INDUSTRY BRIEFS

Feb. 27, 1995
CROSS TIMBERS OIL CO., Fort Worth, budgeted $30 million for 1995 capital spending exclusive of acquisitions, a 50% increase from 1994 outlays. Plans call for drilling of 80 wells, split evenly between oil and gas and up from 40 in 1994, and 85 workovers and recompletions. LG&E ENERGY CORP., Louisville, reached definitive agreement to buy Hadson Corp., Dallas, for $143 million. The deal includes the Hadson Gas Systems Inc. natural gas marketing subsidiary, 1,300 miles of gas gathering systems,

COMPANIES

CROSS TIMBERS OIL CO., Fort Worth, budgeted $30 million for 1995 capital spending exclusive of acquisitions, a 50% increase from 1994 outlays. Plans call for drilling of 80 wells, split evenly between oil and gas and up from 40 in 1994, and 85 workovers and recompletions.

LG&E ENERGY CORP., Louisville, reached definitive agreement to buy Hadson Corp., Dallas, for $143 million. The deal includes the Hadson Gas Systems Inc. natural gas marketing subsidiary, 1,300 miles of gas gathering systems, gas transmission systems, and gas processing and storage facilities.

INSTITUT FRANCAIS DU PETROLE and its U.S. unit IFP Enterprises acquired Hydrocarbon Research Inc.'s (HRI) technology portfolio and licensing rights, including HRI's oil hydrocracking ebullated bed technology. HRI technology mostly focuses on processing heavy oil fractions and producing aromatics. As of February, IFP operates in North America through HRI facilities in Princeton, N.J.

GAS MARKETING

PENNZOIL CO.'S and Brooklyn Union Gas Co.'s respective units Pennzoil Gas Marketing Co. and Bring Gas Services Corp. formed a gas marketing venture to provide a range of merchant and gas marketing services to producers and end users. The two companies together market more than 1.5 bcfd across the U.S.

PIPELINES

PETROLEOS DEL ECUADOR (Petroecuador) will participate 40% in a joint venture with a foreign participant, to be chosen this year, to expand capacity of Ecuador's Lago Agrio-Balao crude oil trunk pipeline to 450,000 b/d from 325,000 b/d. A tender to choose the foreign partner will get under way soon, with specifications calling for a build-operate-transfer agreement under which Petroecuador would take over the line in 12 years. Included in the tender is a 170 km spur from ARCO's Villano field to Baeza along the trunk line.

KANEB PIPE LINE PARTNERS LP, a unit of Kaneb Services Inc., Dallas, will acquire Wyco Pipe Line Co.'s petroleum product pipeline assets for $27.1 million. Involved are about 550 miles of pipeline and four truck loading terminals in Wyoming, South Dakota, and Colorado.

KN ENERGY INC., Lakewood, Colo., completed acquisition of natural gas pipeline and storage assets in West Texas from Meridian Oil Inc. for $80.1 million. Major assets being acquired are Morgan Creek and MoTrans pipelines.

ASIA PETROLEUM LTD. let a $68 million contract to Promet Engineering (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., a unit of Malaysia's Promet Bhd., to lay Pakistan's first private sector petroleum pipeline. It is an 80 km heavy fuel oil line extending from the Pipri tank farm near Karachi's Port Qasim to a 1.3 million kw power plant being built at Hub. Pipelaying is to be complete by June 1996 on the 30,000 b/d line. World Bank and Commonwealth Development Corp. are providing funds for the project.

PETROLEOS BRASILEIRO SA

(Petrobras) let an $85 million contract to Coflexip Stena Offshore Inc. to lay more than 450 km of pipelines and pipeline bundles in the Campos and Santos basins off Brazil. The Apache reelship and a diving support vessel will work in as much as 1.000 m of water Three phases of work are scheduled during October-March in 199598.

EXPLORATION

SPAIN'S Repsol SA signed a 3 year exploration agreement with Bolivia's state owned Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos covering the 13,400 sq km Secure block east of Cochabamba in the lower Andes of Central Bolivia. Operator Repsol, BHP Petroleum Pty. Ltd., and Elf Aquitaine each holds a 29.11% interest, and Maxus Energy Corp. has 12.5%.

REPSOL signed an exploration and production agreement with Colombia's state owned Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos covering the 14,500 sq km Choco Central block in Colombia's Pacific coast Choco region. Repsol holds a 1 00% interest in the block.

