INDUSTRY BRIEFS

TERMINALS

UKRAINE'S parliament approved construction of a $790 million crude oil terminal at Yuzhny near Odessa on the Black Sea coast, London's Financial Times reported. Starting late in 1996 the terminal will allow imports of 1220 million metric tons/year of crude, to be processed at Ukraine's 78,321 b/cd Odessa and 172,707 b/cd Kherson refineries.

LITHUANIA plans to spend $240 million to build a 16 million metric ton/year capacity oil products export/import terminal at Butinge on its Baltic Sea coast. The terminal at first will be owned by a group of state companies led by operators of the 267,093 b/cd Mazheikiai refinery. Later, a firm will be created and privatized to own the terminal. Construction will require 22 months.

EXPLORATION

GREAT WESTERN LTD., a unit of Great Western Resources Inc., Houston, is the operator of Block 65 in Peru's northern jungle, not Western Geophysical, Houston, as reported and shown on a map (OGJ, Jan. 16, p. 15). Great Western holds a 51% interest in the block in partnership with Enterprise Oil plc, London. Western Geophysical conducted seismic data interpretation work on the block.

HARKEN ENERGY CORP., Dallas, notified Colombia's Ecopetrol it will drill a well on the Bocachico association contract and extend Harken's contract there into its second year. The contract covers 190,000 acres in the Middle Magdalena basin, where Harken is reprocessing certain regional seismic data and will soon begin a seismic survey over part of the block.

AMOCO CORP. plans to drill a wildcat in Northeast Romania starting in June, its first in that country. Amoco holds 5 year exploration rights to 750 sq km in a bend of the Carpathian Mountains, 200 km north of Bucharest.

MAERSK OLIE OG GAS AS and partners expect to boost reserve estimates on their 2.6 million acre B8-32 block in the Gulf of Thailand after three delineation wells cut gas/condensate sands in three previously untested Tantawan formation fault blocks. One well, 7 Tantawan, produced a combined 45.3 MMcfd of gas and 1,500 b/d of oil and condensate through a 48/64 in. choke on drillstem tests of three zones with 187 ft of net pay at undisclosed depths.

PETROLERA SANTA FE (ECUADOR) LTD., a unit of Santa Fe Energy Resources Inc., Houston, and partners plan to collect more seismic data in 1995 and possibly start exploratory drilling in 1996 on Block 11 in Ecuador's North Central Oriente basin.

PETROCHEMICALS

ELF ATOCHEM, Paris, and Union Carbide Corp., Danbury, Conn., plan to form a joint venture to produce and market polyethylene resins and compounds for wire, cable, pipe, and other end uses. The new company, Aspen Polymeres, began operations last Dec. 31. Aspen owns the gas phase polyethylene reactor and other equipment at the former Elf site at Gonfreveille, France. The reactor will use Carbide's Unipol process.

NOVACOR CHEMICALS (CANADA) LTD. chose the "Classic" styrene technology, jointly licensed by ABB Lummus Crest Inc., Monsanto Co., and UOP, to upgrade Novacor's 18 year old styrene plant at Sarnia, Ont. The new unit will use the latest reactor design and catalyst technology, low steam to carbon ratio, and deep vacuum operation. The 600 million lb/year plant is scheduled to start up late this year.

LAUSITZER BERGBAU VERWALTUNGSGESELLSCHAFT MBH and R+T Entsorgungs GmbH let a combined 40 million deutschemark ($26 million) contract to Uhde GmbH, Dortmund, Germany, and SKL Industrieanlagen GmbH, Magdeburg, Germany, for design of a methanol plant in Schwarze Pumpe, Saxony, East Germany. The plant will produce 100,000 tons of methanol from about 220,000 tons of pretreated plastics and clarifier sludge. Commissioning is scheduled for yearend 1996.

COMPANIES

OXY USA INC. plans to ask for a rehearing after an appellate court upheld a $30 million judgment against the company. The judgment stems from lawsuits brought by two individuals and two companies charging OXY with interfering in marketing gas from Oklahoma wells and interfering with contracts with third party gas shippers or buyers.

