INDUSTRY BRIEFS

PIPELINES

PANHANDLE EASTERN CORP. unit Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. proposes to extend its 36 in. pipeline loop facilities in Pennsylvania, replace existing pipe with larger diameter pipe, and slightly increase the operating pressure of another line there to provide 38 MMcfd of firm gas transportation service to five U.S. Northeast customers under the Flex-X flexible expansion program. Work on the $16 million program is to start in summer 1996 and be complete by Nov. 1 that year.

A GAS MAIN LINE north of Russia's Sverdlovsk region in the Ural Mountains exploded Nov. 10 and caught fire. The explosion damaged 20 km of the Urengoi-Petrovsk pipeline in an area 25 km north of Krasnoturinsk. There were no casualties reported, said Russian news agency Itar-Tass. Preliminary investigation showed the explosion was caused by use of a ruptured pipeline that has not been replaced for years, the news agency reported.

BP EXPLORATION OPERATING CO. LTD., operator of the U.K. North Sea's Ninian pipeline system, reported the 2 billionth bbl of crude oil flowed through the line to Sullom Voe terminal in the Shetland Islands. Ninian trunk line went on stream in 1978. Current throughput is 335,000 b/d.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

RUSSIAN joint stock company Amur Ship-Building Works and McDermott International Inc., New Orleans, formed Macamur Construction Service Co. for work in Russia's Far East. The joint venture company will fabricate production equipment for use on the Sakhalin shelf off Sakhalin Island.

COPLEX RESOURCES plans to build field infrastructure and gathering facilities with 10,000 b/d production capacity for Colombia's Rubiales field. A production plant and a planned 172 km export pipeline to Puerto Lopez are budgeted at a combined $58.8 million. Coplex plans to build a 6,000 b/d topping plant at Puerto Lopez, expandable to 10,000 b/d, to start up by third quarter 1995.

SANTOS LTD., Adelaide, South Australia, reports the Hadson Energy Ltd. 2 Stag appraisal well on Carnarvon basin permit WA-209-P off Western Australia flowed 1,056 b/d of 190 gravity oil and 6.5 MMcfd of gas on drillstem test at 2,346-365 ft in early Cretaceous M. Australis sandstone. Flow was through a 1 1/4 in. choke with 300 psi. Santos holds a 33.34% working interest.

BRITISH GAS PLC and Russia's Gazprom are negotiating a proposal for joint development of Kazakh-stan's Karachaganak gas/condensate field. British Gas and Italy's Agip SpA hold exclusive development rights to the field under a 1992 agreement. The field contains an estimated 1 .3 tcf of gas, 644 million metric tons of condensate, and 189 million tons of oil.

CHINA OFFSHORE OIL NANHAI WEST CORP.'S 12-1-2 Weizhou appraisal well 35 km southwest of Weizhou Island produced 7,660 bbl of oil and more than 3.53 MMcf of gas after logging. The well is in the South China Sea's Beibu Gulf on the Weizhou 121 structure, abandoned by Sun Oriental Exploration Co. in 1990.

REPSOL EXPLORACION EGIPTO SA and Deminex Suez Petroleum GmbH, both of Cairo, agreed to buy Shell Egypt NV's participating interests in the Gulf of Suez east and west producing concessions. They increase their interests in half the concession to 50% each from 16.6%.

PAKISTAN'S Oil & Gas Development Commission increased production to 27,000 b/d from 24,000 b/d at the start of 1994 and expects a further increase to 31,000 b/d by yearend. The year to date increase comes from implementing an enhanced recovery project in Missakaswal oil field, yielding an incremental 1,000 b/d, and efficiency improvements in other fields for another 2,000 b/d.

DELTA HUDSON INTERNATIONAL INC., Calgary, a joint venture (JV) combining units of Hudson Engineering Corp. and Delta Catalytic Corp., formed 50-50 JVs with two Azerbaijani companies to help develop onshore oil and gas infrastructure resulting from offshore development in the Caspian Sea. Deltatrans Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. is a JV with Azerbaijantransdorstroy and Deltaprom Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd., a JV with Azerpromstroy.

