INDUSTRY BRIEFS

SPILLS

OWNERS of Taiwanese vessel Uni-Humanity and the Vietnamese tanker Transco-01, ships that collided May 1 and spilled oil into a southern Vietnamese river, agreed to pay a combined $10 million to fishermen whose businesses were harmed by pollution. The payments are the first in Viet Nam since introduction of an environmental law this year, Saigon newspaper Giai Phong reported.

AN ESTIMATED 7,000 BBL spill from a 10 ft long gash in Southwest Russia's Samara-Lisichansk 41 in. crude oil pipeline temporarily interrupted oil flow to Europe from Russia Aug. 29. Officials at Transneft, Russia's oil transportation agency, said repairs would take 24 hr to complete. Then the line will start moving crude again to the Black Sea port of Novorosslisk.

A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT in San Francisco ruled recreational fishermen in Alaska cannot recover damages from Exxon Corp. for environmental harm caused by the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska. The court said a $1 billion settlement reached in 1991 between the company and federal and state agencies precluded the fishermen's lawsuit because it included damages for all losses of natural resources.

TANKERS
U.S. COAST GUARD issued a final rule requiring single hull tankers of more than 5,000 gross dwt to carry emergency lightering equipment on board and foreign flag vessel operators to provide International Maritime Organization numbers in their advance notice of arrival reports. The regulations are designed to aid response and salvage efforts for vessels in the case of collisions or grounding.

COMPANIES

TORCH ENERGY ADVISORS INC., Houston, formed Torch Energy Finance Co. to provide capital to independent operators for pipeline and asset acquisition and development projects, as well as gas storage projects. Torch Finance anticipates typical transaction sizes of $2-15 million.

SABA PETROLEUM CO., Irvine, Calif., agreed to pay a combined $11 million for oil and gas leases and a gas gathering system in Oklahoma. Seller isn't disclosed. Closing is expected by Sept. 15.

BP EXPLORATION withdrew from negotiations with Marubeni Corp. after failing to reach agreement on final terms for the sale of its exploration and production interests in Papua New Guinea. The move is considered a blow to Papua New Guinea's hopes to establish a $5-10 billion liquefied natural gas export project based on Hides field gas.

CANADIAN PIONEER ENERGY INC., Calgary, bought a 51% interest in Cogas Energy Ltd., also of Calgary, for $46-55 million (Canadian) and says it plans to acquire the remaining shares. The deal for the 51 % interest is scheduled to close Sept. 12.

NOWSCO WELL SERVICE LTD., Calgary, offered $25 million (U.S.) for Service Fracturing Co. (Serfco), which operates well stimulation services in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. The $4.55/share offer depends on Nowsco receiving at least two thirds of outstanding Serfco shares.

CANADIAN 88 ENERGY CORP., Calgary, acquired 11 million shares, or 8.7%, of Texaco Canada Petroleum Inc., also of Calgary. The purchase complicates a bid by Texaco Inc. to acquire the 22% of the Canadian unit it does not own. A group of Texaco Canada minority shareholders is fighting Texaco Inc.'s $1.40/share bid, which they say is inadequate (OGJ, Aug. 22, p. 26). A shareholder meeting is scheduled Sept. 9 in Calgary to vote on the offer.

GOVERNMENT

PERU agreed to pay $55 million in compensation to a German group for the military government's 1974 expropriation of undeveloped Aguaytia gas field and producing Maquia oil field in Peru's central jungle. The German group was formed in 1953 by Gewerkschaft Elwerath, Deutsche Texaco AG, Wintershall AG, and Cia. Peruana de Petroleo El Oriente SA.

PIPELINES

JOSE MARIA RENDON, president of Colombia's Ecopetrol, said Colombia in the past 9 years was prevented from collecting more than $1 billion in oil revenue because of terrorist attacks on the Cano Limon-Covenas crude oil pipeline. He cited a study by Occidental Petroleum Corp. that said sections of the line were blown up 331 times during 1985-93.

COLUMBIA GAS SYSTEM INC., Wilmington, Del., called an unsolicited recapitalization and reorganization proposal from Dimeling, Schreiber & Park (DS&P) of Philadelphia "unacceptable and flawed." DS&P and investment group DS&P Group agreed to pay $500 million for a minority stock position in Columbia, which presently operates under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

LEVIATHAN GAS PIPELINE PARTNERS LP, Houston, agreed to acquire a combined 46.6% ownership interest in the inactive Green Canyon offshore pipeline system and related assets in the Gulf of Mexico from Placid Oil Co., Opubco Resources Inc., and HI Production Co. Inc. Leviathan plans to reactivate the system as early as the fourth quarter.

TERMINALS

PAKISTAN is considering a Malaysian proposal to build a marine terminal and port at Khalifa, Baluchistan province, to handle larger tankers. The terminal could handle vessels with capacities of 200,000-250,000 bbl of oil, compared with 40,000-55,000 bbl tanker capacities at Karachi and Port Qasim. In addition, plans call for laying an oil pipeline from Khalifa to Port Qasim and to Jamshoro Multan, Sheikhupura, and Lahore to transport oil to Pakistan's interior.

REFINING

UNOCAL CORP. paid $2.088 million to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as settlement of a violation notice CARB filed against Unocal for offering gasoline for sale that did not contain enough detergent additive to meet CARB Phase 1 gasoline rules.

AN ACCIDENT last June at Venezuela's 105,000 b/cd El Palito refinery was caused by human error that shut down a catalytic cracker, state company Corpoven said. Repairs to the unit will take 4 months.

TEXACO REFINING & MARKETING INC. agreed to pay a penalty of $350,000 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to settle charges that Texaco's 53,000 b/cd Bakersfield, Calif., refinery illegally disposed of hazardous waste by discharging selenium contaminated waste water into an injection well.

RFG SURVEY ASSOCIATION, Washington, D.C., has been formed to conduct reformulated gasoline program compliance surveys required under EPA's reformulated gasoline rule. Twenty-tour companies formally opened the association Aug. 15.

INDIAN OIL CORP. earmarked $200 million for another revamp at its 10,000 b/d Digboi refinery in India's Assam state. The project calls for a new coker with related secondary processing units and a dewaxer that will boost paraffin wax output by 40%. The work will boost refinery capacity to 13,000 b/d.

EXPLORATION

MOBIL ERDGAS-ERDOEL GMBH soon will begin a 2 year geological and geophysical program on acreage it acquired under concessions awarded to it solo and in partnership with Occidental of Hungary Inc. last month (see map OGJ, Aug. 29, p. 32). Initial seismic work is to get under way this year after a concession agreement is signed with Hungary's Ministry of Industry and Trade.

NORTH KOREA'S government granted an offshore petroleum exploration concession in East Korea Bay and surrounding areas to Australian companies Beach Petroleum of Camberwell, Vic., and Claremont Petroleum. The companies also were granted the right to obtain a concession covering 2,000 sq km onshore and offshore in the Anju and Onchon basins on North Korea's west coast.

SOUTH AFRICA plans to conduct an international licensing round for offshore exploration on 17 blocks in an area stretching from its border with Namibia to its border with Mozambique. Seminars explaining the licensing round will be conducted in London, Houston, and Cape Town during October, South Africa's Ministry of Mineral & Energy Affairs reported.

RUSSIA'S Tatneft oil association started drilling a wildcat Aug. 21 on a 1.7 million acre block in Southwest Turkey. Global Natural Resources Inc., Houston, holds a 22.2% interest in the well. Tatneft has an option to drill a second well on the block, which would reduce Global's carried interest to 11%.

MOBIL CORP. signed a joint venture exploration contract with Peruvian state company Perupetro and a group of U.S. independents to conduct 150 km of seismic surveys and drill one wildcat in Peru's northern jungle. Work will take place on the Maranon basin's Block 62, which abuts Ecuador.

SHELF OIL CO. signed an exploration and production sharing contract for the Marine 9 block off Congo. It's the first contract reached since Congo's parliament approved new laws in June introducing such contracts in the country, reported analyst Wood Mackenzie.

