GOVERNMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE will amend its export rules to remove Hungary from its list of proscribed destinations effective May 1, 1992. The action allows Hungary to be treated as a destination for export licensing purposes. The move will further Hungary's efforts to shift to a market economy (OGJ, May 18, p. 28). Meantime, Hungary's state oil and gas company MOL Rt hired Coopers & Lybrand to advise it on restructuring as it prepares for privatization and market deregulation. MOL, an integrated oil and gas company, employs more than 22,500 people.
COMPANIES
O'BRIEN ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY, Philadelphia, and Argentina's Bridas Sapic formed an exclusive joint venture to build, own. and operate power projects in Argentina, mainly with industrial gas customers of Bridas, one of Argentina's biggest oil and gas producers.
ENTERPRISE OIL PLC agreed to buy six oil and gas licenses in Italy from Encor Inc., Calgary, for $53 million (Canadian). The deal is to be complete in third quarter 1992. Encor sold its interests in two undeveloped gas fields off western New Zealand in April for $20.8 million (OGJ, May 11, p. 36). It has outstanding loans of $383 million and assets valued at $265 million (OGJ, May 18, p. 38), and its banks have asked Encor to correct the imbalance by June 30. Encor can extend that to Dec. 31 by acting to resolve the problem.
STOLT TANKERS & TERMINALS (STT) agreed to acquire underwater services contractor Comex Services SA from Comex SA, Marseilles, for $30 million, 750.000 STT shares, and assumption of $37 million in debt. Comex Services will be merged with STT's diving subsidiary Stolt-Nielsen Seaway, Stavanger. The merger is to be this month.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
ARCO ALASKA INC., BP Exploration, and Exxon Corp. approved a $700 million development plan for Point McIntyre oil field in the Prudhoe Bay area of Alaska's North Slope and agreed to share production facilities with nearby Lisburne field. ARCO said while Point McIntyre interests won't be determined until late 1993, the agreement allows development to proceed.
HIBERNIA DEVELOPMENT GROUP, including Mobil Oil Canada Ltd., PetroCanada, and Chevron Canada Resources Ltd.. let a $2 million (Canadian) contract to NewEast Technologies Inc. for work on a satellite and radio communications system for the oil field development project off Newfoundland. NewEast said the award is an encouraging sign the group is proceeding with the $5.2 billion project. Construction work has been scaled back and the future of Hibernia left in doubt since Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. said earlier this year it is withdrawing as a partner.
AMOCO TRINIDAD OIL CO. let contract to Brown & Root Marine to design, build, and install gas production facilities for West-East Queens Beach and North-Southeast Galeota fields off Trinidad (OGJ, Jan. 13, p. 25). Two four pile platforms, Flambouyant and Immortelle, and two infield flow lines will be installed in 220-270 ft of water. Flambouyant will be installed in Queens Beach and Immortelle in Galeota. Project completion is scheduled for June 1993.
ABU DHABI CO. FOR ONSHORE OIL OPERATIONS (ADCO) let contract to Stone & Webster Engineering Ltd. for detailed engineering and associated services to increase water injection capacity in Abu Dhabi's onshore oil fields and upgrade associated electrical power systems. S&W will validate basic engineering packages, then begin detailed engineering, procurement, and construction management. Commissioning of new facilities is to begin by August 1993 and be complete by yearend 1993.
SEMBAWANG BETHLEHEM, Singapore, delivered a $25 million semisubmersible drilling rig to Indonesian drilling contractor PT Apexindo Pratama Duta, a unit of PT Meta Epsi Drilling Co. The rig will work for Total on gas prospects off Indonesia.
ENVIRONMENT
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY approved Colorado's request to relax the gasoline volatility standard for the Denver-Boulder area from the planned 7.8 psi to 9 psi for the summers of 1992 and 1993. Colorado said there were no days in 199091 when ozone levels exceeded the federal standard. and 9.5 psi was required then. Conoco Inc. said a 7.8 psi standard would cost it $4.8 million to implement.
