INDUSTRY BRIEFS

COGENERATION

UNITED ENGINEERS & CONSTRUCTORS placed a $17 million order with GE Power Generation for a 40,000 kw GE straight condensing steam turbine generator and a GE MS6001B gas turbine generator for a combined cycle cogeneration project at Brush, Colo., about 90 miles northeast of Denver. The plant will be operated by Brush Cogeneration Partners, which will use waste heat for greenhouse heating. Electricity will be sold to Public Service of Colorado. Commercial operation is scheduled for third quarter 1993.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

MOBIL ERDGAS-ERDOEL GMBH started production of 35 MMcfd from Walsrode gas field on its 100% owned Ahrensheide concession between Hanover and Bremen, Germany. Mobil's Z-1 West Walsrode discovery found gas in Permian Rotliegendes at 15,000 ft in 1990. The Z-2a Walsrode appraisal well was completed in mid-1991. A 10 km pipeline moves the gas to Mobil's North Germany distribution grid.

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES INSTITUTE FOR MICROBIOLOGY, Moscow, and Geo-Microbial Technologies Inc., Ochelata, Okla., formed a joint venture, Enhanced Recovery Technology, to employ and market proprietary microbial enhanced oil recovery technologies. The institute completed 6 years of field tests in Russia and in one test recovered more than 185,000 bbl of incremental oil from three fields.

DEVON ENERGY CORP., Oklahoma City, signed a definitive agreement to acquire almost all of Hondo Oil & Gas Co.'s U.S. oil and gas properties for $139.2 million (OGJ, Mar. 9, p. 42). Most of the properties are in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

METFUEL INC., Houston, plans to drill 100-130 coalbed methane wells on the northeast flank of the Hanna basin in Carbon County, Wyo. The project, to get under way in July, covers about 28,800 acres. MetFuel expects to use 5-10 rigs until the project is complete in 1 993 and gather and transport the gas with new pipelines joining interstate lines to the south.

PETRO-CANADA agreed to pay Esso Resources Canada and Esso Resources Ventures Ltd. $38.5 million (Canadian) for assets in Valhalla oil field in Northwest Alberta. Petro-Canada currently is the biggest interest owner in the field. which at Dec. 31, 1991, had average production of 4,700 b/d of light oil and proved reserves of 20.4 million bbl before royalties. A planned waterflood is designed to increase production by 570 b/d and add 7.1 million bbl to reserves.

EXPORT IMPORT BANK approved a bundled credit guarantee to support $100 million in U.S. exports to Algeria's Sonatrach. In 1990 ExImBank approved 27 medium term loan and guarantee transactions totaling $110 million to finance U.S. exports for Sonatrach oil and gas operations.

WORLD BANK'S INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORP. is investing $19.5 million in Mari Gas Co. Ltd.'s expansion project in Daharki, Pakistan (OGJ, Apr. 22, 1991, p. 37). The $48 million project, about 270 miles northeast of Karachi, will boost gas flow to 402 MMcfd from 300 MMcfd to support fertilizer production.

EDISON GAS SPA agreed to buy Deutsche Shell AG's Italian upstream assets that include exploration assets, interests in three offshore gas fields on production, and interests in another field under development.

LNG

QATAR'S General Petroleum Corp. let contract to U.K.'s L.G. Mouchel & Partners to provide project management for construction of an $800 million port project at Ras Laffan (OGJ, Mar. 23, p. 38). The 8 sq km complex is to be complete by 1996. It will have 15 berths with four allocated to liquefied natural gas carriers, six to tankers carrying other petroleum liquids, two to container ships, two to dry bulk carriers, and one to heavy loads.

PIPELINES

BORD GAIS EIREANN let initial contracts valued at more than 137 million for the 174 mile Interconnector pipeline extending from Loch Shinny in North Dublin to Moffat in Scotland (OGJ, Dec. 30, 1991, p. 38). Contracts were awarded to British Steel for line pipe, Wood Bredero (Ireland) Ltd. for corrosion protection, and McDermott-ETPM for pipeline construction. The entire project, to be complete by October 1993, will cost about 287 million.

