INDUSTRY BRIEFS

SPILLS

LIBERIAN REGISTERED 96,000 dwt Nagasaki Spirit tanker collided with a Panamanian registered container ship Sept. 20 in the Malacca Strait, and both vessels still were afire Sept. 22. Oil spilled from the tanker created a slick with a 10 mile radius. The tanker was en route from Saudi Arabia carrying about 290,000 bbl of crude when the collision occurred. One crew member was killed. Indonesian ships continued at presstime to search for 29 missing crew members. Sixteen crew members were rescued.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

KUWAIT replaced the former Soviet Union as India's top supplier of crude oil and refined products as a result of a supply contract for fiscal 1992-93 signed by Kuwait Petroleum Corp. and Indian Oil Corp. KPC agreed to supply IOC 80,000 b/d of crude oil, 24,000 b/d of diesel fuel, and 18,000 b/d of kerosine.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

PARKER DRILLING CO., Tulsa, will cut its U.S. rig fleet by 14 to 57 and its fleet outside the U.S. by two to 45 following a 60 day evaluation by an internal task force charged with streamlining and consolidating operations. Parker will record a $19 million fourth quarter charge to reduce the carrying value of the disposed assets to estimated cash proceeds of $2.5 million.

MARATHON OIL U.K. LTD. will supply more than 250 bcf of gas from the U.K. North Sea's Brae fields under a 15 year contract with electric utility National Power plc, beginning with about 50 MMcfd in second half 1994. The Brae partners earlier signed contracts to provide 800 bcf from Brae fields to British Gas plc, also beginning in second half 1994 (OGJ, Dec. 2, 1991, p. 28).

MARATHON let a 20 million ($40 million) contract to Rockwater Ltd., Aberdeen, to complete subsea construction on the East Brae development project. Next year the contractor will tie in and commission pipelines, ready for first production in December 1993.

IVORY COAST let a $94,000 contract to Gustavson Associates, Boulder, Colo., to provide technical assistance in negotiating with a group including national oil company Petroci, Apache International Inc., France's electric power company EDF, and French construction firm SAUR to develop offshore Foxtrot gas field. The field is a 1982 Phillips Petroleum Co. discovery believed capable of producing about 70 MMcfd for an initial period of 20 years.

ABU DHABI MARINE OPERATING CO. (Adma-Opco) commissioned the first of three 30 in. main oil pipeline pumps in the West Zakum field development project off Abu Dhabi. The pumps will eliminate gas flaring in the Central Zakum area, allowing associated gas to be processed and delivered to Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Co.'s Das Island liquefied natural gas plant. Adma-Opco let contracts valued at about $572 million in 1991 for Zakum field development (OGJ, June 29, p. 38).

ESSO U.K. PLC'S 206/13a-2 well in Clair field west of the Shetland Islands flowed at an initial combined rate of 1,058 b/d through a 28/64 in. choke with 310 psi wellhead pressure from two pay zones and peaked at 2,545 b/d through a 1 in. choke with 183 psi wellhead pressure.

EIGHT METIS NATIVE SETTLEMENTS in northern Alberta from Cold Lake to the Peace River area want to levy their own oil and gas royalties and set conditions for drilling on their land after a 2 year moratorium on leasing and drilling. The Metis were granted title to their land in 1990 and obtained an agreement allowing them to comanage oil and gas resources with Alberta, collect separate royalties, and buy as much as a 25% interest in drilling projects.

CONOCO NORWAY INC. let a 700 million kroner ($120 million) contract to Kvaerner AS for engineering, procurement, and construction of concrete foundations for a platform to be installed in Heidrun field off Norway. The four foundations, to which a tension leg platform will be tethered, will be built at Hanoytangen, near Bergen. They are to be complete in April 1994.

DORSET EXPLORATION LTD., Calgary, will pay $26 million (Canadian) to Mobil Oil Canada Ltd. for an 81.5% interest in Three Hills-Ghost Pine-Equity oil and gas field of Alberta. The deal includes two gas processing plants, wells, and about 39,500 acres of land. Dorset will operate the leases. An undisclosed partner is a minority investor. In another deal, International Colin Energy Corp., Calgary, will buy Mobil's minority interests in Kidney oil field, also in Alberta, for $16.5 million.

