INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

June 11, 1990
CANADA'S first integrated ethanol plant/cattle feedlot expansion will be built at a cost of $12 million (Canadian) at Lanigan, Sask., by a combine of Pound-Maker Feeders Ltd., Mohawk Oil Canada Ltd., and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The plant will produce about 10 million I./year of ethanol and double the size of Pound-Maker's feedlot at Lanigan.

ALTERNATE FUEL

CANADA'S first integrated ethanol plant/cattle feedlot expansion will be built at a cost of $12 million (Canadian) at Lanigan, Sask., by a combine of Pound-Maker Feeders Ltd., Mohawk Oil Canada Ltd., and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The plant will produce about 10 million I./year of ethanol and double the size of Pound-Maker's feedlot at Lanigan.

EXPLORATION

A PETRO-CANADA GROUP plans to drill three wildcats, conduct seismic surveys, and reprocess existing seismic data under a 3 year exploration contract on a 6,959 sq mile block off Con Son Island, southern Viet Nam. Operator Petro-Canada will hold 50% interest in the block, with Husky Oil Ltd., Calgary, and Kuwait's state owned Kufpec sharing the remaining interest.

TOTAL-CFP will shoot 4,500 line km of seismic surveys the next 18 months on a 5,897 sq km exploration tract in Algeria, about 560 miles southwest of Algiers and east of Bechar. If the surveys are successful, Total and state owned Sonatrach will sign an exploration agreement.

RANGER OIL LTD., Calgary, estimates reserves in Markham gas field in the Dutch North Sea at more than 500 bcf after completion of an appraisal program. The J6-3 well flowed 34 MMcfd and 230 b/d of condensate. Development plans are under way, with production to start in 1992.

VG EXPLORACION-PRODUCCION SA started field surveys near abandoned Pirin oil field in the Titicaca basin of Peru (see map, OGJ, May 7, p. 43). VG expects to buy a U.S. mobile rig rated to 8, 000-1 0, 000 ft to work on its 4 year exploration program involving 300 line km of seismic surveys and four wildcats. First phase program spending is to be at least $500,000. Assisting the VG geological team as an independent consultant is a Soviet geologist with Sojuskarta, Moscow.

MARKETING

LIBYAN CONTROLLED TAMOIL, an Italian downstream company, acquired control of the Swiss marketing company Gatoil (Suisse) after court appointed administrators accepted its 200 million Swiss franc ($140 million) offer. Tamoil will acquire Gatoil's 72,000 b/d Collombey refinery and 350 service stations in Switzerland. Gatoil has been on the market since its owner Khamil Ghattas was arrested and extradited to West Germany last year in connection with large losses by a West German trading company.

TRANSPORTATION

SOC. DU PIPELINE MEDITERRANEE-RHONE let contract to OTP Engineering for engineering on a 12 3/4 in., 150 km products pipeline linking La Mede refinery near Etang de Bare in southern France with storage facilities at Puget sur Argens. Engineering is to be complete by yearend, with construction beginning in 1991.

TRILOGY RESOURCE CORP., Calgary, completed a prepaid gas sales agreement with Indeck Gas Supply Corp., Wheeling, 111. Trilogy will receive $19 million Nov. 1 from Indeck for the gas, which will supply a cogeneration plant in New York. Subject to regulatory approvals, Trilogy will deliver 30.9 bcf during 13-18 years beginning Nov. 1, 1991.

GUERRILLAS again bombed Colombia's Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline, causing a substantial oil spill and suspension of 230,000 b/d throughput for crude exports, said state owned Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos. The bombing, the pipeline's ninth this year, ruptured the line between Bonadia and Samore pump stations. Bombings in 1989 spilled about 100,000 bbl of crude and caused $13 million in damage to the line.

REFINING

IRAN AND PAKISTAN plan a joint venture to build an 80,000 b/d, $400 million refinery at Port Qasim near Karachi. Pakistan wants Iran to pay half the cost while it buys Iranian crude for the plant and seeks international funds for the balance.

CHINA PETROCHEMICAL CORP. plans Fujian province's first refinery, a 350,000 b/d plant in Huian county on the south shore of Meizhou Bay. Cost is pegged at 1.033 billion yuan. Completion is scheduled for 1994.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

NORSK HYDRO AS claimed a North Sea record for most production from a single installation by producing 356,719 b/d from eight wells through its Oseberg platform in a planned 24 hr test of the unit's capacity. Previous record was 342,689 b/d from Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia)'s Piper field.

EASTMAN CHRISTENSEN, a unit of Baker Hughes Inc., claimed most cumulative footage world records for a 12 1/4 in. PDC bit and for a steerable motor in the U. K. North Sea. Its R435SNG bit drilled 31,480 ft in eight runs, and 30,725 ft of that was on its Nortrak DTU steerable motor. One run used a rotary assembly. The runs were in high angle directional wells, where formations included Cretaceous Shetland marl and claystone, drilled from Shell Exploration & Production's Cormorant Alpha and North Comorant platforms.

A EUROPEAN-THAI VENTURE led by Total CFP let a contract valued at $400,000-500,000 to Racal Survey Ltd., Surrey, U.K., for a seabed survey of its B structure concession in the Gulf of Thailand. It will determine best sites for three 4 pile wellhead platforms and an eight pile central processing platform (OGJ, May 28, p. 42).

PETROCHEMICALS

THE U.S.S.R.'S Po-Styrol let a $4.3 million contract to Sterch, a joint venture of Honeywell Inc., Minneapolis, and the soviet ministry Agrochim, for an industrial process control system and field instrumentation for its ammonia plant in Gorlovka, Ukraine. System start-up is scheduled for May 1991. Sterch has received six orders for process control upgrades at Soviet fertilizer plants and identified more than 100 other process plant candidates in the U.S.S.R.

NESTE PRODUCTOS QUIMICOS, a unit of Finland's Neste Chemicals, let contract to Stone & Webster Ltd., Milton Keynes, England, to study feasibility of a revamp and expansion of its Sines ethylene plant in Portugal.

COMPANIES

SHELL CANADA LTD. will cut staff by 800 before yearend 1991 in a major restructuring. Changes will affect mostly refining, marketing, and chemical divisions. Its current work force totals about 7,220. Staff cuts will occur through layoffs and attrition. Shell previously announced plans to sell some of its 3,500 service stations and 450 rural outlets to independent operators.

CONWEST EXPLORATION CO., Mineral Resources International Ltd., and Barons Oil Ltd. completed a merger. The Calgary company will operate under the Conwest name.

Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.