U.S. BRIEFS

EXPLORATION

MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE set terms for OCS Sale 123 of 5,698 blocks covering 30.5 million acres in the Central Gulf of Mexico. The sale, scheduled Mar. 21 at Le Meridien Hotel, New Orleans, will offer tracts 3220 miles off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in 4-3,200 m of water.

COGENERATION

WILLIAMS POWER CO., Tulsa, and KVA Resources Inc., Bellevue, Wash., formed a joint venture to build an $80 million, 100,000 kw cogeneration plant 30 miles north of Las Vegas, Nev., on the Moapa River Indian reservation by first half 1991. The plant will produce electricity and carbon dioxide. Adjacent to Kern River Gas Transmission Co. right-of-way, it will burn liquefied petroleum gas until the pipeline starts up in late 1991 to early 1992.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

GENESIS PRODUCING CO., Corpus Christi, plans to sell its interests in oil and gas leases off Texas and along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. Net proved reserves are estimated at 13.4 bcf of gas and 1 million st-tk bbl of oil. Black Energy Resources Co., Houston, has been hired to broker the interests.

EXXON CO. U.S.A. let a 15 year contract to Niject Services Co., Tulsa, to supply 65 MMcfd of nitrogen to Hawkins Field Unit, Wood County, Tex. Niject will design, build, own, and operate a cryogenic plant in the unit.

AN ARKLA EXPLORATION CO. joint venture will try to confirm a new field discovery in the Wilcox trend of East Central Louisiana. The 1-6 Ellis Estate discovery in Concordia Parish flowed 240 b/d of oil through a 10/64 in. choke with 1,425 psi flowing tubing pressure from Eocene Wilcox perforations at 7,770-92 ft. It is about 2 miles east of North Milligan Bayou field. As many as four offset wells could be drilled. Joint venturers are Harry H. Cullen, Houston, and Nehawka Energy Ltd., Phoenix.

NAHAMA & WEAGANT ENERGY CO., Bakersfield, Calif., plans to develop Tracy gas field in California's Sacramento Valley. The discovery well flowed 1.56 MMcfd of gas through a 12/64 in. choke with 1,336 psi flowing tubing pressure from Upper Cretaceous Blewett perforations at 3,495-3,515 ft. The well cut 50 ft of net pay. Gas sales are to start in March. N&W will start selling 4-5 MMcfd by Feb. 28 from 1-10 Glide, the South Putah Sink field discovery well, at $2.25/Mcf (OGJ, Feb. 12, p. 23).

MITCHELL ENERGY & DEVELOPMENT CORP. completed five wells in North Personville field, Limestone County, Tex. The 2 R.F. Jackson B, largest of the new completions, flowed 3.5 MMcfd of gas through a 13/64 in. choke with 3,000 psi flowing tubing pressure from Jurassic Cotton Valley limestone perforations at 10,962-11,194 ft. Mitchell's interests in the five wells are 66-100%.

SAMEDAN OIL CORP. is developing a Smith County, Tex., oil discovery. The 2 Anderson flowed 432 b/d of oil through a 1/2 in. choke with 100 psi flowing tubing pressure from Lower Cretaceous Paluxy. The well cut 22 ft of pay. A southwest confirmation well flowed 720 b/d of oil through a 1/2 in. choke with 140 psi flowing tubing pressure from Paluxy and logged 35 ft of Paluxy pay. A well northeast of the discovery cut 25 ft of oil pay and is being completed.

SAMEDAN OIL CORP. completed a deeper pool discovery, 1-3 Perkins, in Sho-Vel-Tum field, Carter County, Okla. It flowed 334 b/d of oil and 560 Mcfd of gas through a 16/64 in. choke with 490 psi flowing tubing pressure from Mississippian Sycamore limestone. The well logged 136 ft of Sycamore pay between 8,416 and 8,790 ft. Samedan has a 90% interest in the well and 20% and 25% interests in two offsets being drilled by Maynard Oil Co., Dallas.

MCA PETROLEUM CORP., San Marcos, Tex., is boosting production from Muldoon field, Fayette County, Tex., where it plans one or two more infill wells and one or two more recompletions. After acquiring leases in the field, MCA drilled five infill wells and recompleted three abandoned wells, raising combined production to 145 b/d of oil from Eocene Reklaw at about 2,300 ft from 5 b/d from two wells in 1985. Before 1985 the field had produced more than 1.5 million bbl of Reklaw oil.

GLOBAL NATURAL RESOURCES INC. Houston, and El Paso Natural Gas Co. settled a take or pay dispute involving Global's interest in southwestern U.S. properties. The settlement involved a cash payment and change in the gas purchase contract. Global, which has been receiving no cash flow from the properties, expects to begin receiving about $5 million/year.

PRIDE PETROLEUM SERVICES INC., Houston, took a $372,000 write-down in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 1989, on 16 service rigs it retains for parts. Pride said a large capital investment would have been needed to refurbish the rigs and cited a shortage of qualified crews.

THE ALABAMA SENATE Sunset Committee reported out a bill that would increase the Alabama Oil & Gas Board's fine limit to $10,000/day from $1,000/day.

DRACO GAS PARTNERS LP, Tulsa, purchased the oil and gas interests of Parker Drilling Co., also of Tulsa. Net proved reserves of the 105 wells and a partnership are 5 bcf of gas and 60,000 bbl of oil. Partners in Draco Gas are MEGA Natural Gas Co.'s Draco Production Co., Tulsa, and Natural Gas Partners, Fort Worth.

TRANSPORTATION

CONSOLIDATED NATURAL GAS CO. completed the acquisition of Virginia Natural Gas Inc. from Dominion Resources Inc. retroactive to Jan. 1, 1990, for about $160 million.

COMMODITIES

COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION approved a New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) plan to limit foreign crudes deliverable under Nymex's light, sweet crude futures contract starting with April 1990 contracts. Nymex, establishing a procedure to express a delivery preference, will accept North Sea Brent, Nigerian Bonny light, Norwegian Oseberg blend, and West Texas intermediate and six other U.S. grades. No longer acceptable are Nigerian Brass blend, North Sea Ekofisk, Algerian Zarzaitine-El Borma, and Egyptian Saharan blends.

PROCESSING

PENNZOIL CO. and about 250 workers represented by the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union at its 15,700 b/d Rouseville, Pa., lube oil plant reached a labor agreement, settling a strike (OGJ, Feb. 12, p. 28).

HUNTSMAN CHEMICAL CORP. let contract to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Pasadena, Calif., for a large portion of construction related to a $22 million expansion of its Bayport, Tex., styrene monomer plant. Capacity will be expanded to 1.25 billion lb/year from 1 billion lb/year.