ENVIRONMENT
WORLD BANK will give Kazakhstan $37 million, and International Monetary Fund and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will give it a combined $25 million to help the country protect its northern Caspian Sea environment during field development. World Bank's grant is for technical assistance aimed mainly at environmental problems. The IMF EPA grant will help Kazakhstan study the sea's ecology and set up a national environmental protection plan.
GOVERNMENT
SALES GOT UNDER WAY Jan. 20 for 60 million shares the French government is offering in state oil company Elf Aquitaine. The sale, largest to date in the government's privatization drive, is part of a plan that calls for reduction of the state's 50.8% ownership to 13%. The sale is expected to place nearly 35 billion francs ($5.9 billion) into state coffers.
SPILLS
U.S. COAST GUARD says Puerto Rico's shore may be further damaged by oil released by the sinking of the disabled tank barge Morris J. Berman, which hit a reef and spilled diesel fuel this month (OGJ, Jan. 24, p. 20). As much as 3,000 bbl of the cargo spilled as the barge was pulled off the reef. The Coast Guard said the oil may form tar balls or pancakes 3 ft in diameter on the island's beaches.
REFINING
TOSCO CORP. started up a $40 million, 25 MMcfd hydrogen plant at its 148,000 b/cd Avon refinery at Martinez, Calif. The unit will help the plant meet clean fuels requirements and increase clean product yields 3%.
PETROLEOS MEXICANOS unit Pemex Refinacion let a $600 million contract to Italy's ENI Group unit Snamprogetti to build a complex in the Miguel Hidalgo refinery at Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, for vacuum residue hydrodesulfurization. Terms call for a 50,000 b/sd H Oil plant as well as units for hydrogen production, fractionation/light end recovery, gas sweetening, amine regeneration, sour water stripping, sulfur recovery, and tail gas, as well as auxiliary facilities.
RUSSIA hired France's Technip to modernize and expand its 377,640 b/cd Novoufimsk refinery at Ufa, Bashkortostan republic. The project calls for construction of a facility to produce high purity product with design capacities of 120,000 b/d of high octane gasoline and aviation fuel with low benzene content, 40,000 b/d of hydrorefined diesel fuel with 0.05% sulfur content, and 20,000 b/d of basic fractions used in motor of . Plant capacity will jump to 498,000 b/d.
IRAN started up a 25,000 b/d hydrocracking unit at its 150,000 b/cd Arak refinery. The unit provides 18,750 b/d of kerosine and gas oil for Iranian use, and the light and heavy oils produced fill the needs of Arak's petrochemical complex.
JGC CORP., Yokohama, let a $12 million contract to GE Industrial & Power Systems, Schenectady, N.Y., to supply three GE steam turbines and generators for the 130,000 b/d capacity Star refinery under construction at Mab Ta Phud, Thailand. The plant, expected to start up in first quarter 1998, is 150 km from Bangkok.
PEMEX plans to modernize, expand, and introduce new technology to improve product quality at its 195,000 b/cd Francisco I. Madero refinery at Tampico, Tamaulipas. The project includes construction of an additional processing unit of undisclosed capacity scheduled for March start up.
COMPANIES
TRANSCO ENERGY CO., Houston, plans $231 million in capital expenditures during 1994 vs. $170 million last year. Spending includes a combined $217 million for units Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. and Texas Gas Transmission Corp. and a combined $4 million for Transco Gas Marketing Co. and Transco Gas Gathering Co. It will invest $10 million in Transco Coal Co.
THE PHILIPPINES government auctioned 20.8% of its interest in exploration company Oriental Petroleum & Minerals Corp. for $53 million as part of a program to sell companies it seized after the 1986 ouster of former President Ferdinand Marcos. The purchase was made by Robert Coyiuto, Oriental Petroleum chairman, increasing to 70% his stake in the company.
U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S antitrust division negotiated a consent decree to enable the $900 million merger of Dresser Industries Inc., Dallas, and Baroid Corp., Houston (OGJ, Jan. 10, p. 28). The decree requires them to sell either Dresser's or Baroid's drilling fluids business. They also must sell the U.S. assets of Baroid unit DB Stratabit (USA) Inc. and license its drillbit patents and other technology to a new competitor.
