LNG
NIGERIA LNG LTD. and a group including M.W. Kellogg Co., Technip SA, Snamprogetti SpA, and JGC Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding for construction of a $4.5 billion, 5.9 million metric ton/year liquefied natural gas export complex at Bonny Island in Rivers state, Nigeria. Construction is to start next year, with first exports slated for first half 1999. The project team will consist of members from each company and will be based in M.W. Kellogg's London office.
GOVERNMENT
TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION (RRC) unveiled a computer bulletin board that allows anyone with a personal computer and modem access to state oil and gas data, including monthly production data, drilling statistics, gas production limits, pollution fines levied, horizontal drilling statistics, and recent discoveries. Also listed is information about RRC seminars, meeting agendas. publications, and job postings.
OILSANDS
CROWN ENERGY CORP., Salt Lake City, is completing permitting and financing for construction of a full scale oilsands plant at Asphalt Ridge, near Vernal, Utah. Processing capacity is projected at 6,400 tons/day with average oil production of 3,750 b/d. Crown recently completed work on a pilot project using its proprietary oil extraction technology. The company projects capital costs for the full scale plant at $24 million. Total production costs are estimated at $9/bbl.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP. plans a horizontal well development program beginning in early 1995 on a 30,000 acre leasehold after A-1 Monroe horizontal wildcat in Rapides Parish, La., flowed 2,162 b/d of oil and 6.6 MMcfd of gas through a 26/64 in. choke with 6,196 psi flowing tubing pressure from a 100 ft Cretaceous Austin chalk interval below 14,803 ft. The well - drilled to 19,100 ft measured depth - produces from a 4,000 ft horizontal section. Occidental owns 1 00% interest in the leasehold.
BHP PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. started commercial gas sales from Griffin field off Western Australia, having started oil production in January. BHP said Griffin's floating production storage and offloading vessel is the first to make commercial use of associated gas. Gas output is expected to reach 40 MMcfd. Oil production is 80,000 b/d.
ROWAN COMPANIES INC.'S Rowan Odessa self elevating mobile offshore drilling unit caught fire Dec. 2 while jacking up off Louisiana. Thirty-six crewmen made it to shore, while one man still was missing at presstime. One of the rig's three legs apparently ruptured a gas pipeline, igniting the blaze. The pipeline was shut in and the fire contained. Rowan said damage assessment is in progress.
ANDERMAN/SMITH OVERSEAS INC., Itochu Corp., and Chernogornefti Oil & Gas Enterprises are preparing to start full scale oil production from Chernogorskoye field in Tyumen region of western Siberia. Output from the field is expected to increase to 10.000 b/d next year and 25,000 b/d in 1998, from 6,000 b/d currently. Itochu has rights to buy all the field's output, which will be mainly exported to refiners in eastern Europe.
WRT ENERGY CORP., The Woodlands, Tex., in two deals with undisclosed companies agreed to pay a combined $62.8 million cash and 1.25 million shares of its stock for a total of 4,200 acres of oil and gas leases in South Central Louisiana. The acreage holds 65 producing and shut-in wells in seven pre-1950 oil and gas fields in Assumption, Iberia, LaFourche, Terrebonne, and Vermilion parishes.
SAGA PETROLEUM AS let a $100 million contract to Global Engineering AS, Asker, Norway, to provide a subsea production system for development of Vigdis field off Norway and a $60 million contract to Stena Offshore AS, Stavanger, for pipeline work related to field development. The Vigdis development plan is to be approved by yearend. Oil production is due to start in 1997, with output going to nearby Snorre platform for processing and export. Production will be from 12 wells.
JKX OIL & GAS is set to start producing oil and condensate from 14 wells in the Ukraine's Ignatovskoye field about 300 km southeast of Kiev after installing an early production facility (EPF) provided under a $9 million contract with Expro North Sea Ltd., Berks, England. The EPF is designed to process oil and condensate at a combined rate of 7,900 b/d.