COGENERATION
SITHE ENERGIES INC., New York, let a $500 million contract to Ebasco Constructors Inc. and General Electric Power Systems to provide turnkey construction services for the 1 million kw gas fired Independence cogeneration plant in Oswego, N.Y. (OGJ, Mar. 16, p. 32). The project is to be complete in January 1995.
TRANSPORTATION
QUESTAR PIPELINE CO., Salt Lake City, is offering as much as 3.8 bcf of interruptible storage service capacity in 1992-93 at its Clay Basin storage reservoir in Utah. Service agreements are valid for one storage season, and gas is to be withdrawn by Mar. 31, 1993.
WESTERN GAS MARKETING LTD., Calgary, signed an 18 month gas sales contract with Gaz Metropolitain Inc., Montreal, that includes a flexible pricing system. Western's 720 member Alberta producer supply pool accepted the deal, which includes three tiers of supplies and a price adjustment process to meet competition. Large industrial buyers will get quick volume discounts. Midsize commercial accounts and residential consumers will get more flexible pricing terms according to levels of interruptibility.
TRANSCANADA PIPELINES LTD., Calgary, sold $200 million in 20 year debentures to help fund its natural gas pipeline expansion program. The sale was handled by Morgan Stanley & Co., Goldman Sachs & Co., First Boston Corp., and Salomon Bros. Inc.
CNG
AMERICAN GAS ASSOCIATION reports the number of U.S. refueling sites for natural gas vehicles increased more than 50% in 1991. It said 511 stations are opening or operating in 43 states and the District of Columbia vs. 328 in 1990.
LNG
JAPAN'S CHUBU ELECTRIC and Qatargas signed an agreement covering purchase of 4 million metric tons/year of liquefied natural gas from Qatar's North field beginning in 1997. The agreement confirms a Feb. 22 letter of intent. Deliveries could later be hiked to 6 million tons/year. Qatargas, owned by Qatar General Petroleum Corp. 70% and Total. Marubeni, and Mitsui 10% each, was formed to develop the $2.2 billion LNG project and deliver the gas to market. In May 1991 Total signed a production sharing agreement to develop North field.
EXPLORATION
D.O.C. TUNISIA LTD. CORP., Houston, and partners completed negotiations on a 4 year exploration agreement for Tunisia's onshore Serj area covering about 1 million acres southwest of Marathon Oil Co.'s Grombalia and west of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co.'s North Kairouan permits. Plans call for a geological survey, collection of seismic data, and drilling of two wildcats. Operator D.O.C. owns a 45% interest in the Serj permit, Overseas Petroleum & Investment Corp. of Taiwan 30%, and NRM Operating Co. Ltd. 25%.
UKRAINE reported discovery of two oil, gas, and condensate fields in the Dnepr-Donets basin east of Kiev in Chernigov province. Ukrainian officials said two more discoveries will be disclosed soon. The republic is stepping up hydrocarbon exploration because of declining production, aggravated by reduced oil and gas deliveries from other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, mainly Russia and Turkmenistan.
TULLOW OIL PLC signed a production sharing contract with Syrian Petroleum Co. covering the East Ash Sham license in Southeast Syria. In the first 3 years four wells are planned, with the first to be drilled within 1 year of contract ratification. The contract area lies in the Euphrates graben, site of many recent oil discoveries, including eight fields placed on stream since 1987 in the adjacent Ash Sham license. Tullow holds a 24% interest in the license, Clyde Petroleum plc 27%, Petronas Carigali 20%, Pict Petroleum plc 19%, and Seafield Resources plc 10%.
CHINA NATIONAL OFFSHORE OIL CORP. (Cnooc) and Crestone Energy Corp., Denver, signed a contract to jointly explore the 25,155 sq km Wan'an Bei-21 block in the Nansha area of the South China Sea. Crestone will cover all costs and conduct seismic surveys and drilling in the area. Cnooc has acquired some seismic data in the area.
