INDUSTRY BRIEFS

GAS PROCESSING

CHEVRON U.S.A. PRODUCTS CO. let contract to Ralph M. Parsons Co., Pasadena, Calif., to provide design and procurement services for its $50 million Magnolia gas treating plant at Pascagoula, Miss. The plant will be designed to treat Norphlet trend natural gas produced off Mississippi and Alabama. It will be built in as many as three phases, each providing 300 MMcfd of capacity. The first phase is to be complete in 1994.

TRIDENT NGL INC., Dallas, let contract to John Brown, Houston, to manage design, engineering, and construction of a 3,200 hp expansion at its Ginger natural gas dehydration and compression plant near Canton, Tex. Total cost of the project is placed at $11 million with start-up set for late 1993.

REFINING

AN INVESTIGATION is under way at Texaco Inc.'s 100,000 b/d Wilmington, Calif., refinery to determine the cause of an Oct. 8 explosion that injured 17 Texaco employees. All homes within a 2 mile radius were evacuated. The explosion occurred in the hydrogen units and caused a fire that burned for about 12 hr. All six operating units at the complex were shut down.

UNITED REFINING CO., Warren, Pa., let contract to Morrison Knudsen Corp., Boise, Idaho, to design and build a distillate hydrotreater and sulfur plant for its 64,600 b/d Warren refinery. United will produce lower sulfur motor diesel fuel at the plant to meet federal clean air rules.

M.W. KELLOGG, Houston, completed engineering for a 20,000 b/d grassroots residual oil supercritical extraction (ROSE) unit, which will be the world's second largest, for Amoco Oil Co.'s 433,000 b/cd Texas City, Tex., refinery.

EXPLORATION

ARCO ALASKA INC.'S 1 Kuvlum wildcat in the eastern Beaufort Sea, 60 miles east of Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, flowed 3,400 b/d of 34 gravity oil and about 2 MMcfd of gas. ARCO and partners plan follow up drilling.

SEAGULL ENERGY CORP., Houston, 1 OCS-G-13314 wildcat on Galveston Block 330 off Texas flowed 10 MMcfd of gas and 53 b/d of condensate through a 24/64 in. choke with 3,425 psi flowing tubing pressure from Miocene sand at 8,000-9,500 ft. Seagull and partners plan to develop the discovery and expect production start-up in second half 1993.

MAERSK OLIE OG GAS AS 1 Tantawan on Block B/8-32 in the Gulf of Thailand flowed 2,212 b/d of oil and 4.11 MMcfd of gas through a 40/64 in. choke from an interval at 8,656-74 ft and 490 b/d of oil and 220 Mcfd of gas through a 20/64 in. choke from an interval at 8,067-8,104 ft. More testing is planned.

EGYPTIAN GENERAL PETROLEUM CORP. plans to award an exploration contract to a 50-50 venture of Phoenix Resource Cos. Inc., Oklahoma City, and Apache Corp., Houston, covering the almost 2 million acre Qaran concession area in Egypt's Western Desert along the western bank of the Nile River. Phoenix-Apache will drill at least one wildcat and spend at least $2 million in the initial 3 year exploration phase.

COMPANIES

BP CANADA chose Talisman Energy Inc. as its new name. It is one of 434 names submitted by employees after BP Canada became an independent oil and gas company last June, when British Petroleum Co. plc sold its 57% interest in BP Canada.

MAXUS ENERGY CORP.agreed to settle its lawsuit against Kidder, Peabody & Co. Inc. arising from the 1983 merger of Maxus and Natomas Co. The agreement calls for Kidder to pay Maxus $125 million and purchase 5 year warrants to buy 8 million shares of Maxus common stock at $13/share.

OKLAHOMA COURT OF APPEALSupheld an Oklahoma Tax Commission assessment against Pride Refining Inc., Abilene, Tex., calling for additional payments due from Pride's crude gathering system for gross production taxes, petroleum excise taxes, and a 12.5% tax on oil from unknown sources during October 1982-August 1988. The petroleum related assessments, including interest and charges, totaled about $1.1 million as of Sept. 30. Pride plans to appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

U.S. COMPANIES won half the contracts for rebuilding war ravaged Kuwait. Commerce Sec. Barbara Franklin said U.S. firms received 501 of 951 Kuwaiti construction contracts representing a value of half the $10 billion spent and thus creating 60,000 U.S. jobs.

