INDUSTRY BRIEFS

CNG

MESA INC., Dallas, offered to convert 100,000 public and private fleet vehicles in Louisiana to run on compressed natural gas. The offer includes installation of fueling equipment. In exchange, fleet operators would agree to purchase CNG from MESA at the equivalent price they pay for gasoline. Fleets account for about 300,000 of Louisiana's 3 million registered vehicles, MESA said. The company made a similar conversion offer to fleets in Phoenix (OGJ, June 1 5, p. 31 ).

GAS PROCESSING

CANADIAN GAS GATHERING SYSTEMS INC., a private company managed by Morrison Petroleums Ltd., Calgary, plans to acquire a 62% interest in the Nevis gas processing plant and associated gathering, compression, and loading facilities from Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. The plant, 56 km east of Red Deer, has design capacity of 124 MMcfd of gas, and will custom process the feed stream to sales gas, propane, butane condensate, and sulfur. Gulf will retain a 38% interest in the plant. The deal is to close by Nov. 1.

PETRO-CANADA, Calgary, let an $8 million contract to GE Power Generation, Schenectady, N.Y., to supply a 38,000 hp GE MS5002 gas turbine to be used for gas recompression at its 2.4 bcfd Empress, Alta., gas processing straddle plant. Gas pressure, dropped for extraction of natural gas liquids, must be restored to pipeline pressure. The unit is a replacement in a major plant upgrade. Manufactured at GE's Greenville, S.C., plant, the unit will be shipped in August, installed in October, and started up in November.

REFINING

PHIBRO REFINING INC., Houston, suspended operations indefinitely at its 28,300 b/cd refinery at St. Rose, La., reportedly for economic reasons.

VALERO REFINING & MARKETING CO., San Antonio, commissioned a UOP designed catalyst cooler on the heavy oil cracking (HOC) unit at its Corpus Christi, Tex., refinery. The cooler was designed to vary regenerator heat removal rate from 20 to 100 MMBTU/hr. Valero has processed as much as 66,000 b/sd of resid and removed regenerator heat at 40-125 MMBTU/hr while processing as much as 20 LV % vacuum tower bottoms in the feed blend.

YUKONG LTD., Seoul, let contract to Badger Co. Inc. to provide services for a 4,000 b/cd base lube oil plant at Ulsan, Korea. Badger will provide basic design, engineering, offshore procurement, supervision of onshore design and procurement by Korean firms, and construction and commissioning assistance. The plant is to be complete early in 1995, able in full operation to supply one third of Korean demand for lubricants.

STE. NATIONALE ELF AQUITAINE and Spain's Cepsa formed a 50-50 venture, Styrelf, to produce road grade asphalt. The new company will be based in Spain and market asphalt in Spain and Portugal.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

AMERADA HESS CORP. second well on Garden Banks Block 260 off Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico flowed at a rate of 7,750 b/d of oil and 15.4 MMcfd of gas through a 36/64 in. choke. Two other zones produced oil and gas on limited tests. Amerada and 50-50 partner Oryx Energy Co. plan two more wells to delineate their Block 260 discovery, disclosed early this year (OGJ, Feb. 3, p. 31).

AMOCO SHARJAH OIL CO. added reserves and deliverability in two fields it operates in Sharjah with four recent completions that have a cumulative production rate of almost 1 5,000 b/d of liquids and 100 MMcfd of gas. Pay zones are 215-890 ft thick at depths below 10,000 ft. Three of the wells are in Sajaa field and one in Moveyeid field. Amoco plans more drilling for the two adjacent fields in Northwest Sharjah and is evaluating exploration prospects on its acreage there.

NORSK HYDRO AS let a $75 million contract to ABB Vetco Gray Inc., Houston, to supply wellheads and production trees for 18 subsea production systems for Troll field development in the Norwegian North Sea. It's possible another 25 systems could be added later. Delivery of the first system is expected in January 1994.