MAXUS ENERGY CORP., Dallas, let contract to Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Co., Tulsa, for a heavy land rig, Rig 139, for exploratory drilling on Maxus' Recetor block in Colombia's Llanos basin (OGJ, May 11, p. 37). Rig 139, rated to 30,000 ft, arrived in Colombia Apr. 20 and began mobilizing for the first well, to spud this month.
PLAINS RESOURCES and Enron Oil & Gas Corp., both of Houston, formed a 5 year exploration joint venture covering an area of about 180,000 acres in Jefferson County, Tex. Plains owns or controls about 90,000 acres in the area. Plains and Enron will conduct a seismic survey and drill at least two wildcats early in 1993. Plains will operate the property, and interests will be split 50-50.
PETROCHEMICALS
CHINA PETROCHEMICAL INTERNATIONAL CO. (Sinopec International) and UOP reached agreement for the license and basic engineering design of an aromatics complex to be built in Liaoning province. The complex will process 400,000 metric tons/year of naphtha and have capacities of 185,000 tons/year or paraxylene and 70,000 tons/year of benzene. Sinopec also let a contract worth more than $100 million to Foster Wheeler U.S.A. Corp. to engineer and supply equipment and materials for a 225,000 ton/year purified terephthalic acid plant in the complex.
MARATHON OIL CO. started up a 1,700 b/d methyl tertiary butyl ether plant at its 170,000 b/cd Robinson, Ill., refinery. The unit also is designed to produce ethyl tertiary butyl ether from regional ethanol supplies. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Pasadena, Calif., completed the MTBE/ETBE unit ahead of schedule with a $19 million project that included modifications of refinery utilities and offsite storage.
EXXON CHEMICAL U.K. let contract to Snamprogetti SpA for detailed engineering and general services for a liquid phase C4 cut butadiene selective hydrogenation unit at its Fawley, England, petrochemical complex. Process design is by Institut Francais du Petrole.
SHANGHAI PETROLEUM CORP. started commercial operations at its revamped Shanghai petrochemical/refining complex. An expansion trebled ethylene capacity to 450,000 metric tons/year. Production capacity now is 400,000 tons/year of fibers, 330,000 tons/year of plastics, and more than 1 million tons/year of refined products.
EXPORTS-IMPORTS
RUSSIA resumed shipments of crude oil to India after a lapse of about 1 year, Press Trust of India reported. The first shipment, about 438,000 bbl of oil worth about $8 million, is part of a 1992 agreement calling for Russia to supply 29.2 million bbl of crude to India. The former U.S.S.R. was India's major oil supplier.
MARKETING
SHELL OIL CO. acquired 83 Houston area Mobil service stations and began converting them to its Silverado design. Conversion will be completed in phases by yearend. With the added Mobil service stations, Shell will market gasoline through 203 branded retail outlets in the Houston area.
SPRAGUE-CENTRAN GAS MARKETING CO., a joint venture of Sprague Energy, Portsmouth, N.H., and Centran Corp., Minneapolis, began selling gas to customers in the U.S. Northeast. Sprague operates 10 oil and bulk materials terminals on the East Coast from Searsport, Me., to Wilmington, N.C., that include combined oil storage capacity of more than 6 million bbl.
COGENERATION
ENRON EUROPE LTD. and MEAG, a regional utility in the former East Germany, intend to buy two power and steam plants with total capacity of about 230,000 kw for a negotiated fee in exchange for agreeing to modernize the assets. One is fueled by coal and the other by natural gas. The companies plan to introduce natural gas combined cycle technology and build new facilities with total capacity of 300,000 kw. Enron estimates the project may cost as much as $350 million. It is to be complete by yearend 1995.
SPILLS
AMOCO CORP. paid the French government and Brittany communities almost $281 million in compensation for damages caused by the 1978 Amoco Cadiz tanker spill off France. The government received $243 million, and the Brittany communities almost $38 million. Amoco chose not to appeal an Apr. 24 ruling by a Chicago federal appeals court ordering the payment.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