SHELL U.K. LTD. bought a 10% interest in North Sea Block 29/5b from Ranger Oil Ltd., Calgary, for $42.5 million (U.S.). Ranger discovered the Block 29/5b property in 1985, 140 miles east of Aberdeen, Scotland. The block includes Franklin field, with reserves of 700 bcf of natural gas and 70 million bbl of condensate, and part of Elgin field.
OMIMEX DE COLOMBIA LID., a unit of Omimex Energy Inc., Fort Worth, agreed to buy Texaco Inc. Colombian unit Texas Petroleum Co.'s 100% interest in Velasquez field in the Middle Magdalena Valley of Central Colombia. Saba de Colombia has an option to participate for as much as 50% in the acquisition. Omimex assumed ownership of the field Nov. 1. Average net oil production is 3,000 b/d, and reserves are pegged at 15 million bbl.
OGJ'S worldwide crude oil and gas production table of Nov. 14, p. 104, should read: U.S. production August 6.551 million b/d, July 6.528 million b/d, 1994 eight month average 6.647 million b/d, 1993 eight month average 6.855 million b/d, volume change vs. previous year -208,000 b/d, and percent change from previous year -3. Western Hemisphere total should read: August 16.074 million b/d, July 15.977 million b/d, 1994 eight month average 15,973 million b/d, 1993 eight month average 15.782 million b/d, volume change from previous year +191,000 b/d, and percent change from previous year +1.2. Figures for total world should read: August 59.481 million b/d, July 60.167 million b/d, 1994 eight month average 60.214 million b/d, 1993 eight month average 59.652 million b/d, volume change from previous year +562,000 b/d, and percent change from previous year +0.9.
COGENERATION
BHP PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. agreed to supply 9.3 bcf/year of gas for 20 years beginning in mid-1996 to Sithe Energies Australia. The gas will be used to fuel a 1 60,000 kw cogeneration plant to be built at Smithfield, in western Sydney. The plant will supply electricity to a local grid and steam to a nearby paper production plant.
TANKERS
PDV MARINA ordered four products tankers from Spain's Astilleros Espanoles (AESA) for a total price of $127 million. Each 40,000 dwt unit, to be built at AESA's Bilbao, Spain, shipyard, will be double hulled. The first vessel is scheduled for delivery to PDV Marina, a unit of Venezuelan state petroleum company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, in June 1996 and the last in March 1997.
GAS STORAGE
WILLIAMS STORAGE CO., Salt Lake, is holding an open season through Jan. 20, 1 995, for gas storage at its proposed Rush Creek storage project in Weld County, Colo., near Kimball, Neb. Storage is being developed by Williams Storage and Piceance Natural Gas, Denver, to begin service July 1, 1996. Rush Creek will be developed from a depleted gas field and have working gas capacity of 3.5 bcf, deliver 120 MMcfd, and accept 100 MMcfd injection.
PIPELINES
EGYPT'S state gas company formed a $150 million joint venture company with Amoco Corp. and Italy's Ente Nazionale ldrocarburi (ENI) to export gas to Israel, reported London's Financial Times. The paper said the venture plans to build a gas pipeline from Port Said to the Israeli border. The pipeline is expected to be 250 km long and cost $300 million. Pipelaying is slated to begin next year.
PETROCHEMICALS
CHEMOPETROL, state petrochemical company of the Czech Republic, let a $44 million contract to Air Products plc, Walton-on-Thames, U.K., to build an air separation plant at its Litvinov, C.R., petrochemical complex. Air Products will design, build, and operate the unit, which will have capacity to produce 800,000 metric tons/year of gaseous oxygen and nitrogen and 100,000 tons/year of liquid oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. The plant is scheduled to come on stream in mid-1 996.
PETROLEOS MEXICANOS let contract to ABB Lummus Crest Inc., Bloomfield, N.J., for technical and operational support services for its Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, ethylene plant. Focus of the assistance program is to reduce operating costs and improve product recoveries.
EXPLORATION
CAMEROON'S Ste. Nationale des Hydrocarbures has contracted Simon Petroleum Technology Ltd., Llandudno, Wales, to assess petroleum prospects in the country's Douala basin. SPT plans to compile a report and data packages for presentations in London and Houston in spring 1995, along with new terms for exploration licensing.
