INDUSTRY BRIEFS

SPILLS

AN OIL PIPELINE RUPTURED in Russia's supergiant Samotlor oil field, forcing the shut-in of 52 wells. The corroded line spilled enough oil to contaminate more than 600 sq yd of the field 9 miles north of Nizhnevartovsk. The spill occurred at a time when government officials have called for foreign capital and government support of a major modernization program for Samotlor. More than 1,000 wells are idle in the field, and much of the 11,000 km of pipeline traversing the field is near the end of its service life.

A RAILWAY TANK CAR spill of gasoline and residual fuel oil sparked a fire that burned most of the cargo and about 20 acres of forest in the Taishet Forest section of the East Siberian rail line. Twenty-six cars, including 17 carrying the refined products, were derailed. The fire was doused, and railway repairs are under way.

EXPLORATION CANUK EXPLORATION LTD., Gerard's Cross, U.K., hired a rig to drill a well on the grounds of Windsor Castle, seat of Britain's royal family, during August but has not fixed the spud date. Canuk has 14 days in August to drill the well, which will target a structure at 300-400 m said to hold potentially as much as 100 million bbl of oil (OGJ, Jan. 16, p. 24).

A GROUP OF 16 COMPANIES led by Chevron Corp. let contract to ARK Geophysics, Milton Keynes, U.K., for a high resolution aeromagnetic survey covering almost the entire Porcupine basin off Ireland. The contract, to be complete within 3 months, calls for acquiring, processing, and interpreting about 60,000 line km of data.

OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP. and partners signed a production sharing contract covering 952,000 acre Block PPL-181 in Papua New Guinea's Fly River basin, site of the Kutubu oil development/export project. Under an initial 3 year term, Oxy will conduct geologic studies and drill one wildcat. Interests are operator Oxy 88% and Niugini Energy Pty. Ltd. and Garnet PING Corp. 6% each.

UMIC COTE D'IVOIRE unit of United Meridian Corp., Houston, and partners disclosed their fifth successful well in a row on Block CI-11 off Cote d'Ivoire (OGJ, May 15, p. 23). The B-1 Lion wildcat, drilled to test a new fault block 1 mile southwest of the A-1 Lion field discovery, flowed 5,700 b/d of oil and 4.9 MMcfd of gas through a 1 in. choke with 650 psi flowing tubing pressure from perforations in 133 ft of Cretaceous Albian net pay at 9,95010,225 ft. Drilling has begun on the next two wells, C-2 Panthere and B-2 Lion.

BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY (BGS) plans to study seabed conditions west of the Shetland Islands, focus of much drilling activity since two major discoveries by BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. (OGJ, June 20, 1994, p. 16). BGS is concerned about slope stability, possibility of earthquakes, and presence of frozen methane. The area's geology will be studied by BGS and operators with interests in the region.

INDIA'S ONGC VIDESH LTD. (OVL) agreed to take a farmout on Command Petroleum Ltd.'s Fejaj permit in Tunisia. OVL will acquire a 40% interest after reimbursement of 40% of Command's permit costs to date and contributing 40% to the cost of the 1 Ben Hassine onshore wildcat, currently drilling at 1,666 m en route to 2,900 m. In the event of a commercial find, OVL will pay Command another $700,000 from its share of production.

PETROCHEMICALS

EQUATE PETROCHEMICAL CO. K.S.C., a venture of Union Carbide Corp. and Petrochemical Industries Co. of Kuwait, let contract to Brown & Root for engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning of a 650,000 metric ton/year ethylene plant at Kuwait's Shuaiba complex. It will feed Equate's proposed ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol and polyethylene plants at Shuaiba. All plants are slated for completion in third quarter 1997.

BP CHEMICALS INC. and Lurgi OI-Gas-Chemie GmbH, Frankfurt, developed a process to produce 1,4-butane-dull directly from butane. BP said the new process, called Geminox, is ready for commercialization. BP and Lurgi plan to license the technology worldwide,

PIPELINES

BRITANNIA OPERATOR LTD., a venture of Chevron U.K. Ltd. and Conoco (U.K.) Ltd. formed to develop Britannia field in the U.K. North Sea, let a $48 million contract to Costain Stolt Alliance, London, for pipeline work, The contract includes fabrication, installation, and tie-in of field flow lines and umbilicals to connect Britannia platform to its subsea production center 15 km away. Offshore work will take place in 1997.

SHELL OIL CO. hired Allseas Marine Contractors SA of Switzerland to install a 20 in. oil pipeline as part of the Auger project expansion in the Gulf of Mexico. The 36 km line will extend from a subsea connection to the existing Auger 12 in. oil line on South Marsh Island Block 205 to Shell's platform A on Eugene Island Block 231. It will cross seven pipelines in water depths of 75-136 m. Allseas' Lorelay pipelay vessel will perform the work this summer.

WESTERN GAS RESOURCES INC., Denver, signed a definitive agreement to purchase eight West Texas gathering systems from Transwestern Gathering Co. and Enron Permian Gathering Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Closing is expected by yearend. Involved are about 231 miles of line with throughput of about 145 MMcfd from 170 wells.

COASTAL CORP.'S Coastal States Crude Gathering Co. placed its South Texas intrastate liquids pipeline assets into a limited partnership (LP) with three institutional investors. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., Travelers Life Insurance Co,, and Stonehurst Capital Inc. put up $45 million for interests totaling 65% of LP equity, with Coastal affiliates holding the remaining 35%. In addition, a bank group led by Citibank signed a credit agreement for a $38 million term loan and $5 million revolving loan to acquire partnership assets from Coastal affiliates.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

ANADARKO ALGERIA CORP.'S 2 Berkine East confirmation well flowed 17,309 b/d of 410 gravity oil and 3.9 MMcfd of gas through two 3/4 in. chokes with 1,227 psi flowing tubing pressure from 190 ft of pay in Triassic sandstone. The well bottomed at 3,650 rn on Block 404 in Algeria's Ghadames basin. Anadarko and partners are working with state owned Sonatrach to develop discoveries on the block by 1997 (OGJ, Mar. 27, p. 32).

ENRON GAS & OIL TRINIDAD LTD. spudded the second oil well in Ibis field on the Southeast Coast Consortium (SECC) block off Trinidad after placing the field's IB-2 development well on line at a rate of 3,000 b/d of oil and 8 MMcfd of gas through a 24/64 in. choke with 4,500 psi flowing tubing pressure. Enron commingles Ibis production with that of Kiskadee field, also on SECC and producing 150 MMcfd of gas and 6,000 b/d of condensate. It sells the gas to National Gas Co. of Trinidad & Tobago Ltd. and liquids to Petroleum Co. of Trinidad & Tobago Ltd.

QATAR approved a plan by Elf Petroleum Qatar, Agip International BV, and Qatar General Petroleum Corp. (QGPC) to develop Alkhalij field on Block 6 off Qatar. Production is to begin early in 1997 and climb to 30,000 b/d in a first phase. Further development will hinge on reservoir behavior. Plans call for installing an unmanned platform, with oil moving by pipeline to QGPC's Halul Island terminal for treatment and export.

ENRON OIL & GAS CO., Houston, in second quarter 1995 curtailed its U.S. gas production by as much as 175 MMcfd when the price it received at the wellhead averaged $1.40/Mcf, compared with $1.76/Mcf in second quarter 1994. As a result, Enron's gas sales during the latest quarter averaged 670 MMcfd, down from 760 MMcfd a year earlier.

VAALCO ENERGY INC., Houston, signed two contracts covering acreage off Gabon. One is for development of Equata Marin block, where two wells have been tested at more than 1,300 b/d of oil. A development plan is to be submitted within 6 months. The second is for Etame Marin, a 3,000 sq km exploration block, where Vaalco plans seismic work and one wildcat under a 3 1/2 year term. Vaalco holds a 51% interest in each block, the Philippines' Petrofields Exploration & Development Co. 49%.

SAMEDAN OF NORTH AFRICA INC., a unit of Noble Affiliates Inc., Ardmore, Okla., acquired an additional 4.79% working interest in Alba gas/condensate field off Equatorial Guinea for $3.7.5 million, increasing its stake in the field to 34.79%. The field produces 7,000 b/d of condensate. A gas processing plant under construction and slated for completion late in 1996 is expected to recover 2,400 b/d of liquefied petroleum gas and boost condensate recovery by 500 b/d.

