INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

EXPLORATION

TOTAL INDONESIA gauged an oil and gas/condensate discovery in the Mahakam area off Indonesia. Total 2B Sisi flowed 1,435 b/d of 36 gravity oil, 22 MMcfd of gas, and 1,245 b/d of 45-48 gravity condensate. The discovery, drilled as a replacement for a September 1988 blowout, bottomed at 15,385 ft in 253 ft of water. Total and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd. unit Indonesia Petroleum Ltd. share the contractor interest 50-50.

IMPORTS-EXPORTS

NIPPON OIL CO. plans to double its imports from Saudi Arabia to 160,000 b/d. Nippon will buy the extra 80,000 b/d, all Arab Berri extra light, through Caltex Petroleum Corp. Nippon is cutting its imports from producers with limited export capacity.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION was restored to 35,000 b/d of oil on Maxus Energy Corp.'s Intan A platform off Indonesia after completion of repairs on the Lan Shui floating production/storage/offloading vessel, damaged by a Jan. 21 fire. The Lan Shui is working as a temporary processing facility, and a second vessel is being used for temporary production storage. Permanent processing facilities are to be installed in the Intan-Widuri area of Southeast Sumatra in fourth quarter 1990.

VENEZUELA'S Maraven SA will drill 38 development wells in Ceuta field in the Lake Maracaibo region of Zulia state-28 offshore and 10 slant holes onshore. Targets are Eocene at maximum depth of 16,000 ft.

BAKER MARINE ENERGY PRIVATE LTD., Singapore, will develop Wei 11-4 oil field in the Beibu Gulf off China under an agreement with China National Offshore Oil Corp., Xinhua News Agency reported. The field, expected to start up in 1992, will peak at about 10,000 b/d.

SCEPTRE RESOURCES LTD., Calgary, plans to drill 10 horizontal wells in three reservoirs in Gainsborough field of Saskatchewan this year. It is placing on production a second horizontal well and drilling a third. The company's first horizontal well in the area produced an average of more than 1,000 b/d of oil in 1989. It expects a strong reserve increase vs. vertical holes. A steamflooded horizontal well in Tangleflags field has produced more than 1,000 b/d this year.

LASMO NORTH SEA PLC will sell some of its smaller, nonstrategic U.K. North Sea assets as a single package. Included are interests in producing Audrey gas field and prospective development on J Block (30/07a) and 20 other exploration blocks. Lasmo is streamlining its business after acquisition and integration of Thomson North Sea last year.

STENA GROUP merged its drilling operations, Houlder Marine, Aberdeen, and Seatec, Oslo, into a new company, Stena Drilling, that will operate a fleet of six semisubmersibles and two jack ups.

MARKETING

JAPAN'S government took steps to lift the ceiling on the number of gasoline service stations a company may own as part of the government's continuing deregulation of the petroleum industry. Effective Apr. 1 , the ceiling will be lifted in all but 273 municipalities where competition is strong. By Mar. 31, 1991, the ceiling will be lifted in those areas as well.

TRANSPORTATION

BP EXPLORATION'S plan to replace the Forties pipeline in the U.K. North Sea at a cost of 162 million was approved by the U.K. Energy Ministry (OGJ, Aug. 21, 1989, p. 49). Work is to begin this summer.

CANADA'S National Energy Board will examine environmental aspects of a plan to export 9.2 tcf of gas from the Mackenzie Delta to the U.S. in response to a request from Federal Energy Minister Jake Epp for review under the federal environmental assessment process (OGJ, Feb. 26, p. 44).

IRAN let major contracts to two South Korean companies for oil and gas work. Ssangyong won a $30 million contract for construction of additional storage tanks at Kharg Island tanker terminal. Daelim Industrial has a $150 million order for the second phase of the giant Kangan gas plant, a key element in restoring Iranian gas exports through the U.S.S.R.

ESSO PETROLEUM CO. will lay a 31 mile products line into Birmingham International Airport, England, linking its existing products pipeline from Fawley refinery on the south coast of England with the distribution depot at Bromford. Pending approvals, Esso hopes to lay the 15 million ($25.5 million) line during March-October 1991.

RESEARCH

BRITISH GAS PLC will build a 50 million ($85 million) research center at Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, to consolidate three existing research centers in London and Solihull, Warwickshire, England. Work will start this summer, and the center is to open in 1993.

PROCESSING

HAN YANG CHEMICAL CORP., Seoul, let contract to Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Houston, to engineer and construct a 350,000 metric ton/year naphtha cracking plant at Yeochun, South Korea. The plant will use S&W's proprietary process for cracking feedstocks and advanced recovery system for product recovery.

SHELL CHEMIE will add a lube oil additives plant at its Berre complex in Southeast France, doubling capacity to 16,000 metric tons/year at a cost of 700 million francs ($122.8 million). Berre will become the Royal Dutch/Shell Group's main worldwide additives production center. Shell Chemie plans to close its styrene butadiene rubber unit at Berre later this year because of a market surplus and the need for heavy investment to modernize the plant.

TOTAL RAFFINADERIJ NEDERLAND NV let contract to Raytheon unit Badger BV for revamp and expansion totaling more than $42.4 million at its Vlissingen, Netherlands, refinery. Badger will handle design and detailed engineering, procurement, and construction for a platformate fractionation unit, a Kero-Merox unit, a plafformer fractionation system debottlenecking, and a plafformer heater revamp. Badger recently completed a revamp of the plafformer unit, addition of a continuous catalyst regeneration unit, and gasoline storage expansion at the plant.

MOBIL CORP.'S French affiliate will spend $38 million to upgrade distillate fuels processing at its Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France, refinery. Plans call for a new dewaxing/desulfurization unit to start up in second half 1991.