INDUSTRY BRIEFS

GOVERNMENT

ANGOLAN government forces recaptured from Unita rebels the town of Soyo, where oil terminals crucial to the country's exports are based. Reuters reports from Luanda said further fighting is expected despite a recent peace accord. Early last year Unita took Soyo as oil companies pulled out expatriate workers in a series of dramatic helicopter flights (OGJ, Feb. 8, 1993, Newsletter). Onshore oil facilities reportedly are heavily damaged.

CUBA'S oil supply from Russia has been cut off because of failure to meet sugar export requirements, London's Financial Times reported. Russian Trade Minister Oleg Davydoy said Russia sent Cuba 1.5 million metric tons of oil, while Cuba had sent Russia only 500,000 metric tons of sugar, less than half the amount agreed. Davydoy said Russia will sell 1 million metric tons of oil earmarked for Cuba on the world market.

TANKERS

THE U.S. NAVY intercepted the second tanker being used to export petroleum products from Iraq, Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported. MEES said 1,000 metric tons/day of Iraqi products were shipped to the southern part of the Persian Gulf for several months. The second vessel was not identified. The Al Mahrousa tanker intercepted Oct. 22 was found to have been chartered by Hansa Shipping Co. of Germany (OGJ, Oct. 31, p. 26).

COMPANIES

NORCEN ENERGY RESOURCES LTD. Calgary, reported that as of Nov. 2 there were 16,856.365 common shares of North Canadian Oils Ltd. (NCO) deposited by NCO shareholders in acceptance of Norcen's offer to acquire all of NCO's outstanding common shares. Norcen, which now owns 97.9% of NCO common shares outstanding, extended its purchase offer to Nov. 15.

TIDEWATER INC, New Orleans, agreed to pay $205 million for the gas compression business of Halliburton Co., Dallas, including 1,545 units totaling more than 230,000 hp. The deal, expected to close by yearend subject to regulatory approval, will boost Tidewater Compression Service Inc.'s owned and operated compressor fleet to 2,900 units with a combined 480,000 hp.

PIPELINES

AUSTRALIAN group Western Mining Corp., Poseidon Gold, and BHP Petroleum Pty. Ltd. let contract to Australian Gas Light Co. to manage the proposed Northwest-Goldfields gas pipeline in Western Australia. The line will transport gas from Carnarvon basin fields to nearby Pilbara iron ore mines and farther south to Kalgoorlie area gold and nickel fields. Initial throughput is to be 57-76 MMcfd, later rising in phases to 95 MMcfd and 152 MMcfd. Work is to begin in August 1995, with first gas deliveries due in Kalgoorlie by January 1 997.

COLONIAL PIPELINE CO. resumed shipments through its 36 in. Houston-Beaumont, Tex., oil pipeline Nov. 2. The line was damaged by flooding of the San Jacinto River Oct. 20. Restart of the line, monitored by persons and computers at various sites and by Colonial observation aircraft, was uneventful.

PETROCHEMICALS

BHP POWER INC., a unit of Australia's Broken Hill Pty. Co. Ltd., proposed to conduct a feasibility study for the government of Viet Nam on development of a power and urea project in southern Viet Nam. The study will evaluate an $860 million, 1,750 metric ton/day urea plant to be integrated with a 680,000 kw power station based on gas turbine combined cycle technology. The project would use a 1.2 tcf gas resource off Viet Nam.

TAIWAN'S Economic Ministry approved Chi Mei Corp.'s $30.87 million petrochemical complex investment in China, the largest single investment of its kind in China by a Taiwanese firm, Taiwan economic officials reported. Chi Mei is to establish the complex on a 249 acre site in Southeast China's Guangdong province.

A 50-50 VENTURE of BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany, and General Electric Plastics By, Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands, will produce polybutylene terephthalate for both companies. It will be produced in a continuous process at BASF's Schwarzheide, Germany, petrochemical complex and sold in Europe, Construction of the 60,000 metric ton capacity plant, due to start next year, is to be complete by fourth quarter 1 996.

ANGARSK PETROCHEMICAL CO. contractor ABB Lummus Crest Inc., Bloomfield, N.J., completed basic engineering design for modernization of Angarsk's 360,000 metric ton/year ethylene plant in Angarsk, Russia. Lummus Crest's SRT cracking heaters and process technology will be used to improve efficiency, feedstock flexibility, and product quality. The plant will be reinstrumented with a distributed control system. Project completion is scheduled for 1996.

GAS STORAGE

GAZ DE FRANCE (GDF) plans to acquire a 30% interest in Slovakia's Pozagas, a developer of underground gas storage facilities. Pozagas is a joint venture of state owned firms SPP, a natural gas transmission/distribution company and Nafta-Gbely, an oil and gas exploration and production company. Plans call for GDF to develop a 27.5 bcf working capacity storage site at Lab-4 near the Austrian border and offer storage capacity to foreign companies as well as to GDF and SPP.

REFINING

MARATHON OIL CO. plans to start producing ethyl tertiary butyl ether at its 160,000 b/cd Robinson, Ill., refinery. Marathon believes it's the first oil company in the U.S. Midwest to produce an ethanol based gasoline additive. It will produce ETBE from Illinois produced ethanol, a corn product.

OK RAFFINADERI AB chose ABB Lummus Crest By of Netherlands as main contractor for its 1.5 billion krona ($209.4 million) gas oil project in Sweden. The value of Lummus Crest's portion of the contract is not disclosed. The project will use Lummus and Criterion Catalyst Co. LP's SynSat process and Akzo/Fina's CFI technology. The new plant is expected to be on stream in second half 1996.

COCHIN REFINERIES LTD. moved up its scheduled commissioning date for expansion of its Cochin, India, refinery by 3 months, saving at least $10 million in reduced construction time. The expansion, the refinery's third, will jump capacity to 140,000 b/d from the current 90,000 b/d.

SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC., Montreal, signed a $500 million (Canadian) contract with Russia's Lukoil to upgrade the 188,920 b/cd Volgograd, Russia, refinery. SNC-Lavalin unit SNC-Lavalin International Inc. will provide engineering and project management services, procurement, and installation supervision. The upgrading project, currently under way, is scheduled for completion by yearend 1998.

BP FRANCE let a 100 million franc ($19.4 million) contract to Technip to revamp the hydrodesulfurization unit at its 180,000 b/cd Lavera, France, refinery to produce 0.05 wt % sulfur content diesel required under European regulations that take affect in mid-1 996. BP has spent more than 1.4 billion francs on French refining projects during 1991-94.

CONOCO INC. in fourth quarter expects to begin bringing on line a 20,000 b/d hydrotreater and a 20 MMcfd hydrogen plant at its 42,000 b/cd Billings, Mont., refinery. The units were designed, built, and installed on an 18 month schedule in which general contractor Cheme Contracting Corp., Minneapolis, began construction with engineering 33% complete. Pritchard Co., Kansas City, provided process engineering and construction management services on the fast track project.

SPILLS

VIETNAMESE environmental officials are seeking $20 million as a damage deposit from Neptune Orient Lines Ltd., Singapore, owner of the 30,000 dwt Neptune Aries tanker that spilled 1,650 metric tons of diesel fuel last month near Ho Chi Minh City (OGJ, Oct. 17, p. 36). A fuel slick has spread over 120 sq miles of the Saigon River, fouling fish farms and rice paddies.

SUNCOR INC., Toronto, was fined $100,000 (Canadian) for spilling oil into a river in northern Alberta in 1992. The company, which operates an oilsands plant in the Fort McMurray, Alta., region, pleaded guilty to two charges of damaging fish habitat following a spill of 7,600 bbl of diesel fuel and naphtha into the House River. The company said the spill was caused by human error and a pipeline break. It said the problem has been fixed.

GAS PROCESSING

DELHI GAS PIPELINE CORP. and Tonkawa Gas Processing Co., units of USX-Delhi Group, Dallas, sold the Denton gas gathering system and gas processing plant to Dallas Production Inc., Dallas, for $3.5 million. The assets, in Denton and Wise counties, Tex., consist of 143 miles of gas pipelines, 6 miles of gas liquids pipeline, and a 20 MMcfd refrigerated lean oil plant.

GLITSCH INTERNATIONAL INC., Dallas, a unit of Foster Wheeler Corp., acquired Optimized Process Designs Inc., Katy, Tex., a natural gas processing engineering and construction contractor. Optimized Process Designs will retain its name.

