INDUSTRY BRIEFS
GAS TREATING
LASMO OIL PAKISTAN installed a Separex gas treating membrane system in Kadanwari gas field in Pakistan's Sindh province. The system, billed by technology supplier LOP as the world's largest, was installed at a gas gathering/processing plant with capacity of 180 MMcfd of sales gas. The Separex membrane system has 210 MMcfd capacity, four times the capacity for other membrane systems meeting pipeline specifications for separating water vapor and carbon dioxide from natural gas, UOP said.
COGENERATION
FINANCING of $194 million (Canadian) is in place for the proposed 100,000 kw Kingston gas fired cogeneration plant Destec Energy Inc., Houston, is developing at Ernestown, Ont. PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, will supply 22 MMcfd of gas for the life of the project. The plant is to start up in late 1996 and supply electricity to Ontario Hydro's power grid and process heat to Celanese Canada Inc.'s Millhaven polyester plant.
REFINING
BP OIL will increase crude throughput capacity at its 121,000 J/d Oregon, Ohio, refinery near Toledo by 18,000 b/d with completion of a $20 million expansion project that also will boost operating efficiency and cut costs with installation of a high efficiency furnace.
VENEZUELA'S Lagoven SA will take as much as 1.4 million cu m/day of hydrogen at its 630,00 b/d Amuay refinery in northern Venezuela from a venture of BOC Gases Ltd., Guildford, U.K., and Foster Wheeler Power Systems Inc., Clinton, N.J. The venture will build, own, and operate a $48 million hydrogen plant next to the refinery. Start-up is slated for summer 1997.
GHANA'S Tema Oil Refinery Ltd. (TOR) let a $4.8 million contract to Peter Brotherhood Ltd., Peterborough, U.K., for a turboalternator set to meet power needs at its 26,600 b/d refinery at Tema, Ghana, and supply surplus power to the local grid. Peter Brotherhood will design, build, and install a 6,500 kw power plant to replace the original unit installed when the refinery was built 30 years ago.
AMOCO OIL CO. last week in less than 2 hr doused a fire in a catalytic cracking unit at its 433,000 b/cd Texas City, Tex., refinery. The blaze was reported about midday July 24 when an oil mist leaking from the unit ignited, sending large clouds of black smoke roiling into the sky. Amoco warned residents of Texas City and La Marque, Tex., to take cover inside their homes and turn off air conditioners. Two of more than 100 people who went to area hospitals complaining of breathing problems and burning eyes were admitted, but no serious injuries were reported.
SPILLS
A 32 KM LONG OIL SLICK was threatening South Korea's southern coast last week after the Cyprus flagged Sea Prince tanker ran aground in rough seas caused by Typhoon Faye. Officials said several thousand barrels of bunker C heavy fuel oil spilled. The accident occurred after the tanker, owned by South Korea's Hoyu Tanker Co., had off loaded two thirds of its 1.9 million bbl cargo of Saudi crude at the port of Yosu and was moving to a safer port when the typhoon hit. A fire in the engine room that appeared under control July 24 flared up again July 25 as firefighting efforts were hampered by dense fog and high waves.
PETROCHEMICALS
CABOT CORP., Boston, plans to spend $30 million to expand its South American carbon black capacity the next 2 years by 33%, or 80,000 tons/year, to 320,000 tons/year. Marked for expansion are plants in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Campana, Argentina; and Cartagena, Colombia. Cabot also is a partner in a carbon black plant at Valencia, Venezuela.
NORWAY'S Den norske stats oljeselskap AS let a $16 million contract to the Aker Elektro unit of Aker AS, Oslo, for electrical and instrumentation work at the Tjeldbergodden methanol plant in Central Norway. Aker's work is to be complete by yearend 1996. The plant will take as feedstock as much as 24.5 bcf/year of gas from Heidrun field, under development by Norske Conoco AS.
GAS STORAGE
TEJAS POWER CORP., Houston, said open season bidding for the 2.5 bcf of storage capacity at its salt cavern gas storage project in Tioga County, Pa., was oversubscribed about threefold. The Tioga project will at first connect to two major interstate gas pipelines in the U.S. Northeast. Under the open season ended June 2, 14 potential customers made bids totaling more than $30 million/year of equivalent revenue, with an average term of more than 10 years.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
MARATHON OIL CO. and partners' 1 Green Canyon 200 appraisal well extended their Green Canyon Block 244 field 1 1/2 miles north into Green Canyon Block 200. That confirmed development potential of more than 100 million bbl of oil. The appraisal went to 18,758 ft in 2,672 ft of water. Plans call for a wildcat to test an adjacent structure on Green Canyon Block 245. Operator Marathon, BP Exploration, and Shell Offshore Inc. each holds a one third interest in the unit that consists of Green Canyon Blocks 200, 201, 244, and 245.
CHEVRON USA INC. postponed to June 1996 an $8.5 million project to abandon four platforms off Santa Barbara, Calif., because of delays in getting a permit from Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District in time to comply with other permits, reported American Oilfield Divers Inc., Lafayette, La., which holds the abandonment contract.
APACHE CORP., Houston, agreed to sell its noncore Rocky Mountain production to Citation Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, for $155 million. Excluded are Apache assets in the Green River basin of Colorado and Wyoming and San Juan basin of Colorado and New Mexico. Assets involved in the sale include interests in 138 fields with about 1,600 wells in Colorado, Montana, North and South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. After the sale, Apache will close its Denver office and integrate remaining assets in its Permian basin region office in Houston.
BHP PETROLEUM LTD. will let contract to Halliburton Energy Services to provide integrated well intervention and workover services for its Liverpool Bay development in the Irish Sea. The program calls for hydraulic workover, coiled tubing, stimulation, and wire line services under a 5 year contract with three 5 year extensions. Initial contract and options are valued at about $32 million.
MOBIL NORTH SEA LTD. and partners let contract to Reading & Bates Corp., Houston, for its Jack Bates semisubmersible to drill three wells in about 9 months on Mobil's frontier acreage in Quadrants 213 and 214 in 4,500 ft of water in the U.K. North Atlantic Ocean beginning no later than April 1997. Contract value is pegged at $32 million plus mobilization fee, equipment upgrades, and shipyard time totaling $12 million. Mobil expects to take options to extend the contract to 18 months.
SAUDI ARAMCO let contract to Parsons Corp. for project management, design engineering, and construction management for its $2.5 billion Shaybah oil field development project in southern Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter (OGJ, July 3, p. 24). Included are a 600 km, 48 in. pipeline and gas/oil separation and crude production facilities, as well as development of infrastructure in the remote region.
PETROLEOS BRASILEIRO SA approved early installation of two production platforms in supergiant Marlim field in the deepwater Campos basin off Brazil. Marlim produces 110,000 b/d of oil from two platforms. The latest two platforms, slated for start-up in 1997, will boost Marlim production by 200,000 b/d. A fifth and sixth platform will start up in 1997 and 1998, respectively, enabling the field to reach peak production of 535,000 b/d by 2000, at least 3 years ahead of the original schedule. A recent reassessment jumped Marlim's estimated oil reserves to 2.5 billion bbl from 1.6 billion bbl.
OILSANDS
SOLV-EX CORP., Albuquerque, acquired the Fort Hills oilsands lease from Petro-Canada. The lease covers about 50,000 acres in North Alberta and adjoins Solv-Ex's 5,900 acre Bitumount lease, where Solv-Ex plans coproduction of 15,000 b/d of heavy crude oil and alumina (OGJ, July 3, p. 24).
COMPANIES
SHELL OIL CO. and Tejas Gas Corp. agreed to form an independent company that combines their gas marketing activities and will feature enhanced customer services. To be operated as a limited partnership, the new company will be one of the biggest U.S. gas marketers and expand into other businesses, including gas fired power generation. The two companies' combined gas sales are 3.7 bcfd. Shell has gas production of 2 bcfd and reserves totaling 5.5 tcf, while Tejas operates 5,500 miles of gas pipelines and 130 bcf of gas storage.
MESA INC. financial adviser Lehman Bros. expects to have data rooms open by mid-September for companies interested in purchasing or merging with MESA. Data rooms for sale of MESA's Hugoton gas field reserves in one or as many as eight packages, will open in mid-August. Lehman also is looking at other restructuring options, including possible joint ventures involving a large portion of MESA's Hugoton properties. MESA is trying to block a takeover by major shareholders (OGJ, July 17, p. 30).
PIPELINES
COLOMBIA'S state oil company Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos obtained a $700 million loan from a group of six banks led by Chemical Bank to help finance construction of the Oleoducto Central crude oil pipeline from giant Cusiana field to the export terminal at Covenas on Colombia's Pacific coast. Total cost of the 800 km pipeline is $2 billion.
LEVIATHAN GAS PIPELINE PARTNERS LP agreed with working interest owners of Ram-Powell field in the Viosca Knoll area off Louisiana to connect its platform on Viosca Knoll Block 817 with their tension leg platform slated for installation on Viosca Knoll Block 956. Ram-Powell gas production will be dedicated to Leviathan's Viosca Knoll gathering system. Leviathan also agreed to perform certain pipeline services for Ram-Powell owners Shell Oil Co., Exxon Corp., and Amoco Corp. on its VK 817 platform.
EXPLORATION
KERR-MCGEE CHINA PETROLEUM LTD. signed two exploration contracts with China National Petroleum Corp. covering about 154,000 acres in shallow waters of China's Bohai Bay. Kerr McGee is operator with a two thirds interest in the Getuo and Laopu contract areas, with Energy Development Corp. (China) holding the remaining one third interest. The two adjoining areas are immediately north of Kerr-McGee's Contract Area 04/36 in Bohai Bay.
SHANGHAI OFFSHORE PETROLEUM EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT CORP.'S 1 Chunxiao wildcat flowed 56 MMcfd of gas and 1,258 b/d of crude oil in the East China Sea, the second biggest flow rate recorded in the region. The discovery adjoins acreage China is opening to foreign investment. China expects to drill 11 wells in the East China Sea this year in ventures with five foreign oil companies.
CHEVRON NIUGINI PTY. LTD. group's 1X Makas wildcat in Papua New Guinea's southern highlands had significant oil and gas shows in Cretaceous leru, the first time this formation has yielded hydrocarbons. Logs have been run, but further evaluation awaits the well reaching its primary target. The well, 12 km northeast of Gobe oil field on permit PPL 161, is the first of four wildcats slated for prospects near Gobe and Kutubu area fields. The others are 1X Renbo, 10 km southwest of Kutubu; 1X Sarat, 8 km northwest of Gobe; and 1X Paua, 15 km north of Kutubu.
CHEVRON OVERSEAS PETROLEUM (PERU) LTD.'S bid for exploration rights on more than 1.77 million acres in Block 52 of Peru's highlands was accepted by state firm Perupetro SA and is awaiting approval by Peru's government. The virgin acreage adjoins supergiant Camisea gas/condensate fields complex that is slated for development. Seismic and geologic studies are to begin in the fall.
DDD ENERGY INC. unit of Seitel Inc., Houston, and Louisiana Land & Exploration Co. formed their second exploration and production partnership. This fall ODD will conduct a 55 sq mile 3D seismic survey on a 20,000 acre block LL&E controls in South Louisiana to assess multipay middle and lower Miocene prospects. Drilling is to get under way in 1996. The two formed a similar partnership last year covering LL&E acreage in South Louisiana (OGJ, Feb. 21, 1994, p. 70).
GAS PROCESSING
MAPCO PETROLEUM INC., Tulsa, let contract to Howe-Baker Engineers Inc., Tyler, Tex., for design and turnkey installation of an 85,000 lb/hr combined gas/liquid feed saturated gas plant at its 75,000 b/d Memphis refinery. The plant will produce lean gas, propane, isobutane, n-butane, and gasoline blending stock. Completion is scheduled for 1996.
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
UNOCAL GEOTHERMAL OF INDONESIA LTD. let an engineering and procurement contract to Fluor Daniel Eastern Inc. and Indonesia's PT Inti Karya Persada Teknik for construction of three 55,000 kw geothermal power plants on Mount Salak near Bogor, Indonesia, 50 miles south of Jakarta. After completion in 1997, the complex will supply power to Indonesia's state utility for 30 years. Value of the contract to Fluor is $75 million.
Copyright 1995 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.