INDUSTRY BRIEFS

CNG

GENERAL MOTORS CORP. asked owners of its 2,500 natural gas powered pickup trucks to take the vehicles off U.S. roads while it investigates fuel tank explosions that injured two persons. Both explosions occurred during fueling. GM is lending owners new trucks or reimbursing them for the cost of leasing replacements.

PIPELINES

TRANSCANADA PIPE LINES LTD. asked Canada's National Energy Board to approve laying of 27.9 km of pipeline and addition of 42,300 kw of compression at a combined $120.1 million (Canadian) cost on its main line gas system in Ontario and Quebec. Work is to start in 1995, with the new facilities to start up by Nov. 1 that year.

NOVA CORP. and Pan Alberta Gas Ltd., both of Calgary, asked Canadian regulators to approve merged pipeline tolls on a portion of the Alaska prebuild gas pipeline system. Pan-Alberta seeks rolled in tolls from Caroline, Alta., to the British Columbia border, where gas is exported to California markets.

PETROLEUM AUTHORITY OF THAILAND (PTT) obtained $420 million in funding so far in its drive to lay a $720 million second natural gas trunk line in the Gulf of Thailand (OGJ, Mar. 21, p. 44). The project calls for a 36 in., 425 km line parallel to PTT's existing trunk line from Erawan gas field in the central gulf to Thailand's eastern seaboard and a 28 in., 110 km onshore segment.

EXPLORATION

HOWELL CORP. unit Howell Petroleum Corp., Houston, agreed with Tenneco Gas unit Tenneco Ventures, Houston, and GEDD Inc., Corpus Christi, to pursue oil and gas exploration prospects in Mississippi and Alabama. Terms call for Howell to give Tenneco and GEDD the option of accepting prorated working interests in all E&D prospects in which Howell participates.

GLOBAL NATURAL RESOURCES INC., Houston, reported the second discovery on Block CI 11 off Cote d'Ivoire, United Meridian Corp's 1 Lion, cut 205 ft of net pay in three intervals and flowed a combined 14,263 b/d of 381 gravity oil. Global holds a 10% interest in the 11,270 ft well.

UNOCAL CORP'S C 16 Louisiana Furs deeper pay discovery in Fresh Water Bayou field, Vermilion Parish, La., flowed 30.3 MMcfd of gas and 192 b/d of condensate through a 33/64 in. choke with 10,908 psi flowing tubing pressure. CMS Energy Corp. unit Nomeco Oil & Gas Co. holds a 10% working interest in the 19,260 ft well.

EGYPTIAN GENERAL PETROLEUM CORP. approved a 152 sq km expansion of Occidental Egypt Inc.'s West Esh El Mallaha concession, reported Coplex Egypt Ltd., a 15% interest holder. Oxy, operator with a 70% interest, will pay a $100,000 signature bonus for the southward extension of the concession, which originally covered 1,583 sq km.

UKRAINE'S State Committee of Geology licensed Simon Petroleum Technology Ltd., Swanley, U.K., to market 6,000 line km of seismic data acquired in the Black Sea. SPT is reprocessing the data in association with geophysical trust Odesmorgeologia, Odessa. SPT also is working on a study of hydrocarbon prospects in the Ukrainian Black Sea and Azov Sea.

CHINA NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORP. agreed to allow a group consisting of BP Exploration Operating Co. 55%, a Nippon Oil Co. unit 15%, and Itochu Oil Exploration, Mitsubishi Corp., and Mitsui & Co. 10% each to conduct a 3 year feasibility study of exploration and development on Block 4 in the southeast part of China's Tarim basin. The block covers 14,475 sq km.

GAS STORAGE

RIVERSIDE GAS STORAGE asked the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve development of its proposed $24 million, 3.1 bcf capacity gas storage field in Southwest Pennsylvania's Greene and Fayette counties. Riverside is a partnership of Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. unit Texas Eastern Riverside Co. and Equitrans Inc. division ET Storage Co.

