INDUSTRY BRIEFS

COGENERATION

HOUSTON LIGHTING & POWER CO.

let contract to Ebasco Constructors Inc., New York, for turnkey construction of a 160,000 kw cogeneration plant at E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. Inc.'s chemical complex at LaPorte, Tex. The plant will use natural gas with oil as a backup fuel and provide Du Pont with as much as 1 million lb/hr of process steam. Engineering is under way, and the project is to be complete in January 1995.

SPILLS

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

completed a multiagency effort to clean up a 400 gal fuel oil spill on Arroyo Creek in San Mateo, Calif., marking the first U.S. EPA effort in California paid for by the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund created by the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990. he San Mateo County district attorney's office is investigating the source of the spill. OPA put a 5/bbl tax on imported oil to finance cleanup of oil spills, but the U.S. Coast Guard will try to recover cleanup costs from responsible parties.

MARINE SPILL RESPONSE CORP.

launched the Gulf Responder oil spill response vessel at the yard of Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co. Inc., Mobile, Ala. The 210 ft long ship, with home port at Lake Charles, La., is the first of 16 to be built at a cost of $188 million to create a national network for responding to major oil spills in U.S. waters. MSRC expects to deliver the remaining 15 vessels to ports along the coast by March 1993.

EXPLORATION

COASTAL PETROLEUM CO.

filed applications with Florida's Department of Natural Resources to drill wildcats off Manasota Key and Naples. Coastal has leased 800,000 acres off Florida and is seeking approval to conduct seismic, magnetic anomaly, and gravity studies.

ULTRAMAR EXPLORATION LTD.'S

44/16-1Z wildcat on southern North Sea Block 44/16 flowed at a stabilized rate of 30.3 MMcfd of gas through a 1 in. choke from Carboniferous pay. Ultramar parent Lasmo plc said further exploratory and appraisal drilling is needed to confirm commerciality. Block 44/16 lies between Esmond, Forbes, and Gordon fields to the northwest and Murdoch and Caister fields to the southeast, Partners in the block with Ultramar 40% are Elf U.K. 35% and Santa Fe Exploration U.K. 25%.

INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM CORP.

(IPC), Vancouver, B.C., and the U.K.'s Kirkland AS signed a concession agreement covering the 11,350 sq km Block B-12/32 in the Gulf of Thailand on the northwest flank of the Malay basin (see map, OGJ, Sept. 23, 1991, p. 15). Plans include conducting 2,000 line km of seismic surveys and drilling two wells in the initial 3 year exploration period. The block is west of British Gas plc's $1.1 billion Bongkot field development (OGJ, Sept. 23, 1991, p. 12), and northwest of Hamilton Oil (Malaysia) Corp. discoveries on Block PM-3 (OGJ, Sept. 23, 1991, p. 24).

NIPPON OIL CO.

and Enterprise Oil plc will begin exploration in the Timor Gap about 300 km off Darwin, Australia, and in the Perth basin about 300 km off Perth. The two were awarded licenses late last year (OGJ, Jan. 6, p. 93). Nippon established Nippon Oil Exploration (Perth Basin), capitalized at $1.54 million, its first venture in Australia. Exploration will begin in the Perth basin in mid-1992, with drilling there to begin in 1994.

BOW VALLEY INDUSTRIES LTD.,

Calgary, and Exploration Intermont Inc. agreed to spend an additional $8.5 million (Canadian) on an exploration program in Quebec. The program will cover further drilling on a 1.8 million acre spread south of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City. Bow Valley is drilling one well on the acreage.

PETROCHEMICALS

PEQUIVEN

and partners formed the joint venture Metor SA to build a $340 million, 735,000 metric ton/year methanol plant in eastern Venezuela. Expected to start up in second half 1994, the plant will export about 70% of its production to North America and the Pacific basin. Interests are Pequiven 35%, Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical 22.75% each, Venezuelan beer producer Polar Group 10%, and World Bank's International Finance Corp. 5%. The remaining 5% is to be sold on Venezuelan stock exchanges. Banque Indosuez and IFC will arrange financing.

SAUDI BASIC INDUSTRIES CORP.