WIND RIVER GATHERING CO., a joint venture of Tom Brown Inc., Midland, and KN Gas Gathering Inc., Lakewood, Colo., signed a letter of understanding to acquire about 110 miles of gas pipeline and related field facilities from Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Co. The assets are mainly in Central Wyoming's Wind River basin. The acquisition will eliminate the need for Wind River's planned construction of a similar line (OGJ, June 24, 1991, p. 34).

EXPLORATION

MARAVEN SA, a unit of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa), plans to spend $485 million in 1992-97 for exploration that includes 36 wildcats and 16,330 line km of seismic surveys. Maraven exploration will focus in Zulia state in these areas: Catatumbo-Casigua, central and southern Lake Maracaibo, Ceuta-Tomoporo, and the eastern flank of the Perja Mountains. Other areas of focus will include the northern flank of the Andes south of Lake Maracaibo and eastern Falcon state.

INDIA'S Oil & Natural Gas Commission drilled oil discoveries on two structures in the Bombay offshore area and reports commercial gas flows in a well off Daman. The first discovery, ONGC's B-173 A, flowed 2,227 b/d of oil from one zone at 4,747-60 ft. Another zone flowed 911 b/d and a third 1.84 MMcfd of gas. Further details were not disclosed.

SHELL PETROLEUM MINING LTD. and Todd Petroleum Mining Ltd. acquired a farmout that includes half of Sun Oil New Zealand Ltd.'s 89% beneficial interest in petroleum prospecting license 38444 in the Taranaki basin off New Plymouth, New Zealand. New ownership interests are Sun 44.5%, Shell and Todd 22.25% each, and New Zealand 11%. Under the agreement, the Shell Todd Oil Services joint venture becomes operator. A wildcat is expected to spud early in April.

BRUNEI SHELL PETROLEUM CO. SDN. BHD.'S wildcat 18 miles off Brunei in the Iron Duke area flowed 17.6 MMcfd of gas and 882 b/d of condensate from a zone at 12,792 ft. The well, in 121 ft of water, is 9.3 miles west of Champion oil field, where Brunei Shell late in 1991 found gas below the oil producing horizon with the Champion Ultra Deep well, the company's deepest gas discovery.

TEXACO CANADA PETROLEUM INC.'S TexCan Klua B-82-K/94-J-8 wildcat, 27 miles southwest of Fort Nelson, B.C., flowed at a restricted rate of 15 MMcfd of gas from 322 ft of net pay in Devonian Keg River. The well, 100% owned by TexCan, went 8,150 ft. The discovery is 1-1/2 miles from a gas pipeline.

THAILAND'S Ministry of Industry awarded the 14,478 sq km Block B-11/32 in the Gulf of Thailand to Texaco Exploration (Thailand) 11 Ltd. and Fina Exploration (Thailand) Ltd. (see map, Sept. 23, 1991, p. 15). The Texaco unit also acquired a 50% interest and operatorship of Block 5441/32 AB from Nomeco Oil & Gas Co. The ministry earlier awarded Texaco Exploration (Thailand) III Ltd. Blocks B 1/32 and B-3/32, which cover a combined 11.522 sq km.

MARKETING

PETRO SERVICE, a 51-49% joint venture of Neste Oy and Russian companies Lennefteprodukt and PKAO, opened a second 24 hr service station bearing Neste's logo in St. Petersburg. Petro Service opened its first station in St. Petersburg early this year (OGJ, Feb. 17, p. 43).