J. MAKOWSKI CO. reported that all 2 bcf of Phase I capacity in the Avoca natural gas storage project was subscribed in its open season that ended Mar. 18. The storage site is at Avoca in Steuben County, N.Y.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

WORLD BANK, Washington, D.C., approved a $255 million credit to China in support of the Sichuan gas fields development and conservation project. The program calls for drilling of 100 wells, workovers of 190 wells, and installation of surface equipment.

SHELL U.K. EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION will receive control and measurement systems worth a combined 210 million ($15 million) for redevelopment of Brent field in the North Sea. Equipment supplier will be Honeywell Control Systems Ltd., Bracknell, U.K. Shell is undertaking a 1.3 billion ($1.95 billion) refurbishment of Brent facilities expected to require 5 years (OGJ, Apr. 12, 1993, p. 28).

OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP. will pay Agip SpA unit Agip Petroleum Co. Inc. $195 million half in cash, half in Oxy stock for 15 leases in U.S. Gulf Coast federal water and two in Texas. Reserves in the purchase include 7 million bbl of oil and 5 billion cu m of gas.

UNION ROYALTY INC. plans an Apr. 4 dedication of the El Mar (Delaware) unit CO2 flood in Loving County, West Texas. Under a novel agreement, terms call for operator Union Royalty to receive CO2 and reservoir engineering from Amoco Production Co. in exchange for a share of the oil recovered.

BENTON OIL & GAS CO. reported proved reserves attributable to its interest in Russian joint venture Geoilbent increased by 2 million bbl of oil equivalent (MMBOE) to 10.1 MMBOE as of last Dec. 31. The increase stems from development drilling and reactivation of wells.

BROOKLYN UNION unit Fuel Resources Inc. purchased Anadarko Petroleum Corp's oil and gas interests and related assets in 18 fields in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. When Fuel Resources completes the resale of certain interests, it will own a 62.5% interest in the leases.

COLORADO'S Oil & Gas Conservation Commission approved Barrett Resources Corp's request for smaller spacing units on 81 sections of Grand Valley, Parachute, and Rulison fields in the Piceance basin. The approval allows Barrett to add 100 well sites for infill drilling.

SHELL DE VENEZUELA expects to start development work soon in West Urdaneta oil field in Lake Maracaibo, reaching 47,000 b/d production in 7 years. Shell is committed to spend $160 million the first 3 years as field operator for Petroleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa) unit Lagoven SA.

PETRO HUNT CORP., Dallas, bought working interests in the 1C and 1T Emory Powitzky Jr. gas wells in Nomeco field of Victoria County, Tex., from Nomeco Oil & Gas. It also bought interests in 13 Arkoma basin gas wells in South Panola field, Latimer County, Okla., from Cody Energy Inc. Combined net purchase in the two deals is 2.35 bcf of reserves.

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM CO. U.K. LTD. drilled 6,290 ft in 24 hr using the Santa Fe Galaxy 1 jack up rig on the 30/7a P4 development well in North Sea Judy and Joanne fields. Contractor Halliburton Drilling Systems, Aberdeen, said this is a North Sea drilling record. It passed the previous mark of 5,696 ft in a day, set by Phillips on the 30/7a P3 well.

TANKERS

AN EXPLOSION aboard the 138,000 dwt Liberian tanker Stolidi, 360 nautical miles off India's west coast port of Porbandar in Gujarat state Mar. 21, killed three persons and injured nine others. Eight more in the crew were missing at presstime last week. The vessel was carrying 137,000 metric tons of crude to South Korea from Oman. Cause of the blast is undetermined.

GAS MEASUREMENT

GAZ DE FRANCE and Ruhrgas AG agreed to set up a European gas metering group to conduct metering tests for large gas flows, critical for determining volumes in international gas trade. Main beneficiaries will be equipment manufacturers, gas users, and standardization bodies.

COMPANIES

ORYX ENERGY CO., Dallas, plans to sell 1,400, or half, of its U.S. onshore oil fields and cut 300 jobs, about 20% of its work force. It will take a $103 million charge against expected first quarter earnings as a result.

QUESTAR CORP., Salt Lake City, Utah, proposes to increase 1994 capital spending to a record $300 million from an originally planned $235 million. The increase is needed to develop U.S. Midcontinent leases it acquired in the first quarter.

CLYDE PETROLEUM PLC, Ledbury, U.K., agreed to buy Agip U.K. Ltd.'s 17.88% interest in North Sea Block 16/27a (South) for 12.7 million ($19 million) cash. This will give Clyde a 7.152% unitized interest in Andrew field, under development by BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. Clyde said Andrew production will rise as flow from Gryphon field, in which it has a 35% interest, winds down (OGJ, Nov. 1, 1993, p. 25).

CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION (CPUC) ordered Pacific Gas & Electric to refund to customers $90 million plus interest of $25 million it spent for what CPUC called "imprudent" purchases of Canadian natural gas during 1988 90.

PETROCHEMICALS

TAIWAN'S Chinese Petroleum Corp. signed agreements with 18 petrochemical producers to cooperate in building Taiwan's eighth naphtha cracker complex. It will include a 200,000 b/d refinery and a cracker with capacity of 900,000 metric tons/year of ethylene. Construction, to get under way in 1995, will require 5 years. CPC will take at the most a 50% interest in the project.

THAI TANK TERMINAL CO. (TTT) let a $20 million contract to Rotary Engineering, Singapore, and its Thai Rotary unit to expand petrochemical storage terminals at Rayong, Thailand. Expansion involves increasing TTT's Mab Ta Phud capacity by 35,800 cu m and installing two naphtha tanks with capacities of 55,000 cu m and 25,000 cu m.

PAK ARAB FERTILIZER CO. conducted a $12 million revamp and expansion of its Multan ammonia/urea fertilizer plant in Pakistan's Punjab province. The project boosted capacity of ammonia intermediate feedstock to 1,060 metric tons/day from 960 tons/day and added air and water pollution controls.

REFINING

KAZAKHSTAN plans to increase utilization rate at its 103,800 b/cd Atyrau refinery to 85% from 54% via a modernization program that includes installation of a catalytic cracker and catalytic reformer. Revamping of the 51 year old plant is expected to cost $1.2 billion.

SHELL OIL CO. let a $2 million, 2 year contract to ICF Kaiser International Inc. division Systems Applications International to monitor emissions at its 215,900 b/cd Deer Park, Tex., refinery. It will monitor 150,000 sources of fugitive emissions.

TESORO PETROLEUM CORP. approved construction of a vacuum processing unit at its Alaska Petroleum Co. subsidiary's 72,000 b/cd Kenai, Alas., refinery.

TEXACO DEVELOPMENT CORP., White Plains, N.Y., and ABB Lummus Crest Inc., Bloomfield, N.J., teamed up to market and license Texaco's fluid catalytic cracking technology. They will offer products that help improve FCC yield selectivity and maximize output of reformulated gasoline.

MEXICO'S Petroleos Mexicanos let two refinery automation contracts to Johnson Yokogawa Corp., Newnan, Ga. One calls for a Centum XL distributed control system (DCS) to control a methanol additive process. The other is for a TXL DCS and associated instrumentation, engineering, and services at a tank farm terminal.

CHEVRON INTERNATIONAL OIL CO., San Francisco, and ABB Lummus Crest teamed up to produce and sell catalysts for hydrocracking units. The partnership will provide Chevron's ICR series of catalysts, technical services, and logistics support.

RUHR OEL GMBH started up a 21,000 b/sd fluid catalytic cracking unit at its Horst, Germany, refinery. Lurgi AG built the unit, which is licensed by UOP.

ALTERNATE FUELS

TEXACO INC. issued a license for a gasification unit at the Shanghai, China, coking and chemical plant. Terms call for the plant to add a gasification unit to one being built. The first plant will convert coal to syngas, and the additional gasifier will permit a 50% expansion in syngas supply to the adjacent Wujing chemical plant.

EL SALVADOR'S national electric company Comision Ejecutiva Hidroelectrica del Rio Lempa let contract to DI Industries Inc. unit DI/Perfensa Inc. to recondition geothermal steam wells in Ahauchapan geothermal field in El Salvador. DI also will drill two steam wells in El Salvador's Berlin geothermal field for the power company.