COPLEX RESOURCES NL, Sydney, upgraded its estimate of oil in place at Rubiales oil field in Colombia but lowered its estimate of expected recovery. The company said 9-13% of 1.89 billion bbl in place is recoverable vs. an earlier estimate of 350 million bbl recoverable from 1.4 billion bbl in place. Coplex said the recovery factor could significantly increase after a long term production test.

CHAUVCO RESOURCES LTD., Calgary, agreed to buy the Canadian leases of Sunshine Mining Co., Dallas, held by Woods Petroleum of Canada Ltd., for $18.2 million (Canadian). Chauvco said reserves include 36.3 bcf of natural gas and 700,000 bbl of crude and natural gas liquids.

COMPANIES

AZTEC ENERGY CORP., Dallas, agreed to buy all the U.S. oil and gas leases and pipeline assets of American International Petroleum Corp. (AIPC), New York, for $5 million of Aztec's 6% Series E convertible preferred stock. The sale includes leases in Kentucky and Louisiana. AIPC said the sale of its U.S. leases will allow it to concentrate on oil and gas exploration and production under way in Colombia.

BRITISH GAS PLC is to begin exclusive negotiations with Gas Authority of India Ltd. for a joint venture to supply gas to Bombay. Total investment by the joint venture will be about $70 million the next 6 years. BG wants a 35% stake. About 600,000 commercial and residential customers will be supplied with gas from Bombay High and other fields off western India.

SOUTHERN & PHILLIPS GAS LTD., a 50-50 venture of Southern Electric plc and Phillips Petroleum U.K. Ltd., claims the first spot sale of gas in the U.K. It involves delivery of 27 MMcfd to electricity generator Powergen this month to meet an unexpected early requirement from a customer.

REFINING

LITHUANIA let a $50 million contract to Foster Wheeler Corp. and its Russian joint venture partner serving Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia's Kaliningrad area. Completion is scheduled for second quarter 1995. Hytech is a joint venture of Foster Wheeler Intercontinental Corp. and Grozneftechim Institute.

KYOKUTO PETROLEUM INDUSTRIES LTD., Tokyo, chose proprietary fluid catalytic cracking technology developed by Mobil Corp. and M.W. Kellogg Co. for a 20,000 b/d capacity FCC unit at its Chiba, Japan, refinery. Basic engineering design is to be complete early in 1993, with project completion in spring 1995. The FCC unit is part of a $270 million upgrade at the 125,000 b/d refinery (OGJ, Sept. 14, p. 30).

TAIWAN'S Chinese Petroleum Corp. reached preliminary agreement with BHP Petroleum Pty. Ltd. and Malaysia's Petronas to build a $1.26 billion, 150,000 b/d refinery at Bintulu, Malaysia (OGJ, July 20, p. 23). CPC and BHP each will hold 45% interest in the refinery, and Petronas 10%. It is scheduled to go on stream in June 1996.

FORMOSA PLASTICS GROUP is ready to begin construction of Taiwan's sixth naphtha cracker at the Mailiao Industrial Zone in Taiwan Oct. 10 (OGJ, Apr. 13, P. 30). The National Property Bureau soon will decide whether FPG can use state land for the site before it issues final approval to proceed with groundbreaking.

PIPELINES

COFLEXIP SA'S Flexjet ROY trencher completed trials in Snorre field in the Norwegian North Sea early this month. Built by Perry Tritech Inc., Jupiter, Fla., the system is capable of free swimming and bottom crawling operations and will be used to perform flexible pipeline trenching and burial. During trials Flexjet trenched at rates of 400-600 m/hr at burial depths of 1 .2-1 .5 m in water depths of 330-340 m.

BORD GAIS EIREANN let a $15 million contract to Framatone's Thermodyn unit to furnish three compressor sets for the Interconnector project to link Irish and U.K. gas grids via subsea pipeline from Loch Shinney, north of Dublin, to Moffat, Scotland (OGJ, Dec. 30, 1991, p. 38). The compressor sets will be installed at a station in Southwest Scotland.

