U.S. BRIEFS

Sept. 17, 1990
AMERICAN EXPLORATION CO., Houston, agreed to acquire Hershey Oil Corp., Pasadena, Calif., for cash and stock. American Exploration will pay cash for up to 17.257% of Hershey and exchange 1.611 shares of its stock for each remaining share of Hershey stock. AMOCO OIL CO. will provide storage space for Great Lakes spill response materials at its product terminals in Bay City, Cheboygan, Escanaba, and Muskegon, Mich. The Spill Control Association of America will keep containment booms at the four

ACQUISITIONS

AMERICAN EXPLORATION CO., Houston, agreed to acquire Hershey Oil Corp., Pasadena, Calif., for cash and stock. American Exploration will pay cash for up to 17.257% of Hershey and exchange 1.611 shares of its stock for each remaining share of Hershey stock.

SPILL RESPONSE

AMOCO OIL CO. will provide storage space for Great Lakes spill response materials at its product terminals in Bay City, Cheboygan, Escanaba, and Muskegon, Mich. The Spill Control Association of America will keep containment booms at the four terminals. Michigan state police will provide trailers on which to store the booms.

MARKETING

EXXON CO. U.S.A. will halt sales of branded motor fuel in Colorado Mar. 15, 1991, but continue to sell other products in the state. The action directly affects 34 service stations, mostly in the Denver and Colorado Springs areas, and four distributors with storage units in Akron, Wiggins, Berthoud, and Trinidad, Colo. Exxon, citing a lack of market presence in Colorado, also will sell its interests in 33 stations in the state.

PIPELINES

KERN RIVER GAS TRANSMISSION CO., Tulsa, agreed to buy four 12,600 hp turbine compressors from Solar Turbines Inc., San Diego, for summer 1991 delivery for its proposed Wyoming-California system. Two compressors will be installed at stations in Muddy Creek, Wyo., and one each at Fillmore, Utah, and Goodsprings, Nev. Kern River also ordered 66 weld-in ball valves from Cameron Oil Tools to be delivered later this year.

PANHANDLE EASTERN PIPE LINE CO. asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to sell its Powder River, Wyo., gathering system to Phillips 66 Natural Gas Co. Located in Campbell, Converse, Weston, and Johnson counties, the system includes 31,559 hp of compression at 30 sites and about 370 miles of line.

EMPIRE STATE PIPELINE sponsors Coastal Corp., Union Energy Inc., and Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. agreed with National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. to interconnect the Empire and National Fuel pipelines in New York. National Fuel also will amend its filings to eliminate pipeline facilities that would duplicate Empire's in the Buffalo, N.Y., area and to transport gas on the Empire line.

PANHANDLE EASTERN CORP. units Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. and Algonquin Gas Transmission Co. asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Agency for a waiver allowing them to inject third party gas into storage and requested that the waiver be granted on an expedited basis.

GAS CO. OF NEW MEXICO, Albuquerque, held an open season for San Juan basin producers and marketers to establish firm capacity rights on its $9 million, 80 MMcfd capacity expansion. GCNM plans to install 10,700 hp of compression in two phases on its mainline from San Juan County, N.M., to the Rio Puerco interconnect with El Paso Natural Gas Co. and Transwestern Pipeline Co.

UNION PACIFIC RESOURCES CO., Fort Worth, plans to be operating partner of a proposed intrastate pipeline, East Texas Gas Systems, in Panola County, Tex. It will be connected to five interstate and seven intrastate pipelines, with service scheduled to begin in fall to most of those lines. Interests are Union Pacific Intrastate Pipeline Co. 52%, Damson Oil Corp., Houston, 41%, and several independent producers 7%.

TRANSOK INC., Tulsa, plans to add 5,500 hp to its Welty compressor station in Okfuskee County, Okla., to increase volume on its Texoma pipeline system, with completion scheduled for Dec. 1. Transok also expects to complete its 1,300 hp Bennington station compressor in Bryan County, Okla., by Oct. 1, which will increase Transok's interstate volume to 150 MMcfd.

CNG TRANSMISSION CORP., Clarksburg, W.Va., let a contract worth about $2 million to Novacorp International Consulting Inc., Calgary, for engineering of four compressor stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

PSI INC. let contract to Engicon Inc., Houston, for a compression and dehydration platform to be installed on High Island Block 157 in the Gulf of Mexico in October. Engicon will provide engineering, construction, supply, and offshore hookup.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

MARATHON OIL CO. plans to install an eight pile, 20 slot drilling and production platform on South Pass Block 86 off Louisiana in 388 ft of water. Platform C will have a capacity of 20,000 b/d of oil and 100 MMcfd of gas. It is scheduled to be installed early in 1992.

HALL-HOUSTON OFFSHORE, a joint venture of Edisto Resources Corp, Dallas, and Hall-Houston Oil Co. signed a 5 year contract to sell gas produced from several blocks off Texas and Louisiana. The buyer, whose name was not disclosed, prepaid $20 million and agreed to pay another $4.1 million during the contract term and buy any excess production at variable indexed prices.

COLUMBIA GAS DEVELOPMENT CORP.'S A-4 West Cameron 485 sidetrack well off Louisiana flowed a combined 21 MMcfd of gas and 507 b/d of condensate from two sands. The K-3 sand tested at 9.3 MMcfd and 224 b/d through a 20/64 in. choke with 3,700 psi flowing tubing pressure, and the J-5 sand flowed 11.7 MMcfd and 283 b/d through a 22/64 in. choke with 3,790 psi flowing tubing pressure. The well is in 150 ft of water about 97 miles south of Cameron, La.

EBCO U.S.A. INC., Oklahoma City, will hold an invitational sale of 600 producing leases Oct. 2 in Oklahoma City. The leases are in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Wyoming. EBCO also plans sales in Dallas Oct. 18 and Nov. 29, Denver Oct. 31, and Oklahoma City Dec. 13.

EXPLORATION

ARCO ALASKA INC. spudded its 1 Sturgeon wildcat off southern Alaska on the Big River prospect in the Cook Inlet basin, about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage. Partners Arco 50%. Beard Oil Co., Oklahoma City, 25%, Union Pacific Resources Co., Fort Worth, 20%, and Roman Petroleum Inc., Houston, 5% plan to spend $6 million and drill to 7,500 ft to test the Tertiary.

COGENERATION

ENERGY INVESTORS FUND LP, Boston, bought a 50% interest in the 80,000 kw Cambria County, Mass., cogeneration project from Air Products & Chemicals Inc., Allentown, Pa., for $30 million. The waste coal burning plant, being built about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh, will sell power to Pennsylvania Electric Co. when complete in spring 1991.

Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.