CONOCO INC. signed a memorandum of understanding with Italian refiner Saras SpA and a group of Spanish investors to establish a petroleum marketing network in Spain. The network, in North and Central Spain, will handle motor fuels, heating oil, fuel oil, and liquefied petroleum gas. Products will be obtained locally with backup from Conoco's Humberside refinery in the U.K. and Saras' 300,000 b/d refinery at Cagliari, Italy. Conoco will study feasibility of product terminals, including an LPG terminal in the Gijon-Aviles area.

REFINING

MOSCOW PRESS reported Odessa's city council signed a protocol with two undisclosed U.S. companies to form a joint venture to modernize the Black Sea port's 120,000 b/d refinery. The plant will process crude to be imported by tanker from Iran under an agreement between Ukraine and Iran (OGJ, Mar. 16, Newsletter). Izvestia said another refinery will be built later at the port of Yuzhnyi near Odessa.

KOCH REFINING CO., Wichita, will begin construction immediately on a $220 million project to cut emissions at its 218,500 b/cd Rosemount, Minn., refinery and reduce sulfur levels of diesel produced there. The program, to be complete in 18 months, calls for cutting sulfur dioxide emissions by 40%, particulate emissions by 50%, and certain other emissions by 80%. The project includes installation of a hydrogen plant, two sulfur recovery units, an electrostatic precipitator at the fluid catalytic cracker, and a leak detection and repair program for all valves.

ASHLAND PETROLEUM CO. granted Fluid Data Inc., Merrick, N.Y., exclusive rights to manufacture and market in North America and Venezuela a refinery process monitoring system that uses near-infrared (NIR) spectrometry to continuously measure octane and other gasoline properties during blending. Ashland said the NIR system predicts gasoline pump octane numbers two to three times more accurately than engine knock measurements, and refiners can use NIR to track gradual octane changes as well as aromatics and olefins content.

COMPANIES

BARIVEN SA, a unit of Venezuela's Pdvsa, issued $400 million in Eurobonds to finance equipment purchases and other capital needs under Pdvsa's $48 billion, 1992-97 investment program. Half were for 3 years at 8.25%, the other half 10 years at 10.625%.

PETROCHEMICALS

ZHONGYUAN PETROCHEMICAL CORP. will build a 120,000 metric ton/year polyethylene plant based on Union Carbide Corp.'s Unipol PE process at Puyang City, Henan Province, China. China National Technical Import & Export Corp. let an $80 million lump sum contract for plant construction to Snamprogetti SpA. The swing capacity plant, to be complete by 1995, will produce a full range of PE products. The fifth Unipol PE plant in China, it will boost Unipol PE operating capacity there to 440,000 tons/year.

SHELL OIL CO. chose its Wood River, Ill., complex as its third U.S. site to produce methyl tertiary butyl ether. Start-up is scheduled in 1994. Shell also will produce MTBE at its Norco, La., and Deer Park, Tex., complexes (OGJ, Dec. 16, 1991, p. 35). Combined capacity of the three plants is 15,000 b/d. Shell said the new plant will provide a long term supply of MTBE for a significant part of its needs.

SUPREME PETROCHEM LTD., Bombay, let contract to ABB Lummus Crest Inc. and Huntsman Chemical Corp. to provide licensing, basic engineering, training, and advisory engineering and commissioning services for the Huntsman/Lummus process for a 60,000 metric ton/year polystyrene plant. UOP will provide licensing, basic engineering, and similar services for a 100,000 ton/year ethylbenzene/styrene monomer unit. Both units, near Nagothane in Maharashtra state, are to be complete in 1994.

CHINA'S State Planning Commission approved construction of a $130 million fertilizer plant in Dongfang County, Hainan Province, that will be fed by about 37 MMcfd of gas from nearby Yinggehai field. The plant will produce 300,000 metric tons/year of ammonia and 520,000 tons/year of urea.

NORTH SEA PETROCHEMICALS, a joint venture of Den norske stats oljeselskap AS and Himont Inc., started up a 250,000 metric ton/year refinery grade propylene plant using the Catofin propane dehydrogenation process in a complex at Kallo near Antwerp, Belgