/d cat reformer at its Barauni refinery.

GOVERNMENT

NORTH AND SOUTH YEMEN merged May 22 into the Republic of Yemen with its capital at Sana, the former capital of North Yemen. The countries had been jointly administering a common zone for oil and gas exploration by a combine of Soviet, Kuwaiti, French, and U.S. companies (OGJ, May 21, Newsletter). Yemeni officials estimate combined oil reserves at 2 billion bbl.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

PREMIER CONSOLIDATED OILFIELDS PLC reports the 2 Qadirpur well flowed 21 MMcfd of gas, confirming a major gas reservoir immediately south of Kandkhot field in Pakistan's North Indus basin. The well is north of the 1 Qadirpur discovery well, which flowed 19 MMcfd in April. Premier, which has a 9.5% interest in the well in partnership with state owned Oil & Gas Development Corp., Pakistan Petroleum Ltd., and Burmah Oil plc, said early production is feasible through Kandkhot gathering and transmission facilities.

OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM (CALEDONIA) is moving the Treasure Seeker semisubmersible to drill the first well in the Piper field redevelopment project in the U.K. North Sea. The well will be drilled through a subsea template installed in January.

RANGER OIL LTD., Calgary, plans to participate in placing eight North Sea fields on production beginning in 1991. Its ultimate share of development costs will be $350-400 million (U.S.). Projects include Franklin, Markham, and Anglia gas fields, Staffa and Forth oil fields, and Columbia oil and gas field. Ranger, which set 1990 capital spending at $105 million, plans 25 wells in the North Sea this year vs. 19 in 1989 and as many as 30 wells in Canada vs. 17 in 1989.

PETROLEOS DEL PERU awarded a service contract to a combine of Cavelcas del Peru Servicios Petroleros and Geopet Asociados SA for secondary recovery projects and well workovers in Block I fields in the Tablazo-Talara area along Peru's northern coast (see map, OGJ, May 7, p. 43). A decision will come soon on work in Block 11, also in the Talara area. Meantime, Petroperu voided the tender for Block III and Areas A, B, and C and plans another tender call or direct negotiations for better offers.

EXPLORATION

OIL INDIA LTD. tapped the first commercial Eocene oil in the Assam and Arunachal Pradesh states of India. Its first wildcat in Dikom area in Dibrugarh, Assam, flowed about 717 b/d from Lakadong-Theria sand at 11,614-624 ft. OIL estimates Lakadong-Theria reserves in the Dikom structure at about 22 million bbl.

A EUROPEAN-THAI venture let a $5 million contract to Western Geophysical for conventional and 3D seismic surveys in the area of the gas prone B structure in the Gulf of Thailand beginning early this fall. State owned PTT Exploration & Production, Total CFP, British Gas plc, and Norway's Den norsk stats oljeselskap AS recently signed an agreement to develop the B structure and further explore the concession (OGJ, Apr. 2, p. 22).

SCEPTRE RESOURCES LID., Calgary, signed a production sharing agreement for the 2.2 million acre Block 111 in the Gulf of Tonkin off Viet Nam. Sceptre plans seismic work in 1990 and drilling in 1991 on the block.

ACQUISITIONS

BAYER AG agreed to buy the equity in Nova Corp.'s synthetic rubber business for $1.25 billion (Canadian). Nova also will be released from debt obligations associated with the rubber business of about $100 million (Canadian) and all trade and other liabilities. The rubber unit had been a part of Polysar Ltd., which Nova acquired in 1988.

CHINESE PETROLEUM CORP. (CPC) affiliate Opicoil America Inc. completed acquisition of Huffington Corp. (OGJ, Apr. 16, Newsletter). Both companies are based in Houston. CPC is Taiwan's state oil company.

BEAU CANADA EXPLORATION LTD., Calgary, purchased 75 producing oil wells and related facilities in West Central Saskatchewan from Amoco Canada Ltd. for about $4 million (Canadian).

ENVIRONMENT

A CRUDE OIL SPILL of undetermined size off Baja California, Mexico, fouled resort beaches about 20 miles south of the U.S. border. A Mexican government official said the spill apparently occurred during tanker offloading near a crude storage terminal operated by state owned Petroleos Mexicanos. Pemex, which did not comment on the incident, will take responsibility for cleanup, the government official said.

CREWS from several Baltic nations at presstime last week were completing cleanup of a 900 metric ton crude oil spill from the Soviet Volgoneft-263 tanker, which collided with a West German vessel off Sweden May 14 (OGJ, May 21, p. 31).

TRANSPORTATION

BP EXPLORATION let a 20 million ($32.8 million) contract to Brown & Root Ltd. for detailed design and procurement of an expansion of oil and gas liquids handling capacity at its Kinneil terminal near Grangemouth, Scotland. The expansion is related to BP's 2310 million project to boost capacity of the onshore part of the Forties pipeline in line with a capacity increase in the offshore part of the line to 900,000 b/d from 630,000 b/d.

MARKETING

HUNGARY'S government is preparing to privatize its main supplier of gasoline and petroleum products, AFOR Asvanyolajforgalmi Vallalat. AFOR, with more than 400 service stations and a product pipeline distribution network, is to be restructured into a public limited liability company Jan. 1, 1991, with help from Ernst & Young.

COMPANIES

NORTH CANADIAN OILS LTD. and Coseka Resources, both of Calgary, agreed tentatively to a merger under which Coseka is to become a part of North Canadian, which purchased a 46.6% interest in Coseka in January. Coseka has about $160 million in debt.

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