SEAGULL ENERGY CORP., Houston, agreed to acquire an interest in as many as five blocks in the Gulf of Mexico off Texas. Terms call for Seagull to drill at least one wildcat on at least two of the blocks. Seagull, as operator, intends to spud wells this month on High Island A-524 and High Island A-377.

NGL STORAGE

SEMINOLE PIPELINE CO., a unit of Mapco Inc., Tulsa, appealed a Texas Railroad Commission decision to revoke Seminole's permit to operate an underground natural gas liquids storage site in South Central Texas near Brenham. TRC's decision cited safety hazards at the site. Three persons were killed in an explosion there in April 1992.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

UNOCAL CORP.and Marathon Oil Co. agreed to an asset trade and operations realignment in Alaska's Cook Inlet area. Effective Dec. 1, Union will acquire Marathon's interest in Swanson River field and become operator of the Dolly Varden and Steelhead platforms and the Trading Bay Unit production facility. Marathon will assume Union's working interest in Beaver Creek field and interest and operatorship of Kenai and Cannery Loop fields.

BENTON-VINCCLER CA, a unit of Benton Oil & Gas Co., Oxnard, Calif., in July started Phase 2 of its development drilling program in Venezuela's South Monagas Unit, where it expects to drill a total of eight vertical and horizontal wells. More production equipment, with design capacity of 20,000 b/d to accommodate several drilling phases, is to be installed in fourth quarter.

SHELL WESTERN E&P INC. agreed to pay a civil penalty of $337,703 to EPA to settle an alleged violation of limits on volatile organic compound emissions in South Belridge oil field, Kern County, Calif.

AMOCO CORP. unit Amoco Eurasia Petroleum Co. submitted plans to Russian officials to develop western Siberia's Priobskoye oil field. Amoco and Russian producer Yuganskneftegaz will develop the field, which holds oil reserves estimated at 700 million metric tons.

NORWAY'S Den norske stats oljeselskap AS exercised an option to buy two shuttle tankers for use in Heidrun field off Norway. Currently being built by Knutsen OAS Shipping AS, Haugesund, Norway, the vessels are valued at $100 million apiece. Each can carry 860,000 bbl of oil. A third tanker for Heidrun is to be operated by Conoco Norway Inc.

BP EXPLORATION OPERATING CO. LTD. let a A7.5 million ($11.25 million) contract to Kvaerner Paladon Ltd., Northampton, U.K., for a separation plant for use in development of Foinaven field west of the Shetland Islands. The plant, which will process 75,000 b/d of oil, is scheduled for delivery in mid-1995. BP recently decided on a floating production system to develop the deepwater field (OGJ, Aug. 8, p. 75).

PHILIPPINE NATIONAL OIL CO. is drilling 2 Maniguin in License GSEC 60 off Philippines, where it acquired a 35% interest in a farmout. Operator and 20% interest holder Dragon Oil plc, London, reports the well will be drilled to 5,200 ft to test a structure found in 1981 by Phillips Petroleum Co.

AMERADA HESS LTD.'S U.K. North Sea Block 21/16 well was drilled to 7,525 ft and suspended Aug. 8. The 21/16-2 well flowed 4,300 b/d of 34.2 gravity oil through a 114 in. choke. The well is 1 km east of Amerada's 21/16-1 discovery tested in November 1993.

NOWSCO WELL SERVICE unit Nowsco Well Service (Cyprus) Ltd. will supply cementing, stimulation, and coiled tubing services for a project near Raduzhny, in the Tyumen area of western Siberia. World Bank is financing the 2 year, $25 million (U.S.) contract. Japan's Marubeni Corp., which helped broker the deal, holds a 10% interest in project revenues.

GAS STORAGE Williams Natural Gas Co.

affiliate Williams Underground Gas Storage Go. is test marketing a 2.7 bcf capacity natural gas storage project in Southeast Louisiana. It expects to convert the Chacahoula sa dome cavern to gas storage from brining operations if customer demand supports the project. Site is near Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish.