BP is making significant progress on cleanup of the oil spill off Huntington Beach, Calif. (OGJ, Feb. 19, p. 30).
It has removed all gross contamination from beaches and all oil from the water. A work force less than one third peak levels at about 300 began fine-polishing cleanup last week.
Some beaches were reopened, with more expected this week. BP wants to do some further survey work after some residual oil turned up in sand above the intertidal zone. Rock jetties off Newport Beach were found contaminated, and BP is bringing in equipment from Alaska for low pressure spraying of warmed seawater to clean them.
The wildlife toll at presstime last week: 508 birds received at recovery centers alive, of which 84 died and 53 were released, and 248 birds were received dead; six seals, of which two survived; and two dolphins received dead. It isn't certain how many of the mammals were killed by the oil.
The Coast Guard will require Exxon to resume cleaning Prince William Sound May 1 for an indefinite period.
Jack O'Dell, a Coast Guard spokesman in Anchorage, said nine teams will begin examining beaches Mar. 25.
As data are gathered, the Coast Guard will write work orders for beach cleanup. Exxon teams will begin fulfilling them May 1. The work force will be smaller than in summer 1989.
Two other incidents in mid-February drew attention to transportation operations.
A tanker truck being loaded with propane at Amoco's 350,000 b/d Whiting, Ind., refinery, exploded and burned Feb. 20. Two workers were killed, two others hospitalized in fair condition, and 75-100 residents evacuated. No process or storage units were involved. Cause was under investigation.
A gasoline laden barge caught fire after it collided with another barge in rain and fog Feb. 18 in the Intracoastal Waterway near Morgan City, La.
A Mississippian Bakken shale horizontal completion in Billings County, N.D., is raising eyebrows.
Slawson Exploration Co., Wichita, plans to develop 8 sq miles around its 1-7 Sidewinder, which flowed at the rate of 1,362 b/d of oil through an 18/64 in. choke with 1,050 psi flowing tubing pressure with a large, ungauged volume of gas.
The well penetrated 1,814 ft of Bakken, of which only 14 ft is producing through slotted casing. Nearby vertical Bakken wells produce 10-50 b/d of oil.
Several other operators are drilling or planning Bakken horizontal wells in the area.
Blanco, N.M., may become a San Juan basin gas hub.
Northwest Pipeline Corp., in response to shipper requests, will lay 33 miles of 30 in. pipe by yearend to extend its main line from Ignacio gas processing plant at Durango, Colo., to Blanco. The 300 MMcfd, Sec. 311 line will cost $28 million.
El Paso Natural Gas Co.'s capacity to move gas west from Blanco is much larger than at Northwest-El Paso interconnects at La Jara, N.M., or Ignacio, Colo.
El Paso has sought federal approval to expand its system westward from Blanco, Transwestern Pipeline Co. plans to extend its system from Thoreau, N.M., to Blanco, and other projects may be in the offing in the area.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a final rule that terminates incentive pricing for first sales of gas from tight form ct. The rule takes affect after May 12, 1990.
FERC termed the incentives increasingly irrelevant in stimulating new supplies. Some tight sands gas may still qualify for a nonconventional fuel tax credit, which the Internal Revenue Service is amending.
A state agency and a construction company are diversifying their energy operations.
Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, Lincoln, working with Coopers & Lybrand, Denver, has begun a program to acquire direct ownership in gas producing properties to secure long term supplies for s stem demand.
Peter Kiewit Sons Inc., Omaha construction/energy concern, set up Kiewit Energy Co., a subsidiary, to develop and invest in cogeneration and independent power projects.
Bangladesh has only one bidder for exploratory acreage offered June 15, 1989 (OGJ, Mar. 27, 1989, p. 32). A Texaco-Unocal combine bid for three adjoining blocks totaling 23,959 sq km in the Surma basin near the northeastern border with India.
The blocks lie near the country's first oil discovery, made by state owned Bangladesh Oil & Gas Minerals Corp. (OGJ, June 8, 1987, p. 22). Talks on a production sharing contract are expected to begin within 2 months and take 6-12 months.
The only other companies with production sharing contracts in Bangladesh are Royal Dutch/Shell and Scimitar Oil. Bangladesh offered 13 onshore blocks covering 108,017 sq km onshore in bidding that closed Jan. 15 and will offer six offshore blocks totaling 63,000 sq km in a second 6 month bid phase that has not been scheduled.
Shell U.K. Ltd. will proceed with the first commercial application of a process that uses gas containing ethylene to produce ethylbenzene.
The company will build a 57 million ($97 million) plant at its Stanlow manufacturing complex, Cheshire, England, to use feedstock from the unit's catalytic cracker. It will produce 160,000 tons/year of ethylbenzene, mostly for export to Holland for styrene manufacture. Main contractor is Fluor Daniel Ltd.
Chevron Chemical Co. plans a 280 million lb/year expansion at one of its Texas polyethylene plants.
The company is seeking bids and will announce a site after talks with local authorities. The expansion will hike company capacity to 850 million lb/year of high density polyethylene.
The National Highway Safety Administration has proposed minimum driving ranges of 200 miles for passenger cars capable of burning alcohol fuels or gasoline and 100 miles for those capable of using gasoline or natural gas.
The NHSA standards would comply with a 1988 law designed to give manufacturers flexibility in meeting their fleet fuel economy standards, says a Feb. 16 Federal Register notice.
Different groups of oil companies face price fixing charges in California and are off the hook in the U.K.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear oil companies' appeals that evidence is insufficient to permit them to be sued for price fixing in California.
California State Lands Commission and the City of Long Beach, in suits filed in 1975 and 1986, claim the oil firms conspired to depress the price of crude produced from Wilmington field on their land. They are seeking $280 million from Chevron, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, Texaco, and Union of California.
Meantime, the U.K. Monopolies and Mergers Commission, rejecting claims of excess profits, cleared Britain's gasoline marketers of collusion in pricing after a year of investigation.
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