MIDWEST ENERGY COS. LTD., a unit of Midwest Energy Cos. Inc., Tulsa, received a 6 year license covering 58,000 acres 50 miles south of London in southern England's Weald basin. The EXL 295 license surrounds Storrington oil and gas field, currently under development. Midwest, with a 100% interest, expects to begin exploration in second half 1995.

TRITON ENERGY CORP., Dallas, signed its first exploration agreement in Ecuador with Petroecuador for Block 19, which covers 494,226 acres on the western flank of the Oriente basin in the Ecuadorian foothills. Triton will acquire 400 km of seismic data and drill two wildcats in a 4 year period.

UNION TEXAS PAKISTAN INC. and partners tested two discoveries in Badin area of Southeast Pakistan. In Badin I concession area, 2 Tangri wildcat flowed 1,704 b/d of oil through a 16/64-in. choke with 850 psi flowing tubing pressure from a Cretaceous lower Goru interval at 7,180-92 ft, and 1 Liari Deep wildcat flowed 2 MMcfd of gas through a 56/64 in. choke with 11 8 psi and 7 MMcfd and 188 b/d of oil through a 32/64-in. choke with 1 700 psi on tests of lower Goru intervals at 9,683-726 and 8,828-83 ft, respectively.

A FLORIDA APPELLATE COURT reversed a state environmental agency's 1993 ruling that denied Tallahassee independent Coastal Petroleum Co. (CPC) a drilling permit on an 800,000 acre offshore tract after the company declined to post a $515 million bond for cleanup of possible spills. The court ruled the agency does not have authority to require CPC to post additional security and payment of an annual fee to Florida's Petroleum & Production -Bond Trust Fund satisfies drilling permit security requirements.

AMERADA HESS LTD. found oil on U.K. North Sea Block 211/23b southwest of Osprey and Dunlin fields. Its 211/23b-12 well flowed at a stabilized rate of 4,900 b/d of 32 gravity oil through a 26/64 in. choke. License interests are Amerada and Fina Exploration Ltd. 35% each, Aran Energy Exploration Ltd. 20%, and Pict Petroleum plc 10%.

ELECTRICAL POWER

PORTUGAL'S first natural gas fired power plant is under construction by Turbogas Productora Energetica SA, a group led by Britain's Powergen plc and Germany's Siemens AG. The 990,000 kw plant at Tapada do Outiero, 14 km east of Porto, will cost about $600 million and start Lip in 1999.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

SEMBAWANG ENGINEERING LTD., (SEPL) Singapore, completed design, procurement, and fabrication under a $150 million turnkey contract it holds in conjunction with Heeremac to provide two drilling-production platforms for the ACT Group's Huizhou oil field development program off China in the South China Sea. Fabrication of topsides and jackets were completed this month. SEPL and Heeremac will install and commission the two platforms during March-June and hand them over to ACT, a combine of Agip SpA, Chevron Corp., and Texaco Inc., by June 13.

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM CORP., (AIPC) New York, this week will spud the first of 10 planned development wells to follow up its 1 Bronco Este oil discovery on Block IV in Peru's Talara basin. Programmed to 3,240 ft, the first well will target pay in the lower Parinas sandstone. AIPC will use a revised completion and stimulation program to resolve sand problems encountered in the 1994 discovery well.

PETROECUADOR will issue a tender Apr. 24 for companies seeking to bid on operation and further exploration of seven marginal oil fields in Ecuador's Oriente region. Parahuacu, Atacapi, Puma, Auca Este, Yuca Sur, Charapa, and Singue fields have combined production of 3,535 b/d of oil with an average gravity of 24.

ELF U.K. PLC plans to submit next year a $1.5 billion development plan for Elgin and Franklin gas/condensate fields in the U.K. North Sea. Plans call for an unmanned wellhead platform in each field linked to a processing/treating platform. Start-up is scheduled for 1999. Gas and condensate reserves are an estimated 700 bcf and 75 million bbl in Franklin and 550 bcf and 125 million bbl in Elgin.

SUN OIL BRITAIN LTD. formed a venture with Brown & Root Ltd., London, to operate North Sea Block 16/21 in Balmoral field. Brown & Root said it is the first such combination of oil company and contractor to operate a North Sea production unit. The venture will work to extend field life and develop satellite oil fields.

