U. S. BRIEFS

ENVIRONMENT

MOBIL CORP. settled lawsuits with six states over its advertising for Hefty degradable trash bags. The suits alleged Mobil misled the public in its environmental claims for the bags. Under the settlement, Mobil admitted no wrongdoing and paid each of the states $25,000 for consumer education programs or for cooperative efforts with the Federal Trade Commission to develop environmental advertising guidelines.

SHELL OIL CO. is packaging motor oil in 1 gal plastic bottles made with 15% recycled plastic and 85% virgin high density polyethylene. Shell blending and filling plants using the bottles are in Sewaren, N.J., Wood River, III., Wilmington, Calif., and Willbridge, Ore. Shell has been packaging motor oil in 1 qt bottles made of recycled plastic since early 1990.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

APACHE CORP., Denver, completed the purchase of selected Amoco Production Co. oil and gas assets for about $515 million and completed the sale of its gas leases in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles to Maxus Energy Corp. for $51 million (OGJ, May 13, p. 35). The sale is part of Apache's plan to sell $150 million worth of leases by Dec. 31, 1992, to reduce debt incurred by the Amoco acquisition.

PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT CORP., Bridgeport, W. Va., closed its PDC 1991-A drilling partnership with $2.74 million, compared with $1.41 million for its first partnership of 1990. The partnership plans to participate in about 14 gas wells in North Central West Virginia, bringing PDC's 1991 well total to 33, compared with 28 for the same period last year.

DIAGNOSTIC SCIENCES INC., New York, will acquire Norton Drilling Co., Lubbock, Tex., in a tax free exchange of stock, subject to approval by July 15 of DSI's board. DSI will issue 4.165.16 million shares of common stock. Norton can earn another 1-1.25 million shares by earning an average of $3 million/year 2-5 years after closing. Norton owns and operates 13 drilling rigs in the Rocky Mountains, Texas, and New Mexico, and had 1990 revenues of about $21.4 million.

SONAT EXPLORATION CO., Houston, acquired interests in 114 wells primarily in East Texas from Search Exploration Inc. Terms are undisclosed. The purchase, made through Sonat's Marshall Exploration Inc. subsidiary, resolves a legal dispute between Search and Marshall about the rollup of certain oil and gas limited partnerships Search acquired in late 1989.

PIPELINES

THE PROPOSED MERGER of North Carolina Natural Gas Corp. and Sonat Inc., originally scheduled to close July 31, is delayed pending investigation of potential environmental problems at NCNG sites where synthetic gas was produced in the early 1900s. NCNG never operated the facilities but is investigating possible problems. While the companies discuss proposals for amending and restructuring the merger agreement, Sonat said there is no assurance an agreement will be reached.

COLORADO INTERSTATE GAS CO. was scheduled to begin open access transportation July 1 through its Wyoming Interstate Co. natural gas pipeline. It is the third segment of the Trailblazer system to adopt open access transportation. The system moves gas from Southwest Wyoming to the Midwest and East Coast.

EXPLORATION

FOWLER & WURZEL EXPLORATION, a joint venture of J5 Inc., Englewood, Colo., and WSF Inc., Shreveport, will conduct a 2 year Michigan basin exploration campaign that includes a 23 well Antrim shale drilling program in Montmorency County, Mich.

REFINING

PHILLIPS 66 CO resumed processing sour crude oil at its Sweeny, Tex., refinery June 27. An Apr. 13 fire damaged the refinery's atmospheric residuum desulfurization unit, and since then the refinery has been processing only sweet crude (OGJ, May 20, p. 34). The ARDS unit is running at half of capacity, enabling the 140,000 b/d refinery to process an average 90,000 b/d of sour crude.

CHEVRON CORP. completed a revamp of the catalytic cracker unit at its 295,000 b/d Pascagoula, Miss., refinery. The revamp will sustain unit capacity at 65,000 b/d. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. provided engineering, procurement, and construction services for the project. Work centered on the catalytic cracker unit, a crude processing unit, and related gas recovery and fractionation projects.

COGENERATION

O'BRIEN ENERGY SYSTEMS INC., Philadelphia, put its 101,000 kw, Dupont-Parlin cogeneration project in Sayerville, N.J., on line after it passed a 72 hr performance test. The natural gas fueled plant supplies steam and electrical power to a DuPont chemical complex and base load electricity to Jersey Central Power & Light Co. under a 20 year contract.

THERMO ENERGY SYSTEMS CORP., Waltham, Mass., is developing a $65 million, natural gas fueled cogeneration plant on Staten Island, N.Y. The plant will supply 55,000 kw of electricity to Consolidated Edison Co. under a long term contract and steam to Mobil Oil Corp.'s oil terminal there. Construction is to begin in mid-1992.

ACQUISITIONS

MURPHY OIL CORP. acquired 17,585,499 outstanding shares of Ocean Drilling & Exploration Co. tendered in its exchange offer (OGJ, June 10, p. 19). With shares it already owned and the tendered shares, Murphy owns about 95% of Odeco outstanding stock and plans to move ahead promptly with a merger.

ASHLAND OIL INC. completed acquisition of Permian Corp. from National Intergroup Inc. for about $75 million in cash and 2.2 million shares of Ashland common stock (OGJ, May 13, p. 36). Ashland also assumed about $83 million in debt.

GOVERNMENT

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY'S fossil energy office scheduled a U.S.-Soviet oil and gas workshop July 31-Aug. 2 at its Morgantown, W.Va., energy technology center. Representatives of both countries will discuss their technologies and programs and ways the U.S. might aid 50 Soviet energy projects. The talks previously were scheduled for last February,

PETROCHEMICALS

OUANTUM CHEMICAL CORP.'S USI division will close its 400 million lb/year Tuscola, Ill., ethylene plant in the fourth quarter, citing age and capacity. The plant started up in 1952. Quantum will continue to operate a petrochemical complex at Tuscola, producing ethyl alcohol, ethyl ether, vinyl acetate-ethylene, copolymers, and powdered polyethylene from ethylene supplied by USI's Morris, III., plant and transported via the Illini II pipeline.