GAS STORAGE
NATIONAL FUEL GAS SUPPLY CORP., a unit of National Fuel Gas Co., Buffalo, filed application for a permit from U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin developing a total of 19.1 bcf of working gas storage capacity in the U.S. Northeast. Peak withdrawal and injection rates of 207 MMcfd and 171 MMcfd, respectively, are to be achieved by converting depleted Callon Run field in Jefferson County, Pa., and expanding the Limestone storage reservoir in Cattaraugus County, N.Y.
PETROCHEMICALS
SAUDI BASIC INDUSTRIES CORP. unit lbn Zahr let contract to Italy's Snamprogetti SpA to build a 100,000 metric ton/year methyl tertiary butyl ether synthesis plant at an undisclosed Saudi Arabia site. Snamprogetti will supply the Snamprogetti/Ecofuel MTBE license and provide basic and detailed engineering, equipment, and materials.
PIPELINES
U.S. ENERGY ASSOCIATION INC., Washington, D.C., and five distribution units of Columbia Gas System Inc., Wilmington, Del., agreed to establish an information and technology exchange partnership with Russia's Penza oblast gas distribution company Penzagazifikatsia. Agreements are for 1 year.
PACIFIC GAS TRANSMISSION CO. (PGT), San Francisco, on June 28 delivered a record 1.861 bcf of Canadian gas to California. PGT last November began operating an expansion that increased system capacity at the California border by 70%.
GREAT LAKES GAS TRANSMISSION LP, Detroit, will hold an open season Aug. 1-Sept. 1 to determine interest in high deliverability annual balancing and peaking gas storage services near its interstate pipeline system.
TRANS QUEBEC & MARITIMES PIPELINE INC., Montreal, asked Canada's National Energy Board for a permit to lay an 8.4 mile, 16 in. gas pipeline across the St. Lawrence River. The line would provide service to customers of Gaz Metropolitain Inc. on Quebec City's South Shore and aid development of an underground gas storage site at St. Flavien, Que.
BP EXPLORATION, Aberdeen, hired Allseas Group to handle engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation, and commissioning of a 16 1/2 km, 10 in. crude line and a 48 km, 8 in. gas line for the Andrew oil field development project in the North Sea. Dewatering and precommissioning of the lines are set for July and August 1996.
NATURAL GAS EXCHANGE INC., Calgary, opened a second computerized gas trading center at Empress, Alta., for shipments to eastern North American markets. It will offer a Canadian price index for traders. The company operates the Intra-Alberta Market Centre for sales in Alberta.
TRANSCANADA PIPELINES LTD., Calgary, delivered a record 1.14 tcf of gas to Canadian and U.S. markets during first half 1994, up 6% from 1.08 tcf the same period in 1993. Deliveries averaged 6.3 bcfd for the 6 months vs. 5.9 bcfd a year ago. A 1 day high mark of 7.9 bcf was achieved Jan. 18.
QATARI GAS destined for Pakistan via the proposed $3.5 billion, 1,600 km, 2 bcfd Pak-Qatar gas pipeline will feed into Sui Southern Gas Co.'s Karachi pipeline system for distribution within a 50 mile radius of the capital (OGJ, May 17, 1993, p. 20). Lead project sponsor Crescent Petroleum Co., Sharjah, U.A.E., won Pakistan cabinet approval for sale of 1.6 bcfd of Qatari gas to Pakistan.
SPILLS
EXXON CORP. agreed to pay $20 million as partial settlement of a federal lawsuit by 3,500 Alaska natives who claimed losses from the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill. The group claimed the oil spill destroyed traditional food sources such as seals, kelp, and fish.
GOVERNMENT
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY reversed a Bush administration decision that limits the public's right to participate in environmentally significant permit changes. In 1992, an EPA rule was relaxed to allow companies to expand operations even if the resulting air emissions would exceed permit levels. The reversal allows the public to challenge changes in industrial emissions before expansions may proceed.
BANGLADESH approved a plan to privatize Chhatak, Kamta, Belabo, Begumganj, Meghna, and Bianibazar gas fields in a move designed to speed the pace of the country's privatization program. The marginal fields each hold reserves estimated at less than 5.65 billion cu m, Tenders for the fields are to be floated soon.
EXPLORATION
PHILIPPINES President Fidel Ramos granted a geophysical survey and exploration contract covering 4,162 acres in the Ragay Gulf southeast of Manila to a group led by Global Exploration Far East, Cayman Islands, a unit of Global Exploration, Dallas. The gulf lies off Luzon Island's southeastern Bicol peninsula.
AUSTRALIA'S Stirling Resources NL is part of a group of Western Hemisphere and Russian interests licensed to perform exploration/production work on the 167 sq km Prizalivnaya block on Russia's Sakhalin Island. Tests of a well on one of four prospects on the block yielded more than 1,500 b/d of 37.50 gravity oil on the Mezhdurechenskay structure.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
POGO PRODUCING CO., Houston, and partners plan to step up development drilling of Tantawan structure wells during second half 1994 on Block B8/32 in the Gulf of Thailand. The decision follows successes at the 4 and 5 Tantawan wells, in which seven tests of a total of 15 intervals flowed a combined 56.5 MMcfd of gas and 2,975 b/d of condensate.
UNOCAL CORP. COMPLETED A $6.7 MILLION SALE OF ITS INTEREST IN 17 U.S. Midcontinent producing oil and gas leases to Medallion Production Co., Tulsa. The assets produce a combined net 490 b/d of oil and 2.5 MMcfd of gas.
U.S. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK guaranteed $35 million of financing arranged by Triton Energy Corp., Dallas, to cover Triton's share of the costs of oil field equipment and machinery purchased in the U.S. since Mar. 3, 1993, for initial development of Colombia's Cusiana field. A unit of Triton holds a 12% working interest in Cusiana and nearby Cupiagua field.
ELF GABON let an 85 million franc ($15.7 million) contract to Framatome, Paris, for gas compression equipment. The order covers two gas lift compression lines, one for Torpille platform and one for Anguille platform in the Gulf of Guinea. Each line will have two compressors driven by a single gas turbine.
LASMO PLC, London, let a L20 million ($30 million) contract to Stena Offshore Ltd., Aberdeen, for installation work in Birch field on Block 16/12a in the U.K. North Sea. Stena will lay production, service, and water injection lines 14 km to Brae Alpha platform from the Birch subsea manifold. Work will begin in March 1995, aiming for completion the following September.
SUBSEA PRODUCTION experience will be the focus of a study assigned by a group of U.K. oil companies to Kvaerner H&G Offshore Ltd., Croydon, U.K. A data base of subsea equipment performance during long periods will be compiled. Also, BP Exploration commissioned Kvaerner to study jack up rig and subsea development options for southern North Sea fields.
DUAL DRILLING CO., Dallas, completed negotiations to extend the contract on its Dual Rig 86 for at least a little more than 1 year with four 1 year options. The 250 ft jack up will be moved to the Gulf of Mexico from Qatar and be available for work early next month.
AMERADA HESS LTD. let a turnkey contract to Global Marine Drilling Co., Aberdeen, to drill and complete Fife oil field development wells in the U.K. North Sea. The first of five wells will be spudded late in October, with completion of the fifth scheduled for late spring 1995. Oil production is expected to start in third quarter 1995, using a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (OGJ, May 23, p. 26).
HAMILTON OIL CO. LTD., London, let a 922 million ($33 million) contract to Sedco Forex Shorebase Support Ltd., Aberdeen, to drill development wells in three Liverpool Bay fields in the Irish Sea. Twenty-seven wells are planned for Douglas, Hamilton, and North Hamilton fields in U.K. Block 110/13. The Trident 14 jack up is scheduled to begin drilling in September, with the program expected to take 3 years.
PAKISTAN'S state owned Oil & Gas Development Corp. will boost its domestic oil production by 6,000 b/d from the current 26,000 b/d with start-up of Dhodak and Rajian oil fields and well workovers in Missakaswal field. Pakistan's total oil production is 55,000 b/d.
SANTOS LTD., Adelaide, Australia, entered North Sea operations via purchase from Conoco U.K. Ltd. of a 32.8% interest in the U.K.'s Anglia gas field operated by Ranger Oil (U.K.). Santos' share of remaining reserves is more than 50 bcf. The deal will enable Santos to increase gas production by 5.3% this year.
CANADIAN FRACMASTER LTD., Calgary, agreed to purchase Royal Dutch/Shell Group interests in the Ugansk-Fracmaster joint venture in western Siberia. The deal will increase Fracmaster's interest to 49% from 24.5%. Russia's Uganskneftegas holds 51%. The oil recovery project in the Tyumen region produces 30,000 b/d.
ALAMCO INC., Clarksburg, W.V., this year will boost reserves to 107.1 bcf of gas equivalent (bcfe) from 88 bcfe at yearend 1993 through a combination of acquisitions in Kentucky and West Virginia and drilling. About 13 bcfe of the reserves increase is attributed to new assets in Kentucky and West Virginia.
MARKETING
SHELL AUSTRALIA introduced low lead gasoline in service stations in Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra as well as nearby provincial centers. The new grade, with 0.15 g/l. of lead, puts Shell ahead of Australia's government mandate to cut lead to 0.2 g/l. by 1995. The action follows Shell's $620 million (Australian) capital spending program at its Melbourne and Sydney refineries.
COMPANIES
RUSSIA'S national gas transmission and transportation company Gazprom and its national gas distribution company Rossgaz joined the American Gas Association, Arlington, Va.
DANA EXPLORATION PLC, Dublin, plans to exercise its option to buy the issued share capital of TM Oil Production Ltd., London. It will give Dana a 50% interest in YoganOil, a Russian joint stock company preparing to develop the 30 million bbl South Vat-Yoganskoye oil field in western Siberia. Dana said a 9 km spur line will be laid this winter to connect the field to an export trunk line.
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. replaced its $1.75 billion limited recourse core debt funding with an unsecured $1.45 billion corporate loan via an international syndicate of 15 banks. Banks offered more than double the amount sought, recognizing Woodside's emergence as a broad based E&P player rather than just a one project company as operator of Australia's Northwest Shelf gas project.
REFINING
LIGHTNING struck a fuel tank at Star Enterprise's 140,000 b/cd Delaware Co, Del., refinery July 22, destroying that tank and a second one that caught fire quickly. The combined 32,000 bbl capacity tanks contained only a total of 4,500 bbl of an oil/water mix when the lightning hit. Six firefighters were injured fighting the fire.
EGYPT approved a plan by Sahara Co. for Petroleum Products to build a $1.2 billion refinery and petrochemical plant near Suez, Reuters reported. The company was formed by a group of Egyptian and Kuwaiti investors that intends to run Saudi or Kuwaiti crude oil to produce products for export.
SHELL NEDERLAND RAFFINADERIJ BV, Rotterdam, let contract to Simulation Sciences Inc., Brea, Calif., for rigorous on-line modeling optimization technology for its 374,000 b/cd Pernis, Netherlands. refinery. Two crude units and the fluid catalytic cracking unit will be equipped with the technology.
COGENERATION
VINELAND COGENERATION LP commissioned a natural gas fired 46,500 kw cogeneration plant that will provide electrical power for Vineland, N.J., and steam for Progresso Foods there. Project funding used nonrated private activity bonds for construction and term financing.
TERMINALS
KANEB PIPE LINE PARTNERS LP, Dallas, acquired an Augusta, Ga., terminal from Star Enterprise, a joint venture of Texaco Inc. and Saudi Arabian interests. The 110,000 bbl storage capacity terminal is supplied by Colonial Pipeline Co., Atlanta.
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