PETRO-CANADA, Calgary, plans to pay $173.8 million (U.S.) to complete repayment of $1.2 billion in debt guaranteed or cosigned by the Canadian government. The national oil company, which is being privatized, will use proceeds from sale of its interest in Westcoast Energy Inc., Vancouver, B.C., to clear the debt and take an after tax charge of $14 million related to the debt payment. Petro-Canada completed a debt restructuring program in 15 months vs. an expected 42 months.

BENTON OIL & GAS CO. is based in Oxnard, not Ventura, Calif., as incorrectly reported (OGJ, Oct. 12, p. 33).

COGENERATION

HOME OIL LTD., Calgary, completed an agreement with AG-Energy LP, an affiliate of Sithe Energies Inc., New York, for sale of natural gas for cogeneration, marking Home's entrance into the U.S. cogeneration market. The 15 year contract involves Home deliveries of as much as 18 MMcfd to AG-Energy for a power plant at Ogdensburg, N.Y., equal to 10% of Home's current natural gas sales. The plant is scheduled for start-up in January 1 994.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

FREEPORT-MCMORAN INC.'S 2 OCS-G-9478 directional delineation well on East Cameron Block 332, about 200 miles southwest of New Orleans, flowed 14.2 MMcfd of gas and 1,181 b/d of condensate through a 28/64 in. choke with 4,287 psi flowing tubing pressure from 30 ft of perforations in the deeper of two pays above 13,719 ft. It is the fourth well drilled on East Cameron Blocks 331-332. Partners expect to file a development plan after drilling a fifth well.

KERR-MCGEE OIL (U.K.) PLC on behalf of Gryphon field partners agreed with Ocean Production Inc. to buy the Tentech 850C shipshaped floating production vessel, nearing completion at Astilleros y Talleres del Noroeste SA's El Ferrol, Spain, shipyard. Gryphon partners intend to install the Tentech 850C in the field on Block 9/18b in the U.K. North Sea.

UNOCAL NETHERLANDS BY

will develop Horizon field in the Dutch North Sea, about 38 miles off Netherlands on Block P/9. Production from five wells is to begin in October 1993 at a rate of about 18,000 b/d. Development plans include a 16 slot production platform and a 28 mile, 10 in. pipeline to transport the oil to facilities in Unocal's Helder field on adjacent Q/1 block. From there it will move to Oiltanking Amsterdam BY's terminal at Amerikahaven in Amsterdam.

ARCO ALASKA will acquire Unocal Corp.'s interests in Birch Hill Unit and exploration leases on the North Slope near Kuparuk River field in exchange for ARCO's interests in the Trading Bay Unit of McArthur River field, Ivan River field, and Swanson River field, representing production of about 4,400 b/d of oil and 1.5 MMcfd of gas. Meantime, ARCO asked Alaska to terminate Gwydyr Bay and Hemi Springs units. It plans to keep a few leases and drop the rest.

UNION PACIFIC RESOURCES CO., Fort Worth, 1 Urroz well in Yellow Creek Deep field of Southwest Wyoming flowed at a combined rate of 10 MMcfd of gas and 185 b/d of condensate from Permian Phosphoria and Pennsylvanian Weber. The sour gas well, drilled 12 years ago, is the first of six recompletions that eventually will tie into UPRC's proposed 40 mile, 55 MMcfd Wahsatch pipeline system that is to begin gathering gas from Yellow Creek Deep and Cave Creek fields for delivery to the Whitney Canyon processing plant by November 1993.

BATTLE CREEK DEVELOPMENTS LTD., Calgary, bought an option to buy 50% of Bumper Development Corp.'s interests in Swalwell, Twining, and Crystal fields in Alberta for $21.3 million (Canadian). The purchase would increase Battle Creek oil and gas production to 690 b/d from 50 b/d and to 13.7 MMcfd from 6.5 MMcfd.

CHINA'S 7 month average 1992 production was 2,843,000 b/d, not 21,843,000 b/d as incorrectly reported (OGJ, Oct. 12, p. 39). China's production increased 43,000 b/d, or 1.5%, from the previous year. Total world 7 month average production was 59,875,000 b/d, not 78,875,000 b/d. World production declined 32,000 b/d, or 0.1% from the previous year.

