U.S. BRIEFS

EXPLORATION

AMOCO PRODUCTION CO.'S 1-21 Cindy wildcat in Latimer County, Okla., flowed 10.9 MMcfd through a 32/64 in. choke with 1,750 psi flowing tubing pressure from pay at 13,584-616 ft in Pennsylvanian Spiro-Wapanucka after acid and fracture treatment. The discovery is in the Ouachita thrust belt of the Arkoma basin, about 6 miles east of Wilburton and 8 miles southwest of Red Oak gas field. Gas from the well is being sold through Amoco's Panola gathering system.

COGENERATION

BINGHAMTON COGENERATION LP let contract to Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Cherry Hill, N.J., to design, procure equipment, build, and operate a 50,000 kw cogeneration plant in Binghamton, N.Y. Cogeneration Partners of America will manage construction and operation of the plant.

SMITH COGENERATION, Oklahoma City, will proceed with plans to build the Lawton-Goodyear cogeneration plant in Lawton, Okla., after an Oklahoma Corporation Commission judge ruled Public Service Co. of Oklahoma will need new electrical power capacity by 1993-94. Smith plans to buy 100 MMcfd of Oklahoma gas beginning in 1993-94: 50 MMcfd for the Lawton plant and 25 MMcfd each for the Will Rogers Airport and University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center cogeneration projects, both in Oklahoma City.

PIPELINES

COMMONWEALTH GAS PIPELINE CORP. merged with Columbia Gas Transmission Corp., Charleston, W.Va., with Commonwealth's 569 mile intrastate system in Virginia becoming part of Columbia's southeast region.

WESTERN GAS SUPPLY CO., Denver, completed an interconnect linking the Denver-Julesburg basin with the 500 mile Trailblazer gas pipeline at a point near Rockport, Colo., 3 miles south of the Wyoming border. The project converted an oil pipeline Western Gas bought from Conoco Inc.

ALABAMA filed suit against Transco Energy Co., seeking damages of $93 million under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations and Endangered Species acts and state laws as a result of construction in 1987 of Transco's Mobile Bay lateral. The suit alleges destruction of archaeological sites and habitats of endangered species. Transco denies wrongdoing, citing employment of more than 50 archaeologists during planning and construction of the project.

TEJAS GAS CORP., Houston, completed its purchase of a 50% interest in Acadian Gas Group from MidCon Corp., Lombard, III, for an undisclosed price. The purchase includes 560 miles of pipeline.

KERN RIVER GAS TRANSMISSION CO. began construction Jan. 2 in Southwest Utah on its 904 mile Wyoming-California gas pipeline project (see map, OGJ, Dec. 3, 1990, p. 34).

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

BENTON OIL & GAS CO., Ventura, Calif., acquired another 7.6% interest in West Cote Blanche Bay field off Louisiana for $5 million, hiking its share to 26.7%. Benton now owns West Cote reserves of 3.1 million bbl of oil and 1.4 bcf of gas. In addition to cumulative acquisition costs of $12.5 million, Benton expects to spend another $25 million to develop additional reserves of 7 million bbl and 11 bcf.

HAWKINS OIL & GAS INC., Tulsa, with its affiliates and SMR Energy Income Funds, acquired a working interest in 313 oil and gas wells in East Texas, South Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi for $8.2 million. Hawkins will operate 85 of the leases and manage the entire purchase, which is producing 281 b/d and 2.2 MMcfd.

EXXON CO. U.S.A. is seeking bids for purchase of its operations in five fields-Fishers Reef, Red Fish Reef, Trinity Bay, Stephenson Point, and Goose Greek on and offshore in the Galveston Bay area of the Texas Gulf Coast. Bids are due Mar. 1, and sale date will be May 1.

COMPANIES

HALLIBURTON CO., Dallas, received notice from the Internal Revenue Service for claims of about $247 million in income taxes owed for the 198086 tax years, excluding interest. Halliburton is contesting more than 200 tax return adjustments proposed by the IRS. Halliburton also filed claims in U.S. tax court for refunds totaling $115 million plus interest for the years in dispute.

BLUE DOLPHIN ENERGY CO., Houston, acquired 6.263 million shares of its outstanding stock from majority shareholder Dolphin Pipeline Inc. in exchange for $3.5 million in assumed debt and a "small amount" of cash. Blue Dolphin expects to realize a $1 million gain from the acquired debt and reduced interest payments.

TEXAS MERIDIAN RESOURCES LTD., Houston, a master limited partnership, completed its restructuring and recapitalization by converting into a corporation, Texas Meridian Resources Corp. One share of Texas Meridian Resources Corp. common stock is being issued for every five common partnership units. All outstanding preferred units in Texas Meridian Resources Ltd. will also be converted to common stock in the corporation.

HADSON ENERGY RESOURCES CORP., Oklahoma City, will pay about $16.9 million, at $6.24/share, to merge with Baruch-Foster Corp. Terms provide for Baruch-Foster to become a Hadson subsidiary, adding about 2.3 million bbl of oil and 9.5 bcf of gas to Hadson's reserves. Hadson plans to close Baruch-Foster's Dallas office and merge it with Hadson's Oklahoma City operations.

ALEXANDER ENERGY CORP., Oklahoma City, ceased negotiations by Mutual agreement to acquire Bonray Energy Corp., also of Oklahoma City. The two firms had signed a letter of intent in November for the purchase by Alexander of all Bonray stock.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON, Los Angeles, signed 15 year gas supply contracts with four Alberta producers. Shell Canada Ltd., Esso Resources Canada Ltd. AEC Oil & Gas Co., and Western Gas Marketing Ltd. will each supply as much as 50 MMcfd via a proposed Pacific Gas Transmission Co. line expansion. Deliveries are to begin within 3 years, subject to regulatory approvals.

PETROCHEMICALS

A JOINT VENTURE of Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s OxyChem and Japan's Marubeni Corp. started up a 1 .4 billion lb/year vinyl chloride monomer plant at Ingleside, Tex., near Corpus Christi. OxyChem operates and supplies chlorine and ehtylene feedstock for the plant, which it terms the world's largest VCM operation.