EXXON CO. U.S.A. set a world record for the deepest coiled tubing production string. The 1-1/2 in. OD continuously milled tubing was set at 22,056 ft in Exxon's 1 V. Gilmore gas well in Gomez Ordovician Ellenburger field, Pecos County, Tex. In this deep, pressure depleted formation, coiled tubing velocity strings improve economics over running replacement strings of standard tubing (OGJ, Apr. 13, p. 44). The 1 V. Gilmore has 4 in. tubing set at 9,100 ft and 5 in. casing at 22,844 ft, total depth.

SAMEDAN OIL CORP., Ardmore, Okla., signed a $7.5 million gas contract settlement agreement with an undisclosed gas purchaser providing for Samedan to receive the lump sum nonrecoupable cash payment in exchange for terminating gas contracts and settling disputes. All volumes of gas under the contracts will be available for sale by Samedan to other buyers when the contracts are terminated.

STARBURST ELECTRONICS INC., Calgary, and China's Daqing Petroleum Administration Bureau formed a joint venture to manufacture oil field electronic instrumentation. The Chinese partner will buy 500 temperature and pressure recorders worth about $5 million. Starburst will provide the downhole units for $2.5 million and other considerations. Daqing will provide hardware and initial calibration for the units, and Starburst will supply electronic components. Oaqing has a 70% interest in the joint venture, Starburst 30%.

PIPELINES

PAKISTAN plans to lay a $160 million, 360 km products pipeline in Punjab province that will tie into a pipeline network at Karachi and extend from Mahmood Kot, about 420 km south of Islamabad, to Sheikhupura via Faisalabad. The project is to be complete by 1995-96, Agence France Presse reported. It includes pump stations and about 660,000 bbl of products storage. Feasibility studies and preliminary engineering are under way.

COMPANIES

AQUASCIENCES INTERNATIONAL INC. (ASI), West Los Angeles, plans to issue 1 million shares of preferred stock to Hunter Energy Inc., Los Angeles, in exchange for Indonesian oil reserves valued at about $110 million. ASI also received from Hunter Energy marketing rights of an electronic sonic system capable of reducing oil viscosity downhole. In addition, ASI shareholders this month will vote on a proxy statement filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission proposing corporate restructuring to allow the company to participate in oil and gas production.

EXPLORATION

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM CO. ALGERIA signed an exploration contract covering Blocks 209 and 406B in Algeria's Bordj Messouda area with state oil company Sonatrach. The blocks cover about 1.5 million acres adjacent to Tunisia and Libya. The contract has an initial term of 5 years with an option to extend for 5 years, and Phillips said the project could cost about $67 million if it lasts the full term. Phillips holds 100% working interests in the blocks and expects to begin exploration after the government ratifies the contract. Seismic surveys are to start in 1993.

PETROVIETNAM awarded a production sharing contract to France's Total covering a 3,450 sq km block off southern Viet Nam, about 250 km south of Ho Chi Minh, Agence France Presse reported. Contract term is 25 years. Total will operate the block with a 62% interest. Partners will be Japan's Marubeni Corp. and Norway's Norsk Hydro AS, each with 11%, and Petrovietnam 16%.

MYANMAR OIL & GAS ENTERPRISE awarded a production sharing contract to France's Total Myanmar Exploration & Production covering a block of undisclosed size off the country's southeast coast in Mon state. Beijing's Xinhua News Agency reported the award marks Myanmar's 14th production sharing contract awarded since September 1988.

UNOCAL THAILAND completed the acquisition of 1,425 km of seismic data in the Isan region of Northeast Thailand, completing the first phase of exploration for natural gas on four blocks awarded the company last August (OGJ, Sept. 23, 1991, p. 12). Seismic data evaluation is to take about 1 year, and drilling 'is to begin in second half 1993.

MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE published a final notice for a western Gulf of Mexico lease sale, No. 121, to be held at 9 a.m. Aug. 19 in New Orleans. The sale will offer 4,405 blocks totaling about 24.2 million acres 9-222 miles off Texas and Louisiana in 8-3,000 m of water. Blocks in less than 400 m of water--1,450 of them--will be leased for 5 year terms and 16-2/3% royalties. Carrying 12-1/2% royalties will be 358 blocks in 400-900 m offered for 8 years and 2,597 blocks in 900-3,000 m for 10 year terms.