LPG STORAGE

JINGYONG OIL & LPG SALES CO a joint venture of China National Chemicals Import & Export Corp. and Ningbo Economic & Technical Development Zone Petroleum Co., Zhejiang province, Neste Oy of Finland, and Sumitomo Corp. of Japan, plans to build a 120,000-200,000 cu m LPG storage cavern with as much as 1 million metric tons/year throughput capacity. Neste Engineering is scheduled to complete the first phase of cavern construction by yearend 1996.

REFINING

PENNZOIL PRODUCTS CO. will boost gasoline production capacity of its 46,200 b/cd Atlas Processing Co. refinery at Shreveport, La., to 16,000 b/d from 6,500 b/d with a 2 year, $200 million expansion. Work is to begin in spring 1995.

A JOINT VENTURE of Conoco Inc. and Pennzoil Products Co. let contract to the petrochemical business unit of Brown & Root Inc., Houston, for engineering, procurement, and construction services on a 1 5,000 b/d lube oil hydrocracker at Conoco's 182,000 b/cd Lake Charles, La., refinery. Project engineering began last summer, with completion scheduled in fourth quarter 1996.

GEOTHERMAL POWER

UNOCAL CORP. unit Unocal Geothermal Indonesia Ltd. plans to build three 55,000 kw power generating plants in Indonesia's Gunung Salak geothermal field near Jakarta. Another 55,000 kw plant is to be built by Indonesia state utility PLN. Unocal expects to spend $380 million to develop geothermal resources for the four plants and build the three new ones. Its three plants are expected to begin operation in second half 1997, the PLN plant in mid-1997.

COMPANIES

BP AMERICA INC. reached a $1.4 billion settlement with Alaska over disputed state oil and gas production taxes for 1 979-91 and income taxes for 1978-81. BP will pay Alaska the money in three installments of $700 million this Dec. 31, $350 million Dec. 31, 1995, and $350 million Dec. 31, 1996.

NORCEN ENERGY RESOURCES LTD., Calgary, acquired 98.5% of affiliate North Canadian Oils Ltd., also of Calgary, in a $246 million (Canadian) takeover. Norcen owned 52% of North Canadian before the acquisition.

BJ SERVICES CO. and Western Co. of North America, both of Houston, agreed to merge. The $500 million deal is expected to close in 4-5 months, subject to approval of stockholders of each company, antitrust approval, and other conditions.

PANHANDLE EASTERN CORP., Houston, and Associated Natural Gas Corp., Denver, called stockholders' meetings for Dec. 15 to vote on a proposed merger of a Panhandle Eastern unit and Associated.

NORANDA INC., Toronto, let a 5 year contract to Environmental Resources Management Group for worldwide environmental, health, and safety software and consulting services. Under the agreement, Noranda licensed ERM's Enflex Data software for generating regulatory and corporate reports.

CONTINENTAL ENERGY MARKETING LTD., CALGARY, and a unit of MCN Corp., Detroit, signed a deal for joint natural gas trading and exploration and development of reserves. Continental will be the preferred gas supplier for CoEnergy Trading Co. and will have access in Ontario to gas supplies from MCN Corp in Michigan.

PETROCHEMICALS

JAPAN'S Nissho Iwai Corp. approved a $260 million loan for PT Kaltim Methanol Industry's $330 million, 600,000 metric ton/year methanol plant construction project at Bontang, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Work on the plant is scheduled to start in January 1995 and be complete by 1997.

TOYO ENGINEERING CORP. let contract to ABB Simcon Inc., Bloomfield, N.J., for a Simcon dynamic training simulator, including Simcon software, hardware, a custom ethylene model, and a standard boiler model. The models will interface with the distributed control system at Ethylene Malaysia's 320.000 metric ton/year plant being built at Kertih, Malaysia. Ethylene Malaysia is a joint venture of Petronas 60%, Idemitsu 25%, and BP 15%.

METHANEX CHILE LTD., a unit of Methanex Corp., Vancouver, B.C., let contract to John Brown, Houston, which will work with Brown sister company Davy International. Santiago, to provide engineering, procurement, and construction management services for expansion of Methanex's Punta Arenas, Chile, methanol plant. In addition, Methanex New Zealand Ltd. let contract to John Brown, Melbourne, for design, procurement, and construction management of a second 2,000 metric ton/day chemical grade methanol distillation unit at Methanex's Montuntui, N.Z., methanol plant.