GEOTHERMAL POWER

UNOCAL CORP. added more than 25 billion kw-hr in geothermal energy reserves, or almost 38 million bbl of oil equivalent (BOE), in Indonesia and Philippines in 1994. That boosts the company's geothermal energy reserves to 143 billion kw-hr, or 215 million BOE.

PETROCHEMICALS

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM CO. will boost ethylene capacity at its Sweeny, Tex., refinery and petrochemical complex by 800 million lb/year to 4.4 billion lb/year by late 1996. Work is under way to restart an idle, 100% owned, 400 million lb/year unit, with completion scheduled for second half 1996. Debottlenecking and adding new furnaces to another olefins unit owned 50% by Phillips will hike capacity there by 400 million lb/year to 1.9 billion lb/year in second half 1996.

KUWAIT PETROCHEMICAL JOINT VENTURE (KPJV) licensed the Alphabutol process developed by IFP and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. to recover polymer grade butene-1 from ethylene for its planned 650,000 metric ton/year ethylene complex at Shuaiba, Kuwait. The Alphabutol unit will produce 20,000 tons/year of butene-1 for use as an ethylene comonomer in linear low density polyethylene. KPJV is a joint venture of Union Carbide Corp. and Kuwait's Petrochemical Industry Co.

BASF AG started production at its Antwerp petrochemical complex of the fuel and lubricants additive polisobutene (PIB), a chlorine free product that helps reduce auto emissions. The $67 million, 60,000 metric ton/year plant produces PIB by polymerizing pure isobutene or extracting PIB from the Antwerp steam cracker's hydrogenated methane cut.

CHINESE PETROLEUM CORP. closed its No. 3 naphtha cracker until Mar. 22 for annual maintenance. Turnaround of the 230,000 metric ton/year unit is not expected to result in serious shortages because downstream users were notified well in advance.

BANGLADESH CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES CORP. started up its $510 million Karnaphuli Fertilizer Go. (Kafco) ammonia/urea complex at Karnaphuli, Bangladesh. Kafco, a joint venture of Japanese and Dutch investors, shipped its first export cargo of 12,000 tons of liquid ammonia to the U.S. Plant capacity is 1,500 tons/day of ammonia and 1,725 tons/day of granular urea, intended mainly for export.

AIR PRODUCTS & CHEMICALS INC. let contract to Glitsch International Inc. for a C02 removal system for a hydrogen and carbon monoxide production unit being built at Air Products' La Porte, Tex., site. The new system will use a high pressure absorber to separate C02 from reformed gas. An Amine Guard system will reduce C02 content of the synthesis gas to 25 ppm from 4.3%. The unit is scheduled for delivery in March.

GAS DISTRIBUTION

SPAIN'S Gas Natural Ban (GNB), a unit of state owned Gas Natural, obtained a $55.5 million loan from European Investment Bank to expand its activities in Argentina. GNB is developing a 17,000 km natural gas distribution system in Buenos Aires to serve 1 million customers, providing $380 million/year in revenues.

REFINING

BP OIL ESPANA budgeted $22.8 million to double cogeneration power capacity to 14,000 kw at its 102,000 b/d Castellon de la Plana refinery on Spain's Mediterranean coast. The 9 month project, to get under way in July, will make the refinery 100% self-sufficient in electrical power. BP also is awaiting approvals for a $23.56 million project to hike desulfurization capacity at the refinery.

MADRAS REFINERIES LTD. commissioned its 10,000 b/d Cauvery basin refinery at Panangudi, near Madras, India. It is the company's second refinery - the first being a 130,660 b/d plant at Madras -and the first grassroots refinery in India since Indian Oil Corp. started up the 156,000 b/d Mathura refinery in 1982.

PETROECUADOR let a $170 million contract to a combine of Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas-Eurocontrol and Ecuador's Santos-CMI for expansion and upgrade of its Esmeraldas refinery. Work is to include capacity expansion to 100,000 b/d from 90,000 b/d and revamping facilities to handle 24 gravity crude vs. the 27-28 gravity crude it currently processes.

MARKETING

PRIVATE COMPANIES late last month began importing and marketing refined products in Ecuador, ending Petroecuador's domestic monopoly. Units of Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Texaco Inc., and four private Ecuadorian companies will operate their own jobber networks. Petroecuador will continue to operate its distribution network and market its products, with some products to be delivered to other marketers. Copyright 1995 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.