INDUSTRY BRIEFS

GAS PROCESSING

NOVAGAS CLEARINGHOUSE LTD., Calgary, plans to build a 40 MMcfd gas processing plant and associated gathering pipelines at Zama Lake, Alta., 700 km northwest of Edmonton. The $30 million (Canadian) plant will be built next to a gas processing plant operated by Pennzoil Canada Inc., which will operate the Novagas plant under contract.

LUBRICANTS

MOBIL CHEMICAL CO. is expanding capacity to produce base stocks for synthetic lubricants to 10 million gal/year from 7 million gal/year at its Beaumont, Tex., chemical specialties plant, The $20 million polyalphaolefins reactor train is to be on line by mid-1996.

PETRO-CANADA, Calgary, plans to spend $135 million (Canadian) to double manufacturing capacity of its lubricants plant in Mississauga, Ont. Lubricant production at the plant, acquired from Gulf Canada Ltd., will increase to 760 million 1/year by fourth quarter 1996. Petro-Canada said lubricants are now its second most profitable downstream business unit.

COGENERATION

U.S. GENERATING CO., Bethesda, Md., completed $351 million in financing for its Hermiston generating plant, a 474,000 kw, gas cogeneration project under construction 3 miles southwest of Hermiston, Ore. Electrical power will be sold to PacifiCorp, and as much as 50,000 lb/hr of steam will be sold to the Lamb-Weston potato processing plant next to the Hermiston plant.

U.S. GENERATING agreed to provide Southern California Edison Co. 372,000 kw of power generating capacity from a cogeneration plant U.S. Generating is developing near Fellows in Kern County, Calif. Power delivery is scheduled to start in 1998. The plant also will produce steam for use in nearby enhanced oil recovery operations.

CALPINE CORP., San Jose, Calif., signed a letter of intent with Phillips Petroleum Co. to investigate possible development, construction, and operation of a 200,000 kw, gas fired cogeneration plant. The plant would sell steam and power to Phillips' Houston chemical complex in Pasadena, Tex.

SANTOS LTD., Adelaide, expects to boost gas sales to customers in New South Wales by 10% for 4 years beginning in 1996 with start-up of a cogeneration project at Sydney proposed by Sithe Energies Australia Pty. Ltd. Australian Gas Light Co. is to supply 9.5 bcf/year to the project under existing contracts with South Australia Cooper Basin Producers group, in which Santos holds 58% interest.

PIPELINES

TRANSCO ENERGY CO. unit Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., Houston, received a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit to expand its gas delivery point at Gordonsville in Louisa County, Va. It will allow Transcontinental to deliver an additional 67 MMcfd to Commonwealth Gas Services Inc., which will use the gas to serve Gordonsville Energy LP's new 240,000 kw cogeneration plant.

ENRON CORP. unit Enron Development Corp. and Bolivia's Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) agreed to terms of a joint venture to develop, finance, build, and operate the 1,800 km Bolivia to Brazil gas pipeline (OGJ, Aug. 22, p. 24). YPFB will own 60% and Enron 40% of the line under an agreement that also covers potential laying of a pipeline to bring gas from Peru, as well as a pipeline to export gas to Paraguay.

COLORADO INTERSTATE GAS CO. (CIG), a unit of Coastal Corp., Houston, asked FERC for permission to build and operate its proposed Parachute Creek lateral in Colorado. CIG will conduct an open season through Jan. 11, 1995, to receive shipper requests for firm transportation capacity on the extension. CIG proposes to lay 37 miles of 16 in. line from its Uinta lateral pipeline in Rio Blanco, Colo., to the Piceance basin in Garfield County, Colo.

PETROCHEMICALS

SOUTH AFRICA'S Polifin Ltd. let contract to KTI Group By, Zoetermeer, Netherlands, to build a membrane cell chlorine plant at Polifin's Coalplex PVC plant in South Africa. The 18 million guilder ($10.3 million) turnkey contract covers engineering, procurement, and construction. The plant will replace an existing mercury based chlorine plant.

CHINA NATIONAL TECHNICAL IMPORT & EXPORT CORP. let a $120 million contract to Italy's Snamprogetti to build a fertilizer complex with 1,000 metric ton/day of ammonia and 1,750 ton/day of urea capacity at Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, for Nanjing Chemical Industrial Group.

