INDUSTRY BRIEFS

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

NORWAY may agree to supply gas to Denmark following talks between the two nations' energy ministers at a meeting in Reykjavik. Dansk Olie & Naturgas AS told Denmark's parliament an expected increase in domestic gas demand must be met through imports.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS

NORWAY'S Den norske stats oijeselskap AS started talks with Petroleos de Venezuela SA unit Bitumenes Orinoco over participating in a venture to supply Orimulsion heavy oil/water emulsion boiler fuel to Florida Power & Light Co. A $300 million Orimulsion production plant is due on stream in 1997 to supply 4 million metric tons/year during 20 years (OGJ, Apr. 25, 1994, p. 23). Other potential shareholders are Conoco Inc. and a combine of Venezuelan contractors.

NATURAL GAS HUBS

ALBERTA ENERGY CO. LTD. (AEC). Calgary, and Wescoast Energy Inc. unit Union Gas Ltd., Chatham, Ont., are jointly offering seamless hub to hub deliveries of natural gas between AEC's AECO C hub in Southeast Alberta and Union's service hub at the Dawn storage site south of Sarnia, Ont. The new service, which the two companies claim is the first of its kind in North America, will allow customers to simultaneously deliver gas to the AECO C hub and receive gas at the Union hub or vice-versa. Service is to begin Apr. 1.

EXPLORATION

BHP PETROLEUM PTY. LTD.'S 1 Elang West new pool wildcat drilled on its Timor Sea Zone of Cooperation Area 91-12 contract area flowed 1,640 b/d of 40 oil through a 48/64 in. choke from pay at 2,822-2,983 m with a gas-oil ratio of 350-1. The well was drilled 7 km west of the Elang-1 discovery well.

MARATHON PETROLEUM EGYPT LTD. plans an updip appraisal well to test Cretaceous Nubia strata on its Gebel El Zeit concession in the southern Gulf of Suez after a wildcat drilled directionally offshore from an onshore site logged 35 ft of Nubia net pay and 108 ft of Cretaceous Matulla net pay. On tests of a 40 ft Matulla interval at 2,489-. 2,673 ft subsea, the 2 Ras El Ush wildcat flowed 3,850 b/d of 32.5 oil with a gas:oil ratio of 320:1 and 276 psi flowing tubing pressure.

SHANGHAI OCEANIC GEOLOGY SURVEY'S 3 Baoyunting wildcat in the East China Sea, 400 km southeast of Shanghai, flowed 13.6 MMcfd of gas and 766 b/d of oil, opening a new play in the East China basin. The well, drilled to 4,240 m, is the sixth potentially commercial discovery in the basin.

PETROCHEMICALS

INSPEC LTD. purchased BP Chemicals Ltd.'s Antwerp petrochemicals complex for $120 million. BP is to transfer its ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, ethylidene norbornene (ENB) and alkoxylation units to Inspec at the end of April. The site's automotive fluids and acetate esters units will continue to produce for BP but under operatorship of Inspec. Complex capacities are 130,000 metric tons/year of ethers and esters, 130,000 tons/year of EG, and 120,000 tons/year of ED and derivatives.

EXXON CHEMICAL CO. let contract to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.'s JE Merit Constructors Inc., Baton Rouge, to install 42 modules at its Baton Rouge petrochemical complex. The $42 million project allows onsite production of ENB, a feedstock in Exxon's production of ethylene-propylene (diene) rubber. Completion is set for July.

IRAN started up a 175,000 metric ton/year polyvinyl chloride plant at its Bandar Khomeini petrochemical complex. The plant will boost Iran's output of plastics to 600,000 tons/year.

REFINING

BP OIL ESPANA let a turnkey contract to Foster Wheeler Iberia SA (FWI) to build a $25 million cogeneration plant at its 1 02,000 b/d Castellon de la Plana refinery. The project, to incorporate a 22,000 kw gas turbine that burns refinery fuel gas, is set for completion by March 1996. Earlier this year, BP let a contract to FWI to revamp the Castellon gas oil hydrofiner at a cost of about $20 million (OGJ, Feb. 27, p. 30). The 16,000 b/sd unit is to start up by July 1996.

