INDUSTRY BRIEFS

REFINING

GARY-WILLIAMS ENERGY CORP., Denver, closed its purchase of Kerr-McGee Corp.'s 43,000 b/cd Wynnewood, Okla., refinery (OGJ, July 10, p. 40). The sale is part of Kerr-McGee's efforts to withdraw from refining/marketing.

GAS PROCESSING

MALAYSIA'S PETRONAS let a 3 year project management contract to Foster Wheeler (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. for a liquid petroleum gas plant at the Bintulu liquefied natural gas export complex in Sarawak. The LPG plant is to start up in early 1 998. Capacity, project cost, and other details are not disclosed.

CANADA'S Federal Court of Appeal was asked to rule whether an application by Westcoast Energy Inc., Vancouver, B.C., to the National Energy Board (NEB) for a $400 million expansion of its Pine River gas processing plant in Northeast British Columbia falls within NEB jurisdiction. Westcoast earlier asked the court to rule on another application to the NEB for a $400 million expansion of its Aitken Creek gas processing plant 87 miles north of Fort St. John, B.C. NEB said it does not have jurisdiction over Aitken Creek (OGJ, June 5, p. 29).

EXPLORATION

GECO-PRAKLA Calgary, has two seismic vessels working or scheduled to work off western Newfoundland in the wake of a possible significant onshore discovery nearby (OGJ, July 24, Newsletter). The Geco-Diamond vessel is working under a $10 million contract for Amoco Canada Petroleum Ltd. in a 386 sq mile area north of the Jeanne d'Arc basin. Seismic data in the area date from the 1980s and are being updated with a 3D survey. The Geco-Sygma vessel is to begin work off western Newfoundland soon for other operators.

BRITISH GAS PLC exercised an option to take a 25% interest in and become operator of the GSEC 72 license in Manila Bay in Philippines, where operator Coplex Resources NIL, Hobart, Tasmania, is drilling a wildcat. Coplex said British Gas will pay $1 million for the option, with a further $1 million exercise price to be paid 60 days after Coplex completes the 1A Manila Bay well. Coplex will be left with a 10% working interest.

AVIVA PETROLEUM INC., Dallas, and partners applied for an association contract covering the 39,000 acre Yuruyaco block in Colombia's Putumayo basin next to Aviva's Santana B and La Fragua blocks. Plans call for Aviva to spud its Palmera A wildcat on the Santana B block late this year or early next year.

COMPANIES

CRESTAR ENERGY INC., Calgary, launched a $167 million (Canadian) takeover bid for Ranchmen's Resources Ltd., Calgary. Ranchmen's hired a consultant to evaluate the cash bid of $5.80/share for 28.9 million outstanding shares. Crestar said its offer would be worth about $250 million if $70 million in Ranchmen's debt and other factors are taken into account. The offer is subject to Crestar obtaining 66.6% of shares it does not own. Ranchmen's recently completed a takeover of Excel Energy Inc., Calgary,

SOUTH AFRICA'S first international exploration and production company is to take shape later this year from the upstream assets of Engen Ltd., Cape Town. The assets, including an 8% interest in North Sea Alba field, carry a $160 million value. The new company is expected to focus on African projects. Engen has interests in Namibia, Angola, Congo, and Gabon. Engen is expected to retain control of the new company, but Johannesburg stock exchange rules require at least 25% of the new company's share to be floated.

PERENCO, a private Paris company, bought the remaining 25% of publicly held shares in Kelt Energy plc, London, to complete its purchase of Kelt. Perenco plc, formed by merging the two companies, operates gross production of 68,000 b/d of oil equivalent with exploration and production activities in Colombia, Gabon, Cameroon, U.S., and U.K.

OILSANDS

ALBERTA'S GOVERNMENT agreed to sell its 11.74% interest in Syncrude Canada Ltd., Edmonton, to Torch Energy Advisors Inc., Houston. No price was disclosed, but the deal is reported to be worth $350 million. The government sold a 5% interest in Syncrude 2 years ago to Murphy Oil Ltd. for $150 million. Syncrude operates an oilsands plant at Fort McMurray, Alta., that produces about 172,000 b/d of synthetic crude. It recently obtained approval to increase production to 217,000 b/d.