NORTHSTAR ENERGY CORP., Calgary, acquired the oil and gas assets of Deminex (Canada) Ltd. for $64.1 million (Canadian). The purchase includes 9.5 million bbl of oil equivalent, 40,000 undeveloped acres, and more than $100 million in income tax pools.The assets are in the Gull Lake and Belshill Lake areas of Central Alberta.

INVESTMENT CANADA gave Amoco Canada Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, an additional 2 years to sell a 17.5% interest in Crestar Energy Inc., which was formed in 1992 with assets from Dome Petroleum Ltd. and oil and gas assets of Dow Chemical Canada Inc. Amoco and Dow each hold a 17.5% interest, which was to be sold by 1996. That requirement has been lifted by the federal agency.

IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES PLC, London, sold certain ethylene oxide derivatives businesses, including ethylene glycol, glycol ethers and acetates, ethanolamines, and brake fluid businesses, to Union Carbide Corp. ICI's ethylene oxide and derivatives plants in Wilton, U.K., which make products sold to Union Carbide, are included in the sale.

TEXACO EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION INC. sold interests in 22 West Texas oil and gas leases with 182 wells producing a combined 949 b/d of oil and more than 1.1 MMcfd of gas to four independent producers for a total $18.5 million. The biggest package of assets went to Coda Energy Inc., Dallas, which paid $10.8 million for interests in 29 wells producing 415 b/d and 400 Mcfd in Andrews County.

TRITON ENERGY CORP., Dallas, budgeted capital spending of $175 million in 1995, up from $140 million in 1994. The budget includes $100 million for Triton's share of development costs in Colombia's Cusiana and Cupiagua fields and $29 million for offshore exploratory and delineation drilling on Block A-1 8 in the Malaysia-Thailand joint development area. The rest is to go for seismic work and exploratory drilling, mainly in Latin America and Italy.

TANKERS

SINGAPORE CLEANSEAS let a combined $15 million contract to SGN Services Pte. Ltd. and Keppel Engineering Pte. Ltd. for a 30,000 ton/year plant to process sludge from the cleaning of oil tankers. The unit, on the island of Pulau Sebarok off Singapore, will recover crude from the sludges and reuse it. Separation & Recovery System Inc. is supplying the process equipment. The unit is scheduled to start up in the third quarter.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

SIX WORKERS WERE KILLED, three were missing, and 19 others were injured in a Jan. 19 explosion and fire at Mobil Producing Nigeria Ltd.'s Ubit offshore platform in Qua Iboe oil field, Akwa Obom state, Nigeria. Mobil shut down field production estimated at 85,000 b/d pending investigation of the cause and extent of damage. There is no projected date for production restart.

MESA INC., Dallas, plans to sell its Kansas Hugoton gas field leases. It asked a group of companies, which showed interest in acquiring the assets, to review field data.

CHEVRON CORP. unit Chevron Overseas (Congo) Ltd. acquired an additional 7.5% interest in the N'Kossa exploitation permit and the Haute Mer license off Congo, increasing its participation in the blocks to 30%.

FINLAND'S Neste Production Ltd. let a 65 million markka ($13.65 million) contract to Kvaerner Masa-Yards Inc. to install a bow loading system on Neste's 91,000 dwt tanker MT Futura. Installation will take place at Kvaerner's Turku, Finland, shipyard, with delivery scheduled by the end of September. The vessel will handle oil from Harding field in the U.K. North Sea.

LASMO PLC, London, agreed to sell its 18.75% interest in the Kakap production sharing contract (PSC) in Indonesia's West Natuna Sea for $29.5 million cash to Minora Resources NL. The PSC holds two oil fields, and two more there are due to start production during second quarter.

BRITISH GAS PLC'S 2 Hasdrubal appraisal well on its Amilcar permit off Tunisia flowed 1,400 b/d of condensate and 20 MMcfd of gas on test. The well was drilled by the J.T. Angel jack up in 60 m of water to appraise a 1975 Sotratep discovery that was considered noncommercial. Further appraisal is planned.

AMERADA HESS LTD. let contract to Stena Drilling Ltd., Aberdeen, for use of its Dyvi Stena semisubmersible rig to drill west of the Shetland and Orkney areas off the U.K. this year. Amerada Hess plans to participate in seven to 12 wells, including wildcats and appraisals of Solan, Strathmore, Schiehallion, and Clair fields (OGJ, June 20, 1994, p. 16).

NORWAY'S Den norske stats oljeselskap AS let a 115 million kroner ($17.25 million) contract to Transocean Drilling AS, Tananger, Norway, for charter of the Ross Isle semisubmersible rig. The 8 month charter will start in May.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY let a $5.9 million, 2 year contract to Gaviota Maintenance Services Inc., Ventura, Calif., to conduct maintenance and repairs at the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve in Kern County, Calif.

ANADARKO PETROLEUM CORP., Houston, and partners began producing a total of 1,700 b/d of oil and 2.8 MMcfd of gas from two wells on High Island Block A-376 in the Gulf of Mexico, marking fast track development of a 1992 discovery delineated in March 1993.

REFINING

KERR-MCGEE CORP., Oklahoma City, agreed to sell its 190,000 b/cd Corpus Christi refinery to Koch Refining Co., Wichita, and its 7,800 b/cd Cotton Valley, La., refinery to Calumet Lubricants Co., Princeton, La. It also agreed to sell Cato Oil & Grease Co., Oklahoma City, to Citgo Petroleum Corp., Lake Charles, La.

COLOMBIA'S Ecopetrol launched environmental rehabilitation plans that include cleanup at the 173,000 b/cd Barrancabermeja and 70,000 b/cd Cartagena refineries. It soon will begin cleanup of Barrancabermeja's Marsh 6, which has been a plant waste dumping ground for more than 70 years. The alkyl plant there will be closed and the land dredged, refilled, replanted, and turned into a recreation park.

PETROMIN PETROLA RABIGH REFINERY CO.'S 325,000 b/cd Rabigh, Saudi Arabia, refinery continues to run crude from storage after Saudi Arabian Oil Co. cut off crude supplies Jan. 1. The cutoff stems from financial disputes between Aramco and joint venture partner Petrola Hellas SA, Athens.

YUKONG LTD., Seoul, signed a colicensing agreement with Raytheon Engineering & Constructors Inc., Lexington, Mass., granting Raytheon exclusive right to license Yukong's UCO lubricant process to third parties. The process produces high viscosity lube base oil from the unconverted oil stream left after hydrocracking.

PETRO-CANADA chose Chevron Corp.'s Isodewaxing and Lube Hydrofinishing technologies for a major expansion of its 4,000 b/d Mississauga, Ont., lubricants plant. Petro-Canada plans to double capacity there through a $1 00 million (U.S.) expansion, scheduled to go on stream by fourth quarter 1996.

DIAMOND SHAMROCK REFINING & MARKETING INC., San Antonio, let contract to TPA Inc., Dallas, to engineer, procure, and build a 50 ton/day sulfur recovery unit and a 50 ton/day Resulf tail gas treating unit at its 70,000 b/cd Three Rivers, Tex., refinery.

TPA, Chevron USA Inc., San Francisco, and Vniius, an all union research institute for hydrocarbon raw materials based in Kazan, Russia, joined forces to offer mercaptan removal technologies developed by Vniius. The agreement includes processes to convert mercaptans in crude and products, treatment schemes for complete removal of mercaptans from streams containing low levels of the contaminant, and a treatment process for conversion of chemical oxygen demand in sulfidic, caustic waste streams. TPA will license the processes and provide design packages.

GOVERNMENT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE made a preliminary ruling against four countries that ship small diameter seamless carbon and alloy standard line and pressure pipe to the U.S. The margins of dumping were Argentina 108.1%, Brazil 12.8%, Germany 2.7%, and Italy 0.3%. As a result of these margins, dumping bonds will be imposed against imports from those countries until Commerce makes a final ruling.

RUSSIA'S Tyumen region plans to establish its own oil company soon. It will consist of four producing enterprises, the Tobolsk petrochemical plant, and the 361,479 b/cd Ryazan refinery. The group of producers produced 183 million bbl of oil during 1994.

MARKETING

MOBIL CORP plans to enter Ecuador's fuels marketing business via Mobil Oil Ecuador SA, which will begin retail sales through Mobil branded, independent service station dealers. Mobil plans to develop station sites and projects, selling fuels through 40 branded stations by yearend.