ALBERTA NATURAL GAS CO., Calgary, increased production at its Cochrane, Alta., gas processing plant to 2.2 bcfd from 1.3 bcfd. The boost increases gas liquids production capacity to 26,000 b/d. The $55 million (Canadian) plant expansion was completed on schedule and under budget.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

NOBLE AFFILIATES INC. unit Samedan Oil Corp. started production from its East Cameron 331/332 field in 248 ft of water 100 miles off Louisiana. Combined production from nine wells is 7 MMcfd of gas and 110 b/d of condensate. Samedan expects production to reach 100 MMcfd and 10,000 b/d when full flow is achieved in February 1995.

APACHE CORP., Houston, agreed to pay $101 million to buy most of the U.S. oil and gas assets of Crystal Oil Co., Shreveport, La. Leases include net proved reserves of 91.6 bcf of gas and 5 million bbl of oil under acreage mainly on the Arkansas-Louisiana border and in South Louisiana. The purchase includes 40,000 net undeveloped mineral acres in South Louisiana. Closing is expected by yearend.

ELF ENTERPRISE CALEDONIA LTD., Aberdeen, shut in its U.K. North Sea Claymore field Nov. 3 after a small fire was detected in a gas turbine on the production platform. All personnel remained on board and resumed production Nov. 9 after the fire was doused. Five other fields that move oil to Scotland via the Elf platform also were shut in for a time. The closure cut off a combined 170,000 b/d of U.K. offshore oil production.

XCL CHINA LTD., a unit of XCL Ltd., Lafayette, La., and partners China National Oil & Gas Exploration & Development Corp. and Apache China Corp. plan to start development drilling in spring 1 995 on their C-1 structure in China's Bohai Bay. Their Zhao Dong C-1 discovery well tested 2,160 b/d of oil. The C-2 appraisal is capable of sustained production of at least 3,640 b/d, XCL said.

UNION TEXAS Petroleum Holdings Inc. unit Union Texas Petroleum Ltd. completed its $132 million acquisition of two of the blocks forming part of its purchase of interests in the U.K. North Sea's Britannia field from Petrofina SA units Fina Exploration Ltd. and Fina Petroleum Development Ltd. Union Texas bought interest in Blocks 16/26 and 16/27b.

AMPOLEX LTD., Sydney, chose the group of Dawson/Brown & Root joint venture, Leighton Contractors, Ove Arup & Partners, and Singapore's Keppel Shipyard to devise a collaborative project development scheme for its 100% owned, 75 million bbl Wandoo oil field on Australia's Northwest Shelf. An interim study is to be complete by December, with design, construction, and installation scheduled for completion in first half 1997.

EXPLORATION

CHINA'S Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation gave approval to Kerr-McGee China Petroleum Ltd., a unit of Kerr-McGee Corp., Oklahoma City, to begin exploration in Bohai Bay. Operator Kerr-McGee 50% and Murphy Oil Corp. unit Murphy Pacific Rim Ltd. 50% are interest owners in Contract Area 04/36, where they plan to start environmental assessments this year, begin seismic surveys early in 1995, and drill a wildcat in 1995.

TATHAM OFFSHORE INC., Houston, and Occidental Petroleum Corp. unit MidCon Corp. flowed their 1 Garden Banks 117 discovery on the Spend A Buck prospect off Louisiana at a rate of 10,503 b/d of oil and 11.9 MMcfd of gas through a '%4 in. choke with 2,768 psi flowing tubing pressure. Production is from a 50 ft Pliocene interval at 15,800 ft.

LASMO PLC'S first well on Block 4-2 off Viet Nam is a discovery. Its 1 Flying Horse flowed at rates of 2 MMcfd of gas and 40 b/d of 52' gravity condensate from lower Miocene sands at 3,967-91 m. Lasrno plans to drill more wells on the block next year.

UNITED MERIDIAN CORP., Houston, and General Atlantic Resources Inc., Denver, 1 OCS-14439 gas discovery on South Marsh Island Block 80 off Louisiana cut 136 net ft of gas pay. It was drilled to 11,898 ft measured depth, 9,025 ft true vertical depth, and temporarily abandoned without testing. The companies anticipate more drilling in second quarter 1995 after installation of a production platform.