FINLAND'S Neste Oy proposed to authorities a 20 million finnmark ($4.1 million) cleanup of 8,000 cu m of waste sludge found to contain dioxins at its Porvoo, Finland, plant. Neste plans to hire Ekokem to burn the waste, which built up during 1973-81 when a vinyl chloride monomer unit operated at the plant.

AN EXPLOSION killed five workers and injured about a dozen at Terra Industries Inc.'s Port Neal, Iowa, nitrogen fertilizer plant. An investigation was under way into the cause of the Dec. 13 blast.

REFINING

Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., The Woodlands, Tex., closed the sale of its 10,000 b/d North Texas crude oil fractionation plant to East African refiner Adanac Trading Co. Ltd. The sale is part of Mitchell's company-wide effort to dispose of assets that are underused.

SOUTH KOREA'S Honam Oil Refinery Co. plans to ship 50,000 metric tons of crude oil to North Korea, reported Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Tokyo. The news agency said it's the first shipment following a U.S.-North Korea agreement over freezing of Pyongyang's nuclear program.

SSANGYONG OIL REFINING CO. LTD., Seoul, let contract to Selas Fluid Processing Corp., Blue Bell, Pa., to provide a down fired steam hydrocarbon reformer at Ssangyong's bunker C cracking center in Onsan, South Korea. The reforming furnace will produce 85 MMcfd of hydrogen.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS & TECHNOLOGY, Gaithersburg, Md., chose Energy BioSystems Corp., The Woodlands, Tex., to receive a $2 million federal grant to develop a biotechnology based method to remove sulfur from crude oil. Energy BioSystems' biocatalytic desulfurization method uses bacteria to remove sulfur from diesel fuel, gasoline, and crude oil.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

QATARGAS let a $3.5 million contract to Neyrfor-Weir, a unit of Weir Group plc, Glasgow, Scotland, for directional drilling services in Qatar's North gas field Phase 2 development project. Neyrfor-Weir will supply positive displacement motors and turbodrills for deviated and horizontal wells to be drilled during 1995-96.

PLAINS PETROLEUM OPERATING CO., a unit of Plains Petroleum Co., Lakewood, Colo., agreed to sell 16.8 bcf of gas from its Kansas Hugoton field wells in 1995 to its main customer at a weighted average wellhead price of $1.80/MMBTU. In 1994, Plains received an average wellhead price of $1.90/MMBTU.

ANADARKO PETROLEUM CORP., Houston, sold U.S. producing leases in nonstrategic areas for a combined $107 million during 1994. Proceeds from the sales will be reinvested in drilling programs in core areas.

COPLEX RESOURCES NL, Hobart, Tasmania, resumed operations in Colombia's Rubiales field despite the rainy season. Four wells will start production before Dec. 25, to yield first commercial flow from the field. Total production from the wells is expected to reach 2,000 b/d.

PICT PETROLEUM PLC, London, acquired another 5% interest in U.K. North Sea Blocks 48/12a and 48/13b and an added 2.5% stake in Blocks 29/2c and 22/26b. The Quadrant 48 block interests, bought from Engen (U.K.) Ltd., hold Galahad gas field, which is being considered for development. The other block interests were acquired from Mobil North Sea Ltd. in exchange for Pict's 6% share in Block 48/18c and an increased contribution to the 29/2c-11 appraisal well costs.

HHO LTD., a unit of OTM International Development Inc., Calgary, and a Ukrainian state oil company will form joint venture unit Krymtexas-nafta to develop reserves on the Crimean Peninsula. OTM will receive 50% of heavy crude production to cover costs and 60% of remaining production. Drilling is to begin in January 1995, and production will be moved by tanker to Greek refineries.

MARINE DRILLING COS. INC., Sugar Land, Tex., paid Transocean AS $7 million for the Nordic Explorer jack up rig and renamed the mat supported, cantilevered, top drive unit Marine 201. It is scheduled for use in Southeast Asia for work in 200 ft of water or less.

MARINE DRILLING COS. last month paid MY Enterprises LP, Broussard, La., $5.5 million for the Marine 3 jack up rig, a mat supported, slotted unit rated to work in water as deep as 262 ft. Since early 1993, Marine Drilling had operated Marine 3 in the Gulf of Mexico under a bareboat charter with MY Enterprises, scheduled to end early in 1 995.