CNG
EGYPT'S Ministry of Petroleum plans to establish a joint venture to convert gasoline powered vehicles to compressed natural gas at a cost of about $900/vehicle. The venture plans to build CNG stations and will include an undisclosed foreign partner.
REFINING
TESORO PETROLEUM CORP., San Antonio, completed a $25 million vacuum unit project at its Kenai, Alas., refinery, adding 16,500 b/d of processing capacity to the 50,000 b/d refinery. Tesoro refurbished a vacuum unit, which will reduce total residual production by 65%.
FORTUNE OIL PLC, London, started operations at its single point mooring terminal 15 km off Maoming refinery in China's Guangdong province. The terminal will improve crude flow to the refinery by accommodating 250,000 dwt vessels compared with the previous capacity of 50,000 dwt vessels that delivered crude to the refinery (OGJ, Aug. 15, p. 42). First delivery was 985,000 bbl of Omani crude oil.
CITGO PETROLEUM CORP. started up a 10,000 b/sd UOP-Huels AG selective hydrogenation process unit at its 132,500 b/cd Corpus Christi, Tex., refinery. The unit removes diolefins from LPG and isomerizes butene-1 to butene-2.
COMPANIES
DEGUSSA CORP., Ridgefield Park, N.J., and Orient Catalyst Co. Ltd., Tokyo, entered into a long term agreement for manufacture and marketing of fixed bed hydrotreating catalysts. Degussa will begin full scale production of Orient's HOP hydrotreating catalyst at its Calvert City, Ky., plant in second half 1995. The catalyst will be marketed by Orient in the U.S. and in select non-U.S. markets.
RESEARCH
FRANCE'S Institut Francaise du Petrole (IFP) is expanding cooperative petroleum research efforts with other European concerns. IFP appointed to its board the first non-French directors, one each from Norway's Den norske stats oljeselskap (Statoil), German research group KFA, and Italy's ENI. Cooperative research programs are under way with ENI and Statoil, and plans call for setting up continent-wide research networks.
LPG
CHINA'S Jingyong Oil & LPG Sales Co., Finland's Neste Oy, and Japan's Sumitomo Corp. plan to build a liquefied petroleum gas storage cavern near Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China. The cavern will hold as much as 200,000 cu m of LPG, with throughput capacity of 1 million metric tons/year.
CONOCO INC. and Howe-Baker Engineers Inc., Tyler, Tex., agreed to start engineering on an LPG recovery system to be installed at Conoco's 182,000 b/cd Lake Charles, La., refinery.
FUTURES
INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM EXCHANGE, London, said November was a record month for Brent crude oil futures trading. A total 987,193 contracts were traded, an increase of 4.4% from the previous high set in November 1993. IPE said open interest for Brent crude futures has also hit a new peak, with a daily average of more than 1 75,000 contracts open for the month.
GAS PROCESSING
DALLAS PRODUCTION INC. paid $3.5 million for the Denton gas gathering and processing assets in Wise and Denton counties, Tex., of USX-Delhi Group units Delhi Gas Pipeline Corp. and Tonkawa Gas Processing Co., including 143 miles of gas pipelines, 6 miles of liquids line, and a 20 MMcfd lean oil plant.
SOLEX ENERGY CO. INC., Calgary, agreed to buy the interests of Westcoast Energy Inc. and Petro-Canada in a natural gas liquids plant at Taylor, B.C. Westcoast and Petro-Canada each have 50% interest in the plant. The deal is to be complete in early 1995. Purchase price is undisclosed. The Taylor plant has capacity to process 375 MMcfd of gas to recover 6,800 b/d of propane, butane, and pentanes plus.
CANADA'S National Energy Board, Calgary, will conduct a public hearing starting Jan. 23, 1995, on an application from Westcoast Energy Inc., Vancouver, B.C., for its Grizzly Valley expansion project. Westcoast proposes to build and operate a 400 MMcfd gas processing plant, sulfur recovery plant, and compressor station near Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
Issue date: 12/12/94