SPILLS

AN ANCHORAGE, ALAS., federal district court approved a partial settlement of Alaska Indian claims for replacement cost of lost subsistence harvests stemming from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The agreement calls for a $20 million payment.

A U.S. MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE facility tested a remote sensor that can be used from an airplane to estimate the thickness of an oil slick and its state of weathering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory developed the sensor, which uses a laser to scan the temperature of an oil slick over a wide frequency band.

EXPLORATION

CAIRN ENERGY PLC unit Cairn Energy Far East Ltd.'s 1 Na Sanun on the SW1 concession in Thailand flowed an average 1,365 b/d of oil through a 40/64 in. choke. The 5,121 ft well is shut in pending application for a production license.

CHEVRON PETROLEUM NIGERIA LTD. signed a production sharing agreement with Nigeria for exploration in the Benue basin of Northeast Nigeria. Chevron agreed to conduct a 6 year program, a project that will focus on six blocks with a combined 5,800 sq miles in an area 500 miles northeast of Lagos. Seismic surveys are to start early in 1 995.

EGYPTIAN GENERAL PETROLEUM CORP. chose Pennzoil Exploration & Production Co., Houston, and Spain's Repsol to explore the Shoab Ali block in the southern Gulf of Suez. Terms are for 2 years, with two optional additional periods. The program commitment calls for a 3D seismic survey and drilling one well on the 1,100 sq km block.

ALGERIA'S Sonatrach let contract to the South Korean group of Pedco, Daewoo, Samsung, and Hanbo to conduct a $22 million exploration/exploitation program in Southeast Algeria. Work will cover 5,582 sq km in the Bourarhet area of the Central lllizi basin. Terms call for the group to conduct seismic surveys and drill three wells.

BARRACUDA PTY. LTD., a unit of Australia's MIM Holdings Ltd., spudded a wildcat on the Menga prospect in Papua New Guinea's western highlands' Site is on Permit PPL 106 about 20 km east of Irian Jaya. Main objectives are the leru formation's Alene member, Toro sandstone, and Digamu sandstone, all upper Jurassic-lower Cretaceous. Projected depth is 1,000 M.

SOUTH-WEST QUEENSLAND UNIT partners plan to spud 1 Winninia, the fifth wildcat this year on the ATP 259P tract, after the tract's fourth wildcat, 1 Baryulah East, flowed 6.2 MMcfd of gas through a 1/2 in. choke from a Patchawarra interval at 8,296-8,382 ft, marking the group's third gas discovery in 1 994.

MOBIL EASTERN EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT INC., Singapore, in second quarter 1995 is to spud a wildcat on the 900 sq mile Block C in 2,600-5,250 ft of water in the South China Sea off Northeast Sarawak on the island of Borneo under a production sharing contract (PSC) signed with Malaysia's Petronas. Mobil also signed a PSC with Petronas covering adjacent 950 sq mile Block D in 650-3,280 ft water. A January 1995 spud date is set for a wildcat on Malaysian Block A off Sarawak under a September 1993 PSC that includes Block B.

LNG

ABU DHABI GAS LIQUEFACTION CO. started work on the $3 billion expansion of its liquefied natural gas production and transportation plant on Das Island. a project that will double its LNG exports to Japan. Plant size will be doubled to 5 million metric tons/year, with all LNG for destined for delivery exclusively to Tokyo Electric Power Co. until 2019.

TOKYO ELECTRIC POWER CO. plans to increase LNG storage capacity at its Chiba prefecture thermal power plant, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Tokyo, reported. Two tanks, each with capacity to store 786,309 bbl of LNG, are to be built by 1999 at a cost of 50 billion yen ($510 million). Increased LNG consumption by the power company's four gas fired plants in Tokyo is cited.

GAS DISTRIBUTION

URUGUAY'S government awarded a 30 year concession to a group led by Gaz de France's Latin American affiliate Gaseba to distribute natural gas in Montevideo. The group includes local LPG distributor Acodike, Argentine construction group affiliate Emprigas, and private Argentina oil company Bridas Sapic.