EXPLORATION

HARKEN DE COLOMBIA LTD., a unit of Harken Energy Corp., Dallas, signed its third association contract with Ecopetrol covering the Playero block in Colombia's Llanos basin. Harken acquired exclusive rights to conduct exploration on the 10,000 acre area. It plans to acquire at least 12 km of seismic data during the contract's first year.

TEXACO INC. agreed to acquire from Den norske stats oijeselskap AS and British Petroleum plc a 30% interest in Oil Prospecting Licenses 213, 217, and 218 in 200-1,000 m of water 37 miles off Nigeria in the Atlantic Ocean. Texaco agreed to fund $80 million of exploration on the tracts in the next 5 years. Operator Statoil and BP, each of which will retain a 35% interest, have run 2D and 3D seismic surveys of the area. The tracts are held under production sharing contracts signed in May 1993.

CHINA NATIONAL OFFSHORE OIL CORP. (Cnooc) let contract to British firm Prime-line Petroleum to explore for oil and gas in the East China Sea. The deal is based on a cooperative research agreement between Cnooc and Prime-line unit Cluff Oil (China) Ltd. in which Cluff late in 1993 was awarded the right to study seismic and geophysical data on the sea's Block 32/32.

CHEVRON CANADA RESOURCES LTD., Calgary, agreed to reprocess seismic data and conduct a heliportable seismic survey on Purcell Energy Ltd.'s 60% owned and operated significant discovery license (SDL) 99 in the Liard area of the southern Northwest Territories, Canada. If Chevron drills a well on SDL 99 before Nov. 30, 1998, it can earn 60% of Purcell's working interest in 12,000 acres, excluding one section holding the Liard F-25A discovery well.

ALBANIA SHELL EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION BY will explore two onshore blocks in Albania under terms of a 3 year agreement signed with the country's Ministry of Natural Resources. Block B covers 760 sq km, Block F 800 sq km. They lie west and north, respectively, of Albania's producing fields, which Shell said currently yield 10,000 b/d of oil and a modest volume of gas. Shell will spend $14 million to acquire 2D seismic data starting soon and drill one well, probably in 1997.

MAXUS BOLIVIA INC., a unit of Maxus Energy Corp., Dallas, signed an operations contract with YPFB for the Secure block in North Central Bolivia. Terms call for Maxus to acquire 400 km of seismic data and drill one wildcat within 3 years. It holds a 12.5% interest in the 3.3 million acre block.

PHOENIX RESOURCE COS. INC., Oklahoma City, plans this month to spud a wildcat 2 km northwest of its abandoned 1 A El Sagha well on Egypt's Qarun concession. Open hole logs of the 1A El Sagha from 9.000 ft indicated more than 100ft of net oil pay in three sandstone intervals in Cretaceous Bahariya and more than 100 ft of net oil pay in one Cretaceous Karita sandstone interval.

COMPANIES

UNION OIL CO. OF CALIFORNIA agreed to pay $3.625 million to Alaska to settle disputed tax bills for 1 992 and 1 993. The settlement includes tax and interest, resolving all production tax issues for oil and gas during those years.

NATIONAL ENERGY GROUP, Dallas, proposed to acquire all the stock of Alexander Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, in a $134 million deal that includes assumption of $40 million in debt. Closing is expected by Mar. 31, 1995.

CONVEST ENERGY CORP., Houston, plans to acquire certain oil and gas assets, including 60 producing wells, from Windsor Affiliates for $6.4 million. Windsor, Convest's main shareholder, plans to sell 31 % of Convest stock to Edisto Exploration & Production Co. for $8.9 million cash.

GAS AUTHORITY OF INDIA LTD. (GAIL) and British Gas plc agreed to form a joint venture to move natural gas via pipeline to Bombay. Mahanagar Gas will be set up to take gas at first from India's Bombay High field to a customer base of more than 600,000 customers, which is to be built up over 12 years. First supplies are slated for late 1995. Mahanagar Gas participants are GAIL and British Gas 35% each and the government of Maharashtra and private shareholders a total of 30%.