GAS PROCESSING

MESA INC., Dallas, let contract to ABB Randall Corp., Houston, for design, engineering, procurement, and construction services for a 250 MMcfd gas processing plant in Grant County, Kan. Contract value, including equipment provided by MESA, is estimated at $43 million. Major processing units will include natural gas liquids, helium recovery, and nitrogen rejection. Target completion date is June 1993.

SHELL U.K. EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION boosted capacity by 50% at its Mossmorran, U.K., gas processing plant. A new 100 million ($195 million) process module, constructed by Costain Oil, Gas & Process Ltd. of Manchester, U.K., increases output to 14,700 metric tons/day.

EXPLORATION

INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM CORP. (IPC), Vancouver, B.C., B1-X Pandora on PPL-82 in the Gulf of Papua flowed at a rate of 43 MMcfd of gas through a 96/64 in. choke on drillstem test at 5,310-38 ft. The well, 7% km northeast of the 1X Pandora discovery (see map, Mar. 20, 1989, p. 23), was drilled to prove up more gas reserves for a proposed liquefied natural gas export project. IPC soon will turn over operatorship of the license to Mobil Exploration Niugini Inc., which acquired Norcen International Ltd.'s stake (OGJ, Aug. 17, p. 46).

TAURUS EXPLORATION U.K. LTD., a unit of Energen Corp., Birmingham, Ala., will assist Eastern Generation Services Ltd. (EGSL), a unit of the U.K.'s Eastern Electricity plc, in evaluating EGSL's coalbed methane license position in the U.K. under a technical services agreement. Taurus will evaluate geologic data and make recommendations on wellsites, drilling, and testing during EGSL's exploration effort.

BROOKLYN UNION EXPLORATION CO. INC. and program partner Smith Offshore Exploration Co., both of Houston, 1 OCS-G-12497 directional wildcat in 65 ft of water on Galveston Block 272 in the Gulf of Mexico flowed 26.6 MMcfd of gas and 110 b/d of condensate from three of eight Miocene intervals at 6,250-9,650 ft. More wells are planned, and production is expected to start in fall 1993.

DIGICON INC. agreed to buy the 299 ft MY Mobil Search seismic vessel and research ship from Mobil Research & Development Corp. and acquire GFS Co., Jackson, Miss., a 3-D radio telemetric seismic services company that claims the U.S. Gulf Coast's largest dynamite source 3-D survey. Both transactions are to close by yearend. Digicon plans to upgrade the vessel's navigational and positioning systems and seismic capabilities to allow simultaneous acquisition of as many as nine seismic lines.

PICT PETROLEUM PLC, London, acquired a farmout on a 25% interest in Blocks 48/15, 17, 18 and 19 in the Celtic Sea off southern Ireland. Operator Bula Resources plc is drilling the 48/19-2 wildcat on one of four gas prospects in the area (OGJ, Aug. 17, p. 44).

PETROCHEMICALS

U.S. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK approved a $53.2 million loan to support sale of $62.6 million in engineering services and machinery for construction of an olefins complex in Rayong Province, Thailand. Stone & Webster International is helping design the $500 million complex, due to start up in January 1995.

TOBOLSK PETROCHEMICAL COMBINE let a contract valued at 3.5 billion yen ($28.46 million) to Nichimen Corp. to supply a production control system for a petrochemical complex in western Siberia. Yokogawa Eletric Corp. will supply the system, which will monitor and control propane and butane production lines, and Nichimen's German unit Deutsche Nichimen GmbH will sell the products in Europe. Itar-Tass reports the Tobolsk complex is the largest in western Siberia, fed by liquefied petroleum gas from Tyumen area fields.

GOVERNMENT

LOUISIANA'S SENATE defeated 28-8 a proposal to amend the state constitution to allow collection of levies other than severance taxes on oil and gas production. Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association opposed the proposal, saying it would have exposed the state's oil and gas industry to value added taxes by allowing minerals to be taxed in the ground, upon production, and when transported and processed. The Senate vote came during a state constitutional convention that ended last week.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY plans to continue to divert 20,000 b/d of crude from Elk Hills field in California to Strategic Petroleum Reserve sites in Texas. DOE said 27 recent bids for the crude were too low. It will continue moving the oil to the SPR via pipeline through Apr. 1, 1993.