PENNZOIL CO. will contest a U.S. Internal Revenue Service decision to impose $956.5 million in taxes and interest stemming from the agency's audit of Pennzoil's 1988 tax return. That return included a $3 billion payment from Texaco Inc. to settle a lawsuit alleging Texaco interference with Pennzoil's 1984 agreement to acquire part of Getty Oil Co.
WESTERN ATLAS INC., Beverly Hills, Calif., paid $190 million for most of Halliburton Co.'s seismic business assets, including geophysical data acquisition technologies, especially for land and transition zone surveys, that will allow formation of a world seismic services network. Western is soon to become independent of parent Litton Industries Inc. in a tax free spinoff.
AMERADA HESS CORP. will close its U.S. onshore exploration and production office in Tulsa and move the operation to Houston. The Tulsa office will close in July, resulting in a transfer/layoff loss of about 450 local jobs.
PETROCHEMICALS
BOREALIS is the name chosen for the company to be created by the merger of the petrochemical operations of Norway's Den norske stats oljeselskap AS and Finland's Neste Oy (OGJ, Jan. 17, p. 28). Borealis, to be based in Copenhagen, will begin operation Mar. 1.
STATOIL let contract to Fluor Daniel Inc., Irvine, Calif., for engineering, procurement, and construction supervision of a 2,400 metric ton/day methanol plant at Tjeldbergodden in Central Norway. The plant will process gas received via the Haltenpipe pipeline from offshore Heidrun field in the Haltenbanken area of the Norwegian Sea. Work is scheduled for completion in December 1996.
GAS STORAGE
RUHRGAS AG, Essen, acquired a 70% interest in the Etzel Gas Lager storage site near Wilhemshaven, northern Germany. The deal was struck with Etzel Gas Lager Statoil Deutschland GmbH, Emden, an operating unit formed by eight oil companies led by Statoil. The site can store 17 bcf of gas.
ALTERNATE FUELS
SMC MINING CO. unit Encoal Corp's Encoal clean coal demonstration plant near Gillette, Wyo., resumed operations after completing modifications. Those improvements to the $72.6 million plant are designed to enhance reliability and production of processed coal and oil coproducts.
PIPELINES
FOUR CORNERS PIPE LINE CO. will prorate crude shipments on its Line 63 system during February because of higher volumes and a loss of line capacity resulting from temporary shutdown of Line 1 following the Jan. 17 Northridge, Calif., earthquake. Line 63 is expected to move an average 80,000 b/d during February.
CNG TRANSMISSION CORP., Clarksburg, W.Va., earmarked $97.4 million for pipeline construction this year. The largest project is a 15 mile, 24 in. line to CNG's Woodhull station in Steuben County, N.Y., from its Harrison storage pool in Potter County, Pa.
DRILLING PRODUCTION
FRANCE'S Total, Spain's Repsol, and Austria's OMV Group concluded an early round of negotiations with Libya's National Oil Co. on a development contract for Murzouk oil field in Southwest Libya. The group currently is drilling in the field, which holds 2 billion bbl of proved reserves.
AGIP (UK) LTD. started production from Toni field in the U.K. North Sea. Production is expected to reach 20,000 b/d soon. The field, on Block 16/17, is 220 km northeast of Aberdeen. Block 16/17 also contains three other fields operated by Agip: Tiffany, Thelma, and Southeast Thelma. Tiffany started up in November 1993 at 25,000 b/d and is expected to reach 66,000 b/d soon. Block 16/17 interest holders are operator Agip 47.48%, Fina Exploration Ltd. 30%, and LL&E (Europe Africa Middle East) and Murphy Petroleum Ltd. 11.26% each.
WESTERN MINING CORP. LTD., Melbourne, 3 East Spar appraisal well on license WA/214P off Western Australia flowed 27.4 MMcfd of gas and 1,650 b/d of condensate from a lower Cretaceous pay at 2,500 m, reported Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd., Edinburgh. The well was drilled by the Diamond Ocean Epoch semisubmersible rig in 99 m of water.