(Sabic) and Institut Francais du Petrol (IFP) signed a memorandum of understanding to share licensing rights for the butene-1 production process used at Sabic affiliate Arabian Petrochemical Co.'s 50,000 metric ton/year butene-1 plant at Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia (OGJ, Oct. 26, 1987, p. 20). it is the first agreement giving Sabic worldwide licensing rights to a chemical manufacturing process, to be known as IFP/Sabic Butene-1.

LINDE AG'S

development process for dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons to olefins is ready for commercialization under license from Linde. Linde began work on the process in 1982 and tested the process during January 1989-November 1990 with a semicommercial scale unit installed at BASF AG's Ludwigshaven, Germany, complex.

SAUDI-EUROPEAN PETROCHEMICAL CO.

(Ibn Zahr) signed a $500 million loan agreement with 12 Saudi and Persian Gulf area banks to fund construction of its methyl tertiary butyl ether and polypropylene plants in Saudi Arabia (OGJ, July 1, 1991, p. 31). Ibn Zahr is expanding MTBE capacity to 1.27 million metric tons/year from 500,000 tons/year and building a 200,000 ton/year polypropylene plant to be on stream in 1993.

DU PONT

will build a 45,000 metric ton/year tetrahydrofuran plant in Asturias, Spain, that will use its proprietary butane based technology. Cost was not disclosed. The plant, to start up in mid-1995, will be the second largest THF plant in the world after Du Pont's plant at LaPorte, Tex.

SAND CREEK CHEMICAL LP

let contract to BEI Engineers/Constructors Inc., Lakewood, Colo., for final engineering and construction management of its 250 ton/day methanol plant in Denver. The plant will use the Lurgi process to produce methanol from natural gas and steam reforming.

OILSANDS

ALBERTA OIL SANDS TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH AUTHORITY,

Alberta Research Council, and the Canadian Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology agreed to a $20 million (Canadian), 5 year research program to find ways to achieve cost breakthroughs for heavy oil and bitumen production. The program includes 12 international oil companies that will contribute to the program's $4 million/year budget through $75,000 license fees. The companies will receive direct access to research results and commercial rights to project technology.

PIPELINES

TWO OF FOUR TENNECO INC.

NATURAL GAS PIPELINES IN WHITE BLUFF, TENN.,

exploded Mar. 15, shooting flames 200 ft in the air and injuring at least five persons. Cause of the blast was unknown at presstime. The fire burned for about 4 hr until workers were able to close valves, which reduced the flames to about 10 ft, according to press reports. Gas service was not interrupted, as Tenneco took supplies from other pipelines and began withdrawing from storage.

LAKEHEAD PIPE LINE CO. LP,

Superior, Wis., will file new tariffs, including an adjustment to transportation rates, with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The new tariffs call for an 18% increase in liquid hydrocarbon transport rates based on a new rate design that adjusts surcharges to more accurately reflect costs associated with pumping liquids with varying densities and viscosities. The revised rate design also will yield a tolling method more related to services. The new rates could take effect May 2.

FLORIDA GAS TRANSMISSION CO.

(FGT) is seeking FERC approval to acquire an interest in Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp.'s Mobile Bay gas pipeline and expand capacity to 830 MMcfd. The plans hinge on FERC approval of FGT's Phase III expansion project, filed in November 1991, calling for a 550 MMcfd boost in capacity of its Florida gas pipeline to 1.4 bcfd. FERC approvals and expansion of the Mobile Bay line would allow FGT to ship 300 MMcfd of gas from Mobile Bay to points throughout Florida.

PAKISTAN,

Kuwait's Kuftep (Pakistan) Ltd., Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co., and U.K.'s Lasmo Oil Pakistan Ltd. are considering a 350 km pipeline to transport natural gas from the Indus basin to Karachi. Japan's Kyodo News Service reported three wells drilled in the basin in 1990-91 can produce about 106 MMcfd of gas.

PANHANDLE TRADING CO.,

an affiliate of Panhandle Eastern Corp., Houston, operating as an independent gas marketer, realigned operations effective Mar. 1 to create geographic regions of responsibility. Regionalized management is expected to improve Panhandle Trading's ability to fit gas sales to regional gas pipeline operations.

REFINING

CHEVRON U.S.A. PRODUCTS CO.

bought a 28-30 million gal/year lube oil blending and packaging plant and a 568,000 bbl light oil terminal in Charleston, S.C., from BP America. Terms aren't disclosed. Chevron has offered jobs to employees at the plant. Chevron and BP applied for the transfer to the Federal Trade Commission last September and received approval late last February.

AKZO CATALYSTS,

a unit of Akzo Chemicals Inc., Chicago, plans to increase its fluid cracking catalyst capacity by building a zeolite plant on a 100 acre tract at Pasadena, Tex. The plant will produce zeolite grades needed to manufacture catalysts for refining reformulated gasoline.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

BRITISH GAS EXPLORATION

& PRODUCTION LTD.'S

30/18-5 appraisal well about 180 miles east-southeast of Aberdeen in Orion field in the North Sea flowed at a maximum rate of 1,389 b/d of 43.90 gravity oil and 1.35 MMcfd of gas through a restricted choke from Paleocene Forties sandstone. Preliminary results indicate the 11,000 ft well extended the field west. Further appraisal and development feasibility studies are being considered.

U.S. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK

will guarantee a $240 million loan toward export of $275 million in U.S. equipment and services to Bariven SA, a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The equipment will be used to sustain Bariven's oil and gas operations.

ARAN ENERGY CORP.

secured $170 million of revolving credit and a $27.5 million standby facility to fund development of Alba and North Alba fields on Block 16/26 and Gryphon field on Block 9/18b in the U.K. North Sea. Bank of Scotland arranged financing, Industrial Bank of Japan is colead manager, and Allied Irish Banks plc, Bank Mees & Hope NV, Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse, and De Nationale Investerings Bank NV will also provide funds. Alba production start-up and Gryphon development approval are expected in late 1993.

WOODSIDE PETROLEUM

(WA OIL) PTY. LTD.

ordered two steam turbine alternators from Peter Brotherhood Ltd., Peterborough, U.K. The turbines, valued at l.6 million, will be installed in a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to be used in Cossack oil field about 100 km off Northwest Australia. The 150,000 dwt Chevron London tanker has been renamed Cossack Pioneer, and conversion to an FPSO will begin later this year. The turbines are to be delivered this year. Cossack production is to begin in mid-1993.

Texaco Exploration & Producing Inc. completed a horizontal injection well to enhance a waterflood in New Hope field in Franklin County, Northeast Texas, not Jackson County, Tex., as reported (OGJ, Feb. 24, p. 44).

COMPANIES

SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY CO.,

Fayetteville, Ark., plans capital spending of $49 million in 1992 vs. $38.9 million in 1991. The 1992 budget includes $31 million for oil and gas exploration and production vs. $30.3 million in 1991. Southwestern will defer development of gas discoveries on Brazos Blocks 396, 397, and 431 and Galveston Block 283 in the Gulf of Mexico because of depressed natural gas prices. It will spend $16.1 million of its total E&P budget in the Arkoma basin of Oklahoma and Arkansas.

GAS PROCESSING

OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP.

will sell its interest in Trident NGL Inc. a joint venture of Oxy and Hicks, Muse & Co. The sale, in connection with an initial public offering of common stock by Trident, will complete disposition of Oxy's U.S. natural gas liquids business, which began last August when Oxy sold its NGL assets to Trident (OGJ, Sept. 9, 1991, p. 42). Proceeds will be used to reduce debt.

VALERO ENERGY CORP.,

San Antonio, plans to buy certain South Texas NGL assets from Oryx Energy Co. for $83 million. Assets include two gas processing plants in Starr and Dimmit counties with production capacity of more than 11,000 b/d of NGL, 450 miles of associated gathering lines, a 59 mile liquids pipeline, and a 17.5% interest in a gas processing plant in Nueces County, Tex. Valero is considering an agreement with Valero Natural Gas Partners LP in which the latter would operate the assets.

MERIDIAN OIL INC.,

Houston, let contract to BEI Engineers/Constructors for a distributed control system (DCS) upgrade for its Wingate fractionation plant in Gallup, N.M. The project will include programming and installing DCS equipment in the 20,000 b/d liquids plant, input-output valve ports, schematigraphs, and general plant functioning.