INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

ALBERTA'S Energy Resources Conservation Board approved a proposal to export as much as 38.8 bcf of gas to New York state during 15 years. Bow Valley Industries Ltd., Chesapeake Resources Ltd., Inverness Petroleum Ltd., Northstar Energy Ltd., and Universal Explorations Ltd. will sell the gas to Indeck Gas Supply Corp. with deliveries to begin Nov. 1.

ACQUISITIONS

SASKATCHEWAN sold 10 million shares in a formerly government owned oil company for $145 million. The shares in Saskatchewan Oil & Gas Ltd. were sold to a syndicate of Canadian underwriters headed by Scotia McLeod Inc., Toronto. Government ownership in the Regina, Sask., oil company, which produces about 32,700 b/d, will be reduced to 10% from about 25% by continued privatization.

EXPLORATION

WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LTD.'S 1 Yodel wildcat flowed 20.2 MMcfd of gas and 2,820 b/d of condensate through a 48/64 in. choke from 134.5 ft of gross pay at 10,420 ft on Australia's Northwest Shelf. The strike, 3.8 km south of Woodside's 1 Echo gas/condensate discovery, is the seventh successful well of eight drilled in the area.

MYUNG & ASSOCIATES INC., Tulsa, signed a joint venture agreement with China's state owned Hainan Oil Corp. for exploration and development on a 20,000 acre contract area in the Fushan basin of northern Hainan Island. It entails a $2 million, two well commitment and reprocessing of seismic data near Jinfeng field, a small oil and gas discovery by a joint venture of HOC and Australia's CSR Oriental Ltd. CSR relinquished a larger contract area that includes the new Myung contract area.

NEW ZEALAND PETROLEUM CO. LTD. began drilling 1 Ohanga wildcat to a projected 11 500 ft in PPL 38705 in the Taranaki basin on North Island, New Zealand, 4 km southwest of Urenui and 4 km north of McKee oil field. New Zealand Petroleum owns a 59% interest in 116,000 acre PPL 38705, Southern Petroleum (Ohanga) Ltd. 20%, Southern Petroleum (Okawa) Ltd. 10%, and New Zealand's Ministry of Commerce 11%.

REFINING

INDIAN OIL CORP. will build a 120,000 b/d refinery at Karnal, India, on its own instead of in a joint venture with Tatas and a Soviet agency. IOC pulled out of the venture because it disagreed with Tatas, which insisted on a turnkey approach to the project. Separately, IOC plans refinery throughput in fiscal 1990-91 of 473,600 b/d vs. 470,600 b/d in 1989-90.

A REFINERY at Collombey, Switzerland, has been restarted by the new owners, a group led by the Libyan controlled Tamoil SpA. The 72,000 b/d unit was shut down at the end of 1988 by the previous owner, Gatoil. It is running about 25,000 b/d of Libyan oil. The Tamoil group plans to spend about $80 million on the plant and restore throughput to 70,000 b/d by yearend 1992.

SUPPLY-DEMAND

INDIA'S Petroleum Ministry projects India's oil demand at about 1.177 million b/d, domestic production of crude and condensate at about 718,000 b/d, and refined products exports at about 34,440 b/d in 1990-91. The government earmarked $4.665 billion for imports of crude and products in 1990-91.

TRANSPORTATION

GREAT LAKES GAS TRANSMISSION CO., Detroit, which will become an open access transporter Nov. 1, is holding an open season until Oct. 19 for customers seeking interruptible transportation service. The company moves Canadian gas through a 1,300 mile pipeline to customers in the U.S. and Canada.

BP GAS MARKETING LTD. signed a contract with British Gas plc to transport gas from the U.K. North Sea Welland field from Bacton terminal on the east coast of England to industrial and commercial customers in the U.K. British Gas also will transport Welland gas for Mobil Gas Marketing (U.K.) Ltd and AGAS Ltd.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

CADIPSA, a private Argentinean company, in partnership with British Gas plc, acquired three oil producing areas in the San Jorge region of southern Argentina for $89 million. The areas, covering 203,000 acres, include three fields-Las Heras, Piedra Clavada, and Canadon Minerales--with reserves of 30-40 million bbl. The acreage was offered as part of the Argentine government's Petroplan. The two companies plan a four to fivefold increase in production by 1993 under Cadipsa operation.

STE. NATIONALE ELF AQUITAINE will develop its North Attala discovery in Northeast Syria after receiving government approval for a $100 million project. The initial 3 year phase will require drilling 21 wells and laying a 12-1/2 mile pipeline into the al-Furat Petroleum Co. pipeline system. Dair al-Zur Oil Co., owned equally by Elf and state owned Syrian Petroleum Co., will conduct development operations. Production will be less than 50,000 b/d.

AGIP (U.K.) LTD. asked approval from the U.K. Department of Energy to develop Toni oil field in the North Sea as a subsea satellite of Tiffany field, which received development approval in the summer. It let a 3 million ($5.67 million) contract to Cameron Offshore Engineering for the subsea production system. Toni drilling is to start in January 1992.

VAMGAS LTD., subsidiary of Santos Ltd., Adelaide, South Australia, is restoring production from wells in the Cooper and Eromanga basins, which was disrupted by heavy flooding earlier this year. Flooding forced Vamgas, which sold 600,000 bbl of oil during first half 1990, to defer production of 87,000 bbl to third and fourth quarters.

COMPANIES

PLACER DOME INC. finalized the sale of Canadian oil and gas operations of Placer GEGO Petroleum Holdings Ltd., Calgary, to Opus Acquisition Corp., also of Calgary, for $288.5 million (Canadian). The sale completes disposition of all Placer Dome's oil and gas businesses.

INDIA'S state owned Oil & Natural Gas Commission plans to produce 660,000 b/d of crude, 960 MMcfd of gas, and 14,500 b/d of LPG in 1990-91 vs. 632,200 b/d, 836 MMcfd, and 14,000 b/d in 1989-90.

IMPERIAL OIL LID., Toronto, will cut its payroll of about 15,250 but does not plan forced layoffs. Imperial released no details but is expected to follow the pattern of 1986 staff cuts in which it offered employees severance pay and early retirement.