INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

MARKETING

BP OIL will enter the East German retail market with construction of a service station in Dresden as a 3 million mark pilot project. The city will provide a site on long term lease for the station, to be operated by VEB Minol, the organization responsible for oil distribution in East Germany. A range of gasoline will include unleaded grades for western vehicles.

EXPLORATION

CONOCO Indonesia Ltd.'s E-1 Alu Alu wildcat off Indonesia flowed a combined 12,289 b/d of oil, 61.57 MMcfd of gas, and 187 b/d of condensate from Udang and Miocene Arang pay. The strike, 600 miles north of Jakarta in the Natuna Sea, went to 6,000 ft in SCS Block B. A confirmation attempt 2.2 miles northwest was dry, but Conoco plans more delineation drilling. Its partners are units of Texaco Inc., Chevron Corp., and Indonesia Petroleum Ltd.

TOTAL CFP was awarded a 40% interest and operatorship of Block 8 off Angola. Its partners are units of British Petroleum Co. plc and Petrofina SA. Total is interpreting seismic data and expects to spud the first well before yearend.

ENIM OIL CO. LTD., a subsidiary of Pan Pacific Petroleum Inc., San Francisco, tested 2,200 b/d of 29.3 gravity oil and 2.4 MMcfd of gas at its Harimau wildcat on the 280,000 acre Lematang block, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Enim, in partnership with Bonham (Lematang) Ltd., drilled the well to basement at 7,900 ft.

SHELL ESPANA NV will halt exploration in the Cantabrian Sea off Spain after drilling a second dry wildcat on the Mar Cantabrico M permit. The hole went to 8,856 ft in 489 ft of water.

CONOCO (U.K.) LTD. will earn a 46% interest in U.K. North Sea Block 44/21 from BP Exploration and Norsk Hydro by drilling two wells and conducting a long term test at its sole cost. Revised holdings in the block will be Conoco and BP 46% each and Norsk Hydro 8%.

BRITISH GAS (Malaysia) SA and partners Occidental Petroleum (Malaysia) Ltd. and Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. began a three well wildcat drilling program with Reading & Bates Malaysia's Jim Cunningham semisubmersible rig on Sabah Block 2 off eastern Malaysia. The first test, 1 Gajah Hitam, is in 520 ft of water 60 miles northwest of Kota Kinabalu and 15 miles north of Tembungo oil field.

PROCESSING

PETROKEMYA, an affiliate of Saudi Arabia's Saudi Basic Industries Corp., estimated its ethylene production at 700,000 tons in 1989, up from 650,000 tons in 1988, OPEC News Agency reported. Production of polystyrene was 90,000-95,000 tons and butane 30,000 tons vs. 50,000 tons of butane capacity.

TRANSPORTATION

CANADIAN WESTERN Natural Gas Co. Ltd. agreed to buy an added 1 tcf of gas at the rate of about 46 bcf/year from Shell Canada Ltd., PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., and Home Oil Ltd. in the Jumping Pound area of Alberta, about 30 km west of Calgary. Canadian Western's purchases of Jumping Pound gas from the companies amount to about 1.3 tcf to date for sale in southern Alberta.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

WORKING INTERESTS in 110 leases in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan will go on the auction block Feb. 28 in Calgary. EBCO Auctioneers International Inc., Calgary, will conduct the sale of producing leases owned by Gulf Canada Resources Ltd., Husky Oil Operations, and others. Combined gross production is 126,137 b/d of oil, 13,362 b/d of condensate, and 374.924 MMcfd of gas.

AL-FURAT Petroleum Co., a combine of Syrian Petroleum Co., Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Deminex, linked two small fields, Sijan and Ratka, to Omar field production facilities in northern Syria. The two fields are producing about 11,500 b/d. Two other small fields, Saban and Shdeha, are to be tied into Omar facilities during the first half of this year.

IRAQ will develop Anfal gas field near Kirkuk. Work in the 4.5 tcf field will start in May, aiming for completion in second quarter 1991. Production will be about 200 MMcfd.

A GROUP led by Phillips Petroleum Norway drillstem tested a maximum 7,772 b/d of oil and 15.8 MMcfd of gas through a 48/64 in. choke in the 2/7-21S appraisal well in the Norwegian North Sea. The hole was drilled to 15,400 ft true vertical depth from the same site as the group's 2/7-20 discovery of 1988. Test results are under review.

SMIT INTERNATIONAL and Halliburton Co. merged their subsidiaries Smit Offshore Contractors and 2W Taylor into a company known as Rockwater. The new company will control four dynamically positioned support vessels, Smit Semi I and II and Deepwater I and II, now renamed Rockwater Semi I and II and Rockwater I and II.

AN IRANIAN TRADE MISSION in Calgary hired Red Flame, Red Deer, Alta., by letter of intent to control a 15,000 b/d blowout in Iran's Iswas oil field. Red Flame estimated the project will take a four man crew 6 months and require drilling of a directional hole. Red Flame expects to sell National Iranian Oil Co. at least one rig and other equipment required to control the well.

SUN OIL Britain Ltd. let contract to John Brown Engineers & Constructors Ltd. for design engineering of an upgrade of gas lift equipment on the floating production vessel in Balmoral field of the U.K. North Sea. John Brown is to complete its assignment by late spring.

SHELL U.K. Exploration & Production, operator for the Shell-Esso combine in the U.K. North Sea, let a detailed design and engineering contract to John Brown for relocation of emergency shutdown valves on platforms in Brent oil field. The contract covers the Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Spar installations.

COMPANIES

BOW VALLEY Industries Ltd., Calgary, plans to spend $203 million on petroleum exploration and development and mining in 1990, up from $140 million in 1989. Included in spending plans are $82.7 million in Canada, $83.8 million in the North Sea, and $31 million in Indonesia. The company plans to participate in 277 wells in Canada, 13 in the North Sea, and 37 in Indonesia.

NORTH CANADIAN Oils Ltd., Calgary, bought a major interest in Coseka Resources Ltd., also of Calgary, for 1 million shares of North Canadian common. The acquisition from Bramalea Ltd., Toronto, included 48% of Coseka common stock and $32.68 million in debentures that can be converted to Coskea voting stock. Coseka's proved and probable reserves as of Dec. 31, 1988, amounted to 8.2 million bbl of oil and natural gas liquids, 197 bcf of gas, and 446,000 long tons of sulfur.