COMPANIES
HALLIBURTON CO. unit Brown & Root Energy Services and McDermott International Inc. unit McDermott Scotland Ltd. propose to form a 50-50 venture to operate their North Sea fabrication yards in Scotland's highland region. Terms call for Brown & Root Highlands Fabricators' yard at Nigg and McDermott Scotland's Ardersier yard to merge.
TRIDENT NGL HOLDING INC., The Woodlands, Tex.. and Natural Gas Clearinghouse, Houston, signed a definitive merger agreement. The combined firms will be renamed NGC Corp. Closing is expected early in 1995.
FINA PLC sold its share in Britannia field pay zones under three North Sea blocks to Union Texas Petroleum Ltd. for 120 million ($180 million). It sold a 12.65% interest in Block 16/26, 30% in Block 16/27a, and 26% in Block 16/27b. Fina retains a 12.65% interest in Alba field, which lies above the Britannia reservoir.
TANKERS
THE 19,000 DWT TANKER Thanassis A. a Maltese registered vessel, broke in two and sank Oct. 22 west of Philippines when the ship was battered by Typhoon Teresa. Sixteen persons in the crew have not been found and are feared dead, Reuters reported. Twenty-one survivors in the crew were picked up by rescue ships in the South China Sea. The tanker was carrying fuel oil to Singapore from Russia's Pacific Far East.
THE GREENTIGER TANKER, registered in Malta, ran aground Oct. 20 off Sovietskaya Gavan, Sakhalin Island, and spilled an undetermined amount of its 230 metric ton oil cargo. Russian news agency Itar-Tass called it a minor spill.
PIPELINES
IRAN expects to complete design work by May 1995 on a $3.7 billion, 1,470 km gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, and Europe. Capacity will be at least 15 billion cu m/year.
TENNECO GAS INC., Houston, joined NrG Information Services Inc., an electronic communications network owned by NOVA Corp., TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., and Westcoast Energy Inc. The NrG Highway is a computer bulletin board system designed to aid shipments of western Canadian gas to markets in Canada and the U.S. Tenneco plans to incorporate its Tenn-Speed 2 shipment system with NrG in 1995.
GAS STORAGE
CMS ENERGY CORP.'S CMS Gas Transmission & Storage Co. reports that Peoples Gas Light & Coke Co., Chicago, agreed to become a storage customer at the Grand Lacs gas market center, which CMS operates and manages in Southeast Michigan's St. Clair County. The center will provide as much as 150 MMcfd of Michigan firm storage service starting in April 1995.
COASTAL CORP. unit ANR Pipeline Co. signed an undisclosed number of 5 year contracts to provide 3.75 bcf of gas storage service for Peoples Gas Light and 6.25 bcf for Peoples unit North Shore Gas Co. Starting Apr. 1, 1995, ANR will provide 50 day storage, with withdrawal rights of 200 MMcfd.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
OCELOT ENERGY INC., Calgary, added more than 25 MMcfd of net sales gas deliverability during this year's exploration/development drilling program in the British Columbia foothills. The program is part of a larger one in which Ocelot will drill 18 foothills wells during 1994-96.
AVIVA PETROLEUM INC., Dallas, received approval to drill four development wells and a new pool wildcat in the Putumayo region of Southwest Colombia. All five wells are to be complete by April 1995. Aviva is laying a 10 mile pipeline and installing production facilities in Mary and Miraflor fields. About 2,500 b/d of oil is currently exported by truck from the Mary-2 well site, where an extended production test began Aug. 1.
CHEVRON NIUGINI GROUP'S Kutubu project in Papua New Guinea's southern highlands produced its 100 millionth bbl of crude Oct. 14. The fields began producing June 21, 1992. Production, 132,000 b/d at present, has averaged 124,000 b/d in 1993-94. Chevron sees added prospects for production as a result of successful appraisal drilling in Gobe Main and Southeast Gobe fields.
HAMILTON OIL CO. LTD. let contract to Bluewater Terminal Systems NV, Villars-sur-Glane, Switzerland, for a catenary anchor leg rigid arm mooring system for installation in Douglas field in the U.K. Irish Sea. Part of Hamilton's Liverpool Bay development of four fields, the system will permanently moor an 870,000 bbl capacity oil storage barge. The system is to start up by November 1995.
PRODUCTION from Colombia's giant Cusiana oil field will climb to 90,000 b/d by early January after start-up in December of a second production unit, reported field interest owner Triton Energy Corp., Dallas. Operator BPX Colombia this month started commercial production from the field through a production train that is expected to yield 50,000 b/d when fully operational (OGJ, Oct. 24, p. 37).
ARAKIS ENERGY CORP., Vancouver, B.C., is mobilizing equipment, which includes a 65 person base camp, for use in Sudan's Heglig/Unity field starting Nov. 15. Other items include equipment for construction, well servicing, and drilling.
ARCO BRITISH LTD. agreed to sell its 50% share of gas produced from Gawain field in the North Sea when it goes on stream in October 1995. Independent gas supplier Kinetica Ltd., London, a joint venture between Conoco (U.K.) Ltd. and power generator Powergen plc, will receive as much as 90 MMcfd under a contract worth 200 million ($300 million).
AMOCO ORIENT PETROLEUM CO. began drilling the first of 20 extended reach wells in its Liuhua 11-1 field development program off China in the South China Sea. The first five wells will be drilled with the Jim Cunningham semisubmersible rig. Each will have a 2,500 ft horizontal section. Drilling of later wells will take place with a semisubmersible rig that is being converted to a production vessel. This will be linked to a production, storage, and offloading ship. Production is scheduled to start in April 1996 (OGJ, July 18, p. 28).
LNG
NYK LINE of Japan and Perbadanam National Shipping Line Bhd. of Malaysia let contract to NKK Corp., Tokyo, to supply a second 18,800 cu m liquefied natural gas carrier to ship LNG to a gas utility in Japan from Malaysia's Sarawak gas field. The double hull tanker is scheduled for delivery in May 1997.
INDONESIA'S state owned Pertamina extended two contracts for the sale of a combined 12 million metric tons/year of LNG to a group of Japanese companies. The contracts allow Pertamina to continue exports of 8.4 million tons/year during January 2000-March 2009 and 3.6 million tons/year during April 2003-March 2008 to Japan's west coast from gas plants at Bontang, East Kalimantan.
ABU DHABI GAS LIQUEFACTION CO.'S (Adgas) 137,600 cu m Al-Shahamah LNG tanker sailed for Japan Oct. 21 with its first cargo. The vessel is the second of four tankers ordered from Japan as part of an Adgas program to double shipments to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (OGJ, Nov. 15, 1993, p. 31). The first vessel, Al Khaznah, delivered its first cargo to Tokyo Electric last month (OGJ. Sept. 26, p. 46).
GAS PROCESSING
AMOCO (U.K.) EXPLORATION CO. let a 700,000 ($1.05 million) contract to AMEC Process & Energy Ltd., London, for modifications to its gas processing terminal at Bacton on Britain's east coast. Work will include installation of a glycol recovery plant, two glycol recycling units, and new pig receivers.
QATARGAS let a $1.5 million contract to Jordan Kent Metering Systems Ltd., Wotton-under-Edge, U.K., for two metering systems for use in development of North Dome gas field and its LNG export terminal. Jordan Kent will supply a gas metering system and a natural gas liquids metering system with control panel late in spring 1995.
PETROCHEMICALS
CHIBA STYRENE MONOMER CO. started up its 250,000 metric ton/year high purity ethylbenzene/styrene monomer plant in Japan. Plant design uses an energy recovery scheme from ABB Lummus Crest Inc., Bloomfield, N.J., that reduces energy use by 500 kcal/kg of styrene monomer.
MITSUI TOATSU CHEMICALS INC. started up its 240,000 metric ton/year ethylbenzene/styrene monomer plant at Ube, Japan. The plant uses the ABS Lummus Crest/Unocal/UOP zeolite catalyst based process for ethylbenzene intermediate production.
PROCATALYSE, a joint venture of Rhone-Poulenc SA and Institute Francais du Petrole, plans to invest 60 million francs ($11.7 million) in a plant that will produce catalysts for refining and petrochemical use. The plant will be built at Rhone-Poulenc's Salindres site in southern France, next to an existing unit built last year with a similar investment.
EGYPTIAN PETROCHEMICAL CO. chose ABB Lummus Crest's short residence time ethylene technology for Egypt's first ethylene plant at Ameriya, 30 km from Alexandria. Plant capacity will be 150,000 metric tons/year, expandable to 300,000 tons/year.
REFINING
CROSFIELD CATALYSTS started up a catalyst plant at its Chicago facility. The plant produces Cogel amorphous and amorphous/zeolite members of Chevron International Oil Co.'s proprietary ICR series catalysts for hydrocracking units.
REPSOL of Spain let contract to KTI Group BV, Zoetermeer, Netherlands, to supply two hydrogen generation plants. One is an 18 MMcfd unit for Repsol's Puertollano, Spain, site. The other is a 9.8 MMcfd plant at La Coruna.
TEXACO LTD. expects to have its 185,000 b/d Pembroke, South Wales, refinery in full production early in November after an explosion and fire in July (OGJ, Aug. 1, p. 25). The plant has been producing 60,000 b/d of gasoline recently, enough to meet retail requirements. Start-up of the catalytic cracker, damaged in the blaze, will bring the plant back to full operation.
SOUTH KOREA'S Yukong Ltd. started building a fifth processing train with design capacity of 200,000 b/d at its Ulsan refinery. The four existing trains there have combined distillation capacity of 610,000 b/d. The project, to be complete in 1996, will cost $501 million. Included are a 50,000 b/d FCC and a 60,000 b/d resid hydrodesulfurization unit.
POLAND'S Mazoieckie Zaklady Rafinery jne i Petrochemicz SA chose the Unocal/UOP Unicracking process for the new vacuum gas oil (VGO) conversion unit in its 200,000 b/cd Plock, Poland, refinery. The new unit will charge 52,980 b/sd of VGO.
MOBIL OIL CORP. continues to investigate the cause of an Oct. 19 LPG line leak and fire at its 127,000 b/cd Torrance, Calif., refinery, where one Mobil employee and a number of independent contract workers were injured. All but seven persons injured were released Oct. 21 from a hospital. Those who remained hospitalized as of Oct. 21 were employees of Serv Tech Inc., Houston, and IST Inc.
IDEMITSU KOSAN CO. started up a 35,000 b/d residue hydrodesulfurizer and a 26,000 b/d residue fluid catalytic cracker at its 130,000 b/d Hokkaido, Japan, refinery.
GULF OIL REFINING LTD. let a 15 million ($22.5 million) contract to Stone & Webster Engineering Ltd., Milton Keynes, U.K., for modification of a distillate hydrotreater at its 115,000 b/cd Milford Haven, Wales, refinery. The plant will be upgraded to supply low sulfur diesel oil to meet new European Commission standards and to double throughput.
A TURNAROUND this month at Nigeria's 150,000 b/cd Port Harcourt Refining Co. refinery in Rivers State was performed to improve plant production, which was only 40% of capacity before the maintenance.
EXPLORATION
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM PTY. LTD.'S 1 Laminaria wildcat on Australia's Northern Territory Permit AC/P8 in the Timor Sea flowed light oil at a rate of 5,900 b/d through a 1/2 in. choke with no water from pay at 3,292-3,302 m. Tests will continue in shallower zones in the well's 102 m gross oil column.
FOREST OIL CORP.'S Eugene Island 293 B-11 wildcat, drilled from the company's Vermilion Block 255-H platform off Louisiana, cut 154 ft true vertical depth of net gas pay in multiple sands at 2,900-8,000 ft. Start of production is expected in December. Meanwhile, Forest increased combined flow from its Block 255-H platform H-1 and H-2 wells to 2,700 b/d of oil from 1,700 b/d and 17 MMcfd from 6 MMcfd. The increase stemmed from optimized flow rates after initial production testing.
SULFUR
PENNZOIL CO. agreed to sell nearly all the U.S. assets of its sulfur division to Freeport-McMoRan Resource Partners LP. Pennzoil will receive quarterly installment payments from Freeport-McMoRan based on prevailing sulfur prices. From the sale. Pennzoil expects to record a $50 million writeoff to its third quarter earnings.
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.