BRITISH GAS PLC confirmed an extension of U.K. Irish Sea Block 110/15 Lennox oil and gas field. British Gas said it cut a significant oil column in Block 110/14, where a well flowed 3,547 b/d of 460 gravity oil from Triassic Sherwood sandstone. Unitization talks are under way with Hamilton Oil Co. Ltd., London.
MYANMAR'S Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise will increase production from Aphyauk gas field in northern Yangon to 80 MMcfd from 40 MMcfd. The increase will help supply gas fueled electrical power stations at Ywama and Myanaung.
PARKER & PARSLEY PETROLEUM CO., Midland, Tex., agreed to sell its interest in leases in the San Juan basin of New Mexico and Colorado to Meridian Oil Production Inc. for $44 million.
PEMEX let a $1.7 million contract to Bristol Babcock Inc., Watertown, Conn., for turnkey installation of an automated production/control system for a pump station and distribution center at Nueva Teapa in southern Mexico.
AMERICAN EXPLORATION CO., Houston, and FINA Inc., Dallas, formed a joint venture to develop further a part of West McAllen Pharr gas field in South Texas' Hidalgo County. Plans include recompleting five wells during the first quarter, followed by drilling more development wells. JV terms give FINA a 25% working interest in exchange for contributing 3D seismic data.
BETA WELL SERVICE INC., Calgary, agreed to acquire a 25% interest in a development joint venture in Russia's Stavropol region from Genesis Eurasia Corp., Houston. Terms call for Beta to invest $2.5 million on infrastructure, engineering, equipment supply and logistics, and initial remedial well work. The site is west of the Caspian Sea in an area with 700 wells in 18 producing fields.
TANKERS
THE 15,742 DWT Maltese registered Cosmas Ail tanker, carrying 23,000 metric tons of crude, caught fire and broke in two Jan. 24 in the South China Sea 290 miles southeast of Hong Kong. Twenty five crew members were rescued by a passing cargo ship, but at presstime last week nine crewmen were missing.
NKK AMERICA INC., Houston, delivered the 300,000 dwt Berge Stavanger tanker to Norway's Bergesen dy AS. The vessel is a double hull, very large crude carrier. In March 1993, NKK delivered the Berge Sigval, also a double hull VLCC.
EXPLORATION
EMPRESA COLOMBIANA DE PETROLEOS awarded an association contract to Petrotech Corp., Hurst, Tex., allowing it to explore for and produce oil and gas on a 304,000 acre area in the Cesar basin, 120 miles southeast of Barranquilla, Colombia. The 3 year agreement requires Petrotech to drill three 6,000 8,000 ft wildcats, including one to basement rock.
ISRAEL'S Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure extended to Feb. 10 the deadline for Isramco Inc. to spud the 1 Yam Yafo wildcat off Israel. Foul weather kept the Benreoch semisubmersible from reaching the drillsite in time for a scheduled Jan. 15 start (OGJ, Nov. 22, 1993, p. 40).
MARATHON OIL CO.'S 1 El Qar'a Northwest discovery in Egypt's northern Nile Delta flowed a combined 36.2 MMcfd of gas and 215 b/d of condensate from three zones at 11,254 943 ft on choke sizes of 3/4 to 1 in. The well, 105 miles north of Cairo, was drilled directionally to an offshore target from an onshore site.
PARALLEL PETROLEUM CORP., Midland, Tex., 1 Phillips Unit in the Hcrseshoe Atoll area of Howard County, Tex., flowed 580 b/d of oil and 1.49 MMcfd of gas through a 20/64 in. choke with 2,050 psi flowing tubing pressure. It is Parallel's fourth Canyon Reef discovery.
GEOTHERMAL
MAGMA POWER CO., San Diego, formed Visayas Geothermal Power Co. to build, own, and operate a three unit, 231,000 kw geothermal power plant on Leyte Island, Philippines. The agreement with Philippine National Oil Co. calls for two phases, with 77,000 kw to start up in July 1996 and 154,000 kw starting up in July 1997.