PIPELINES

TRANSCANADA PIPELINES LTD. restored to service three of six gas pipelines shut down after a line rupture and explosion July 29 near Brandon, Man. The remaining three lines and related compressor units were to be restarted by mid-August after repairs and testing. Preliminary analysis indicates stress corrosion cracking was a factor in the accident. No one was hurt. Partial service was restored in a few hours through two undamaged lines. The blast caused a fireball that witnesses saw 30 miles away.

TEJAS POWER CORP., Houston, signed a definitive agreement to buy 19 gas gathering systems in the Gulf of Mexico off Texas and related assets from a group led by Seagull Energy Corp. for $153.5 million.

CANADA'S NEB and Environmental Assessment Agency will form a joint panel to review the proposed Express export pipeline project. The 270 mile, 24 in. crude oil line would extend from Hardisty, Alta., to the Canada-U.S. border near Wild Horse, Alta. A U.S. segment of the 170,000 b/d line would deliver crude to a terminal near Casper, Wyo. The joint panel review was requested by Sheila Corps, Canada's deputy prime minister and environment minister. NEB scheduled an Oct. 23 hearing in Calgary on the proposal.

THE U.S. FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION approved CMS Gas Transmission & Storage Co.'s proposed $5.3 million Bluewater pipeline linking Ontario's Union Gas Ltd. and Michigan's Consumers Power Co. gas pipeline systems via the Grand Lacs hub at Marysville, Mich. (OGJ, Apr. 10, p. 34). Construction is to begin this month and be complete by November. The Canadian portion of the line was approved in June.

AN ELL AQUITAINE GROUP building a 175,000 b/d refinery at Leuna, Germany (OGJ, June 27, 1994, p. 28), let contract to a venture of France's Sofresid Group and Germany's ILF for detailed engineering, procurement, and construction supervision of two multiproduct pipelines and related Scada systems in Germany. One is a 16 in., 110 km, 64,000 b/d line to link the Leuna refinery with the Hartmannsdorf products terminal. The other is a 12 in., 36 km, 50,000 b/d line linking Leuna with the Bohlen chemical complex.

ISH ENERGY LTD., Calgary, applied to NEB for a permit to lay a $14.5 million (Canadian), 59 mile crude oil and condensate pipeline in northern Alberta and British Columbia. The 6 in. line is to extend from Desan oil field in Northeast British Columbia to an Interprovincial Pipe Line (NW) Ltd. terminal on the Norman Wells crude oil pipeline in Alberta. Completion is planned for April 1996.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

NEB plans to schedule a hearing sometime in November on Canadian natural gas export applications. All completed applications are to be filed by Aug. 23 to be included in the hearing.

PETROCHEMICALS

HERDILLIA CHEMICALS LTD. lot contract to ABB Lummus Global, Bloomfield, N.J., for technology licensing and basic engineering of its phenol/acetone plant to be built at Kahej, Gujarat, India. The complex will produce 133,000 tons/year of cumene, 1 00,000 tons/year of phenol, and 60,000 tons/year of acetone. Start-up is scheduled for early 1 998.

FORMOSA CHEMICALS & FIBRE CORP. let contract to ABB Lummus Global for technology licensing and basic engineering design of a cumene/phenol/acetone plant to be built as part of Formosa's world-scale petrochemical complex in Taiwan. The plant will produce 240,000 metric tons/year of cumene, 200,000 tons/year of phenol, and 1 20,000 tons/year of acetone.

EQUATE PETROCHEMICAL CO. KSC let contract to Foster Wheeler Italiana, Milan, for engineering, procurement, and construction of a 350,000 metric ton/year ethylene glycol plant in a proposed world scale olefins complex at Shuaiba, Kuwait (OGJ, July 24, p. 22). Equate is a joint venture of Union Carbide Corp., Petrochemical Industries Co. of Kuwait, and Boubyan Petrochemical Co., Kuwait.

SAUDI BASIC INDUSTRIES CORP.'S Arabian Petrochemical Co. unit started up its second 50,000 metric ton/year butene-1 plant at Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Output will be used in manufacture of polyethylene for domestic sales. Debottlenecking of the Jubail ethylene cracker, currently under way, will boost ethylene capacity by 200,000 tons/year to 700,000 tons/year by yearend 1996.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

MOBIL EXPLORATION & PRODUCING U.S. INC. tested two wells that tapped a deeper reservoir in Eugene Island 240 field off Louisiana. The wells flowed at a combined rate of more than 140 MMcfd of gas and 6,700 b/d of oil through 1 in. chokes with respective flowing tubing pressures of 3,500 psi and 4,500 psi. After modifications to production facilities, field flow is expected to increase to 165 MMcfd and 6,800 h/d.

TRITON ENERGY CORP., Dallas, reported the 4 Cupiagua well in Colombia's giant Cupiagua field was completed in Eocene Mirador and awaits tie-in to a pipeline system for early field production beginning in first quarter 1996. The well earlier extended the field's oil column thickness to 3,671 ft after cutting several oil bearing zones en route to 15,992 ft TO (OGJ, May 22, p. 31).

CHEVRON U.K. LTD. and Conoco (U.K.) Ltd. will send gas from North Sea Britannia field to St. Fergus terminal near Aberdeen for processing. The Scottish Area Gas Evacuation (SAGE) terminal at St. Fergus, operated by Mobil North Sea Ltd., will be expanded in a 70 million program to prepare for first Britannia gas in fourth quarter 1 998. Gas will be exported to the SAGE terminal through a 200 km pipeline to be laid in 1996-97. Condensate will move ashore through the Forties pipeline system operated by BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd.

BHP PETROLEUM PTY. LTD.'S Undan well in the Zone of Cooperation area of the Timor Sea, jointly administered by Indonesia and Australia, flowed 26 MMcfd of gas and 1,773 b/d of condensate, confirming what it said is a very large gas/condensate reservoir. Further appraisal is planned next year.

VINTAGE PETROLEUM INC., Tulsa, agreed in principle to acquire for $7 million a 50% working interest held by a unit of British Gas plc in three producing concessions in Argentina. The concessions, on the southern flank of the San Jorge basin in Santa Cruz province, are operated by Cadipsa SA, an Argentine company in which Vintage has a controlling interest. Plans call for added waterfloods, infill and extension drilling, workovers, and exploratory drilling.

LOUIS DREYFUS NATURAL GAS CORP., Oklahoma City, closed its purchase of producing leases and acreage in the Sonora area of West Texas from American Exploration Co. and related partnerships for $90 million (OGJ, June 19, p. 28). Separately, Louis Dreyfus acquired 14.5 bcf equivalent (bcfe) of proved reserves in the Sonora area from Mitchell Energy Corp. for $7 million and 10 bcfe of reserves in South and East Texas for $8.4 million from two undisclosed sellers.

MOBIL EQUATORIAL GUINEA INC.'S 3 Zafiro well extended Zafiro field 1/2 mile southwest of the field discovery well on Block B off Equatorial Guinea, flowing 10,237 b/d of oil from Miocene Qua lboe. Mobil's 1 Opalo, drilled 2 miles northeast of the discovery well, flowed a combined 7,818 b/d of oil from two deep Qua lboe zones The 2 Zafiro was cased for future production but not tested after finding a thinner Zafiro oil sand and a deeper pay zone. Plans call for continuing seismic and engineering studies this year to formulate a development plan for Equatorial Guinea's first significant oil discovery (see map, OGJ, Mar 27, p. 24).

ALADDIN MIDDLE EAST LTD., a unit of Aladdin Petroleum Corp., Wichita, tested its 8 Bulgurdag development well near Adana in southern Turkey at 900 b/d of 38 gravity oil from acid treated fractures in Karaisal limestone at 4,997-5,146 ft. The well was choked back to 350 b/d but is capable of flowing 1,000 b/d. It is the first development well drilled in Bulgurdag oil field in 26 years. Aladdin and partner Ersan Petrol Sanayii AS plan to drill two more development wells in the field.

TANKERS

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT TANKER OWNERS (Intertanko) filed suit against the state of Washington over the latter's new rules regulating tanker personnel, equipment, and operating requirements that differ from U.S. federal law. Intertanko claims tanker safety could be jeopardized by a patchwork of regulations arising among coastal states.

LNG

INTERNATIONAL GAS TRANSPORTATION CO. LID. chartered Lachmar's Lake Charles liquefied natural gas carrier for use in Australia's Northwest Shelf LNG export project through March 1996 with options to extend through 1997. Lachmar is a Combine of Panhandle Eastern Corp. subsidiaries.