U.S. BRIEFS

REFINING

UNOCAL CORP. will build a 55,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracker feed hydrotreater, hydrogen plant, and sulfur recovery units at its Wilmington, Calif., refinery. The $515 million project, scheduled to go on stream in late 1993, will enable Unocal to produce reformulated gasolines and reduce sulfur oxide emissions at the FCC unit.

HIGH PLAINS CORP., Wichita, Kan., expects to complete expansion in January of its Colwich, Kan., ethanol plant, which will hike production to 15 million gal/year from 10 million gal/year.

EXPLORATION

UNOCAL CORP.'S 1-8 State Garfield wildcat in Kalkaska County, Mich., flowed about 9 MMcfd of gas through an 18/64 in. choke with 4,145 psi flowing tubing pressure from Ordovician lower Prairie du Chien sandstone perforations at 10,890-950 ft. Calculated absolute open flow was 91 MMcfd. A drillstem test of upper Prairie du Chien at 9,843-903 ft flowed a maximum 3.6 MMcfd through a 1/2 in. choke with 560 psi flowing drillpipe pressure.

ACQUISITIONS

AMAX OIL & GAS INC., Houston, completed its purchase of General Electric Co. unit Ladd Petroleum Corp., Denver, for $515 million plus net working capital. Amax plans to operate Ladd as a subsidiary until organization is complete.

A.F.D. CAPITAL GROUP INC., New York, signed a letter of intent to buy all shares of Aztec Gas & Oil Inc., Las Vegas, Nev. Aztec owns interests in more than 220 producing wells in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota with reserves valued at more than $14 million. Terms call for present owners of Aztec to own at least 80% of the combined entity at closing. The parties hope to sign a final contract in first quarter 1991.

PG&E RESOURCES CO., Dallas, acquired Corpus Christi Exploration Co. for an undisclosed price. Corpus Christi Exploration, which operates more than 100 gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico with more than 225 MMcfd productive capacity, will become PG&E Resources Offshore Co.

PETROCHEMICALS

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM CO. was fined $14,300 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for three alleged safety violations stemming from a June 8 fire in the K resin plant at Phillips' Pasadena, Tex., chemical complex. OSHA said it found two willful violations of federal safety law and one serious violation in its probe of the fire that injured four persons.

PIPELINES

ANR IROQUOIS INC., a unit of Coastal Corp., and Consolidated Natural Gas Co. unit CNG Transmission Corp. will each buy another 3% interest in Iroquois Pipeline Transmission System from Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. unit Texas Eastern Iroquois Inc. The purchases, expected in February 1991, will hike the two firms' shares of the 370 mile, 575 MMcfd project to 9.4% each. Also, an affiliate of Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. will buy Texas Eastern's remaining 0.4% of Iroquois.

COMPANIES

GRACE PETROLEUM CORP., Oklahoma City, plans more emphasis on exploration and development during 1991, with outlays of $37.3 million, a 44% increase over estimated 1990 E&D spending. Grace earmarked $27 million of next year's budget for development projects, mainly in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Grace expects to spend about $9.9 million on exploration in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and the Michigan basin.

CHEVRON CORP. will charge $220 million against fourth quarter earnings as a result of plans to sell its $287 million/year fertilizer operations. Chevron hopes to sell the operations, which produce 1 million tons/year of nitrogen and 450,000 tons/year of nitrogen fertilizers, next year.

GOVERNMENT

A FEDERAL GRAND JURY in Los Angeles indicted six Los Angeles area wholesale gasoline distributors on charges of evading more than $1.3 million in federal excise taxes in 1987. Those indicted are the owners of Jolana Enterprises, Lomar Enterprises, later called Atlantida Marketing, Dinamo Distribution Co., and Triangle Marketing Co., later called Hi Octane Inc.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

CONOCO INC. bought interests held by Forest Oil Corp., Denver, in 107 oil and gas wells in Webb County, South Texas, for about $39 million. Forest pegged proved reserves at about 300,000 bbl of oil and 18 bcf of gas.

TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION returned the allowable in East Texas field to 86% from 100%, reversing a prior decision. A state court in Houston, which is hearing a lawsuit by field operators challenging the 86% allowable, told TRC it did not object to the lower figure pending a final judgment. TRC had temporarily raised the allowable to comply with the court's injunction (OGJ, Dec. 3, p. 38).

GRACE DRILLING CO. upgraded its five rig fleet in the Kenai, Alas., area by replacing two older units with an electric rig rated to 25,000 ft and a workover rig rated to 12,000 ft. Grace also equipped two other rigs for closed loop drilling operations.

EXXON CO. U.S.A. will offer for sale 39 producing leases in West Texas. Bids are due Feb. 1, 1991, with effective sale date the following May 1.

SONAT EXPLORATION CO., Birmingham, Ala., agreed to buy producing leases in Oklahoma and Wyoming from Sunshine Mining Co. unit Argent Energy Inc. for about $150 million before adjustments. Sonat said the 208,000 developed and 410,000 undeveloped acres of leases hold 218 net producing wells. Closing is expected early next month.

VINTAGE PETROLEUM INC., Tulsa, acquired an interest in a 31 well waterflood unit in Clarke County, Miss., from Shell Western E&P Inc. for about $2.4 million. The 25 oil and gas wells, with six injection wells, are producing a net 200 b/d and 65 Mcfd.

GAS PROCESSING

ROCKLAND PIPELINE CO., a unit of Electrafina of Belgium, acquired a 50% interest in the 6 MMcfd AA Carlsbad gas processing plant in Tom Green County, Tex., from American Trading & Production Co. for an undisclosed price. Rockland began operating the plant Nov. 1.

COGENERATION

O'BRIEN ENERGY SYSTEMS INC., Philadelphia, made the final equity payment of $12.8 million on its $102 million Parlin, N.J., cogeneration plant, which it expects to start up early in 1991. Also, Chrysler Capital Corp. made the final $17.5 million equity payment to the $71 million Hartford, Conn., district thermal project for which O'Brien is managing partner. The Hartford project is completing start-up testing.