SYRIA'S parliament ratified the production sharing agreement awarded Tullow Oil plc covering the East Ash Sahm permit granted in May (OGJ, May 25, p. 31). Tullow began a seismic program on the 2,700 sq km permit area. The first well is to be drilled within a year.

PLAINS RESOURCES INTERNATIONAL did not pull out of a proposed exploration joint venture with Advantage Resources on Peru's Block 62, as incorrectly reported (OGJ, July 6, p. 59). Plains retains a 30% interest in the block. Advantage is seeking partners to acquire part of its 70% interest.

SPILLS

NATIONAL RESPONSE CORP. intends to develop comprehensive marine oil spill response services for all oil facilities and tankers owned, leased, and operated by Coastal Corp., Houston, and Phibro Energy Inc., Greenwich, Conn., in the U.S. NRC is developing the services to help customers meet the requirements of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and related state and local requirements.

COGENERATION

ENRON POWER CORP., Houston, bought a 90.5% interest in a 237,000 kw cogeneration plant in Richmond, Va., from England's BTR plc for $15.4 million plus debt assumption. The remaining interest in the plant, which Enron will operate, is held by SJE Cogeneration, Chicago. The plant, which began operation in March 1991, supplies industrial steam to the adjacent Sonoco Products Co. plant and electricity to Virginia Power Co. Enron plans to evaluate potential partners to reduce its interest to about 50%.

LG&E POWER SYSTEMS INC., a unit of LG&E Energy Corp., Louisville, Ky., closed project financing of a $123 million, 79,000 kw cogeneration plant in Rensselaer, N.Y. The project is under construction (OGJ, June 15, p. 30) and is to be in commercial operation in 1994.

TANKERS

U.S. COAST GUARD proposed special rules for single hulled oil tankers larger than 5,000 gross tons operating in Alaska's Prince William Sound and Washington state's Rosario Strait and Puget Sound. In those areas, tankers must be escorted by two vessels. Also, the masters of the three vessels and the pilots involved must hold a preescort conference.

PETROCHEMICALS

ASHLAND CHEMICAL INC. let a $7 million contract to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Pasadena, Calif., to provide engineering and construction services for a debottlenecking project aimed at increasing methanol capacity to 555,750 metric tons/year from 390,000 tons/year at its Plaquemine, La., plant. The project is to be complete this fall.

BASF CORP. completed the purchase of Mobil Chemical Co.'s polystyrene resin business and offered employment to the group's 288 employees (OGJ, Jan. 27, p. 44). The business has productive capacity of more than 620 million lb/year. Research and development functions are included in the sale.

NORTHSEA PETROCHEMICALS started up a propylene plant employing propane dehydrogenation at its Kallo complex near Antwerp, Belgium (OGJ, May 4, P. 40). The dehydrogenation plant, which uses the Catofin process, has production capacity of 250,000 metric tons/year of refinery grade propylene. This is mixed with offsite supplies of propylene, and the mix is separated into polymer grade propylene in a 400,000 ton/year splitter.

BOP FERTILIZER LTD., Mount Maunganui, N.Z., completed the purchase of the Taranki ammonia/urea business of Fletcher Challenge Ltd. for $45.5 million (New Zealand). The plant is supplied natural gas from Maui and Kapuni fields, and granular urea is sold mainly in Australia and New Zealand.

AMERICAN CYANAMID CO., Wayne, N.J., and Germany's Metallgesellschaft Corp. formed Fortier Methanol Co. to convert an ammonia plant at Cyanamid's Fortier plant in Waggaman, La., to a 190 million lb/year methanol plant. The joint venture will spend $90 million on the conversion, which is to be complete in early 1994.

MARKETING

LOUIS DREYFUS ENERGY CO., Wilton, Conn., completed the purchase of product distribution terminal operations in the U.S. Southeast from Union Oil Co. of California for an undisclosed price (OGJ, May 25, p. 17). The deal includes Unocal's interest in 24 product distribution terminals, which employ about 100 persons, all hired by Louis Dreyfus. Unocal will retain ownership of its Savannah, Ga., lubricant plant and terminal. The sale is part of Unocal's plan to divest nonstrategic assets (OGJ, July 13, p. 18).