CHEVRON U.S.A. PRODUCTS CO. revamped the 13,000 b/cd fluid catalytic cracker at its 45,000 b/d Salt Lake City refinery, using UOP reactor technology and replacement standpipe.

TWO EMPLOYEES DIED and three others were injured in a Mar. 13 fire at Clark Oil Corp.'s 65,000 b/d Blue Island, III., refinery. Cause of the fire, confined to a single unit, and extent of damage were under investigation last week.

PIPELINES

MAPCO INC., Tulsa, plans a $90 million expansion of its Mid-America Pipeline Co. system. The project will hike capacity for delivery of natural gas liquids into Hobbs, N.M., on Mid-America's Rocky Mountain system to 185,000 b/d with a 12 in., 400 mile loop on its 135,000 b/d pipeline. Pipelaying is to begin in midsummer and be complete by yearend.

A TRANSCANADA PIPELINES LTD. group let contract to Fluor Daniel Williams Bros. for design and procurement services for a $310 million natural gas transmission/distribution pipeline system in Colombia (see map, OGJ, Mar. 6, p. 30).

MEXICO'S Lineas de Produccion SA de SV let contract to IMO Industries Inc.'s Monroe, La., pump division to supply pumps and drive engines for Basic Resources International Ltd.'s $13.75 million heavy crude oil pipeline in Guatemala. The 120 km, 12 in. pipeline, slated for start-up in mid-1995, will extend from Xan oil field to Basic Resources' 4,000 b/d La Libertad asphalt refinery (OGJ, June 13, 1994, p. 46).

IPL ENERGY INC., Calgary, acquired 99.9% of the common stock of Producers Pipelines Inc. (PPI), Regina, Sask., for $45/share cash or 1.164 IPL common share for each share of PPI. The latter company operates about 1,500 miles of crude oil trunk and gathering lines in southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba that connect with IPL's Interprovincial main line system at Cromer, Man.

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM CO. and two subsidiaries started Federal Energy Regulatory Commission abandonment procedures to convert the Seagas pipeline to crude oil service. That followed last week's final agreement between ARCO and Phillips, setting up the Seaway Pipeline Co. partnership, which will create a system to ship imported crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to inland refiners (OGJ, Feb. 20, p. 35).

INTERENERGY CORP., Denver, agreed to buy about 200 miles of gas gathering lines and related facilities in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota from Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Co., Bismarck, N.D.

NORTHWEST PIPELINE CORP., purged gas from part of its interstate system that ruptured near Castle Rock, Wash. Crews last week were excavating soil around parallel 26 in. and 30 in. lines out of concern for more land movement threatening the lines.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

EMERGENCY RESOURCES INTERNATIONAL (ERI), Houston, Mar. 14 killed a gas well blowout near Amalapuram in southern India that had been releasing as much as 50 MMcfd of gas since Jan. 4 (OGJ, Jan. 16, p. 29). ERI crewmen on Mar. 10 snuffed a blaze hundreds of feet high at the site by detonating a 600 lb charge and Mar. 11 began clearing the area around the wellhead in preparation for capping.

UNITED MERIDIAN CORP. (UMC), Houston, and partners expect to start production of 15,000 b/d through a production, storage, and offloading tanker in April from Lion field off Cote d'Ivoire. UMC's A-2 Lion development well on Block CI-11 flowed 5,460 b/d of oil and 4.02 MMcfd of gas through a 1 in. choke with 630 psi flowing tubing pressure from Cretaceous Albian. The first of four development wells planned in the field this year, it extended the field 3,000 ft west of the Lion discovery well. Construction of processing and pipeline facilities is under way, aiming for peak flow of 20,000 b/d and 20 MMcfd in October.

ARCO BRITISH LTD. started up U.K. North Sea Blenheim field on Block 16/21 b. Blenheim, ARCO's first operated field in the U.K., holds estimated reserves of 23 million bbl of oil and produces through three subsea wells via the Petrojarl 1 production ship. The vessel arrived on location only 5 weeks before production began, having been modified after completing Hudson field first phase production for Amerada Hess Ltd. (OGJ, Feb. 20, p. 31). Blenheim field life is expected to be 3 years.

INDIA awarded a production sharing contract to a combine of Joshi Technologies International Inc., Tulsa, and Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Bombay, covering Dholka and Wasna fields in Gujarat state. Dholka produces 450 b/d of oil and has reserves of 2 million bbl. The 25 year PSC calls for a split of profit oil between the government and the 50-50 combine.

YPF SA, Buenos Aires, let a 2 year drilling contract to the Mallard Drilling unit of Energy Ventures Inc., Houston, calling for Mallard to deploy two land rigs each in Argentina's Neuquen and Comodoro Rivadavia regions. Mallard is refurbishing the rigs, which it plans to mobilize to Argentina in late spring. Drilling is to begin July 1 under the agreement, which Mallard estimates will generate revenues of about $25 million.

TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION voted to automatically resume prorationing in any Texas gas field with open flow status when production from the field increases 30% in any month if the increase was due either to loss of market in the previous month or to the operator's decision to voluntarily reduce production. As many as 175 gas fields in the state with combined flow of about 750 MMcfd could be affected.

WRT ENERGY CORP., The Woodlands, Tex., closed its purchase of 2,840 acres of producing oil and gas leases in South Louisiana for $46.4 million from an undisclosed seller. Included are leases in Bayou Pigeon, Deer Island, Abbeville, and Golden Meadow fields.

A COMBINE of BHP Group Resources Pty. Ltd. and Gazprom's Rosshelf, both of Moscow, let contract to Brown & Root Inc. (BRI), Houston, to study the feasibility of proposed development of Prirazlomnoye field in the Pechora Sea off Russia, about 300 km north of the Arctic Circle (OGJ, Sept. 13, 1993, p. 27). Subject to study approvals and a production sharing agreement, Prirazlomnoye development could be approved as early as October 1995, with start-up as soon as winter 1 998.

COMPANIES

BRI is completing a study for Rosshelf that assesses technical, economic, and financial feasibility of converting Russia's Sevmash-predriyatie (Sevmash) submarine fabrication yard into a manufacturing site for offshore oil and gas structures. Sevmash is at the port city of Severodvinsk on Dvinskaya Guba in the White Sea.

CHAPARRAL RESOURCES INC., DENVER, agreed to acquire for stock 100% of an undisclosed private company that holds 20% of Central Asian Petroleum Guernsey Ltd. (CAP-G), which owns 50% of the rights to develop Kazakhstan's Karakuduk oil field. The deal boosts Chaparral's stake in CAP-G to 45%. Karakuduk, 227 miles northeast of Aqtau, holds reserves estimated at 128 million bbl of oil. In addition to its stock commitment, Chaparral is required to pay as much as $4 million to work over and place on production at least seven wells. Work is to begin in the second half.

EUROGAS INC., Salt Lake City, obtained an option to purchase the 80% of McKenzie Methane Poland BY it does not own in exchange for Eurogas common and convertible preferred stock. McKenzie is a venture with exploration and development rights to coalbed methane resources in Poland's Upper Silesian coal fields, where it is testing a well with initially encouraging results. Eurogas has a commitment for the minimum $15 million financing needed to proceed with further development drilling.

MITCHELL ENERGY & DEVELOPMENT CORP., The Woodlands, Tex., agreed to buy interests in 78 East Texas oil and gas wells for $5.8 million from Pennzoil Exploration & Production Co. Separately, C&L Processors, a partnership of Mitchell and Conoco Inc., closed its purchase of the 210 mile Eskota gas gathering system in West Texas from Sid Richardson Gasoline Ltd. for $2.3 million and C&Us 18.% interest in a Winkler County, Tex., gas processing plant.

SPILLS

CLEANUP and containment efforts were continuing near Kettleman City, Calif., last week, targeting about 200 bbl of waxy crude oil spilled after a Chevron Pipe Line Co. 1 8 in. pipeline ruptured Mar. 11 when floodwater borne debris struck the line beneath Los Gatos Creek.

DIESEL FUEL spilled from a barge that sank on the Danube River near Passau, Germany, Mar. 12, forming an oil slick over a 20 km stretch of the river. About 30,000 1. of diesel fuel leaked from the Dutch registered Patric barge, which was carrying a cargo of 1,700 metric tons. The rest of the cargo was to be pumped out of the sunken vessel.