FIREFIGHTERS last week were still struggling to kill a July 10 well blowout in Fyodorovskoye gas field in Russia's Tyumen region. The well was reported burning as much as 105 MMcfd of gas, forming a 20-30 m high blaze. Itar-Tass reported firefighters said July 16 the fire could take another 20 days to extinguish. It quoted a regional fire chief as citing the blowout as the 34th fire in Tyumen oil and gas fields this year.

ONE EMPLOYEE of Pride Petroleum Services, Houston, was killed and four others were injured in a July 15 explosion and fire at Amoco Production Co.'s 8 Dorothy Brown gas well near Morganza, La. The explosion occurred when gas escaped from the well bore and caught fire while Pride employees were recompleting the well. The fire was quickly extinguished and the well secured. The workover rig on the job was damaged extensively. An investigation into the cause is under way.

CLYDE PETROLEUM PLC, Ledbury, U.K., agreed to acquire from BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. a 7% interest in the Ross field discovery in exchange for a 27.71% interest in Buchan field and 4.59% in the Ettrick discovery, all in the U.K. North Sea. Clyde said a development plan for Block 13/29a Ross will be submitted in 1996, with production start-up likely in late 1997. A production and storage vessel is the most likely development method.

MITCHELL ENERGY & DEVELOPMENT CORP., The Woodlands, Tex., completed a buyout of its gas sales contract held by Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPA) that was to expire Dec. 31, 1997. Terms of the agreement require NGPA to pay Mitchell $241 million cash in three payments. Also as part of the deal, Mitchell immediately began operating the NGPA gathering system that receives gas from 1,500 Mitchell North Texas wells and will assume ownership of the system in January 1998. Separately, Mitchell is arranging term sales to assure it can market all of its North Texas gas production.

COMPANIES

SHELL PETROLEUM CO. LTD. bought an additional 14% interest in Shell Cote d'Ivoire from Cote d'Ivoire state oil company Petroci, boosting its stake to 64%. A separate agreement takes Shell's stake in the local Sifal lubricants blending plant to 33% from 20%. The purchase is in line with Shell's strategy of strengthening the position of Shell companies in West and Central Africa. A further 14% of Shell Cote d'lvoire shares will be sold to the public.

VIET NAM agreed to allow Dresser Industries Inc., Dallas, to begin doing business there under a 25 year license. The company plans to set up Dresser Oil Services Vietnam Ltd. Its plan is to offer a broad range of oil and gas drilling, production, and processing products and services, onshore and offshore, including drilling fluids and drill bits, compressors, pumps, valves, controls, instruments, and oil field tools and engines.

REFINING

MALAYSIA'S PETRONAS and LOP, Des Plaines, Ill., started up a 20,000 b/d CCR platformer at Petronas' 75,000 b/d Melaka refinery in Malaya. The unit produces gasoline blending components and high purity hydrogen.

LPG

TAIWAN'S Chinese Petroleum Corp, (CPC) will spend $11 million to build an LPG import terminal and related wharf at Haiphong, North Viet Nam. Groundbreaking is slated for July 28, with completion set for mid-1997. Interests will be held by CPC and an undisclosed Taiwanese company 35% each and the Haiphong city government 30%. The project is meant to complement CPC's venture with Total to build a refinery in Viet Nam.

WORLD LPG CONSUMPTION grew 4.2% last year, says a study by London's Marketline International. However, value of the market rose only 1.3% to $105 billion because prices fell despite buoyant demand. World LPG sales were 140.1 million metric tons in 1994. Japan is the second largest consuming nation, with its LPG demand growth projected at 3.6%/year the next 5 years.

GAS PROCESSING

NGC CORP., Houston, restored partial operations at its Kellerville gas processing plant in the Texas Panhandle, about 100 miles east of Amarillo, and expects to resume full operations by yearend. NGC closed the plant June 8 after it received heavy damage from a tornado, halting throughput of 7 MMcfd and impairing operations of 59 gas producers.

WESTCOAST GAS SERVICES, Vancouver, B.C., completed its acquisition of Husky Oil Ltd.'s 50% interest in the 60 MMcfd Boundary Lake gas processing plant east of Fort St. John, B.C. Included are two sales gas lines linked to Westcoast Energy Ltd. and NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. pipelines. Amerada Hess Canada Ltd. is operator and holds 50% interest in the plant.