TRANSPORTATION

CHEVRON CORP. christened the 132,000 dwt James N. Sullivan tanker at the Ishikawajima do Brasil Estaleiros SA (Ishibras) shipyard in Rio de Janeiro, bringing Chevron's worldwide fleet to 41. The tanker is the first of three identical double hull tankers Ishibras is building for Chevron. The next two are to be delivered in February and August 1993. The new tanker will carry about 1 million bbl of crude on each voyage.

TEXACO PANAMA INC. took delivery of the double hulled, 900 ft Star Ohio tanker, which can carry as much as 1 million bbl of oil, from Samsung Co. Ltd.'s Koje, South Korea, shipyard. Texaco plans to operate the tanker in worldwide trading. Texaco's fleet includes 33 owned and term chartered tankers that total about 4.8 million dwt.

ALYESKA PIPELINE SERVICE CO., Anchorage, renewed through July 1998 charters with a combined value of $65.5 million on six Tidewater Inc. emergency response vessels. As part of Alyeska's ship escort response vessel system, the five tug/ supply vessels and large tugboat will provide tanker oil spill prevention and emergency response services in Prince William Sound off Alaska.

CABINDA GULF OIL CO. LTD. let contract to ABB Lummus Crest to engineer and design a 3,500 ft, 24 in. pipeline for the onshore portion of its Kokongo development project in Angola and to determine capabilities of onshore treating facilities. Engineering is to be complete in December. Cabinda Gulf is operator of B and C concessions off Angola's Cabinda enclave.

INTERCONTINENTAL TERMINALS CO., Houston, completed construction of its third 10,000 metric ton, fully refrigerated, propylene storage facility. The unit is under long term lease to Phillips 66 Co., which has shipped its first propylene cargo of 50,000 bbl from ITC's docks. Also completed were two 30,000 bbl, fully pressurized, 75 psi isobutane spheres and related services for Global Octanes Corp.

PANHANDLE EASTERN PIPE LINE CO. rerouted about 200 MMcfd of gas through three parallel pipelines after a 24 in. gas main line ruptured Oct. 9 in Macon County, Ill., 5 miles south of Decatur. A resulting explosion killed a contract employee, injured another one, and injured a Panhandle Eastern employee. A crew moving the pipeline to allow a highway expansion had uncovered about 100 ft of line and was trenching the bed where it was to be relocated when the blast occurred. Panhandle Eastern had reduced line pressure but gas still was flowing through the line at the time of the accident. Panhandle curtailed no gas deliveries because of the accident.

CNG

MARCUM NATURAL GAS SERVICES INC., Denver, received approval to market its compressed natural gas dispenser in Argentina. It estimates as many as 2,000 CNG refueling stations will be built in Argentina the next 5 years, resulting in the need for 6,000-12,000 CNG dispensers. It wants to capture 25% of that market. Marcum's first dispenser installation with state gas company Gas del Estado is to be shipped by early November. Marcum said Argentina has increased the number of CNG refueling stations to 260 from 50 in the past 5 years.

SOUTHERN UNION ENERGY INTERNATIONAL INC., Austin, and Grupo Diavaz SA de CV, Mexico City, agreed to form a joint venture to open CNG refueling stations in Mexico and convert vehicles to run on CNG. Plans are to open refueling stations in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, with the first station to open Nov. 9 in Monterrey. CNG conversion facilities are also planned for those cities.

PETROCHEMICALS

IRAN let a renegotiated contract to France's Technip for a $300 million expansion of the Tabriz petrochemical complex, replacing one signed in March 1991 that ran into political, legal, and financial problems. Technip will handle engineering and procurement for ethylbenzene, styrene, and polystyrene units in one train and cumene and phenol units in another. Construction of a third train with high density polyethylene and butane units will be handled by Technip Italian affiliate TPL and financed separately. Work is expected to begin by yearend.

BULGARIA'S Chimco let a $33 million contract to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for a 2,000 metric ton/day urea plant at Vratza, Bulgaria. The unit will replace six smaller units at Vratza. Most of the plant's capacity is committed for export to Southeast Asia and China.

WESTLAKE POLYMERS CORP. will increase low density polyethylene capacity by 100 million lb/year by refurbishing an autoclave production line at its Lake Charles, La., plant. Westlake's total capacity will be 850 million lb/year when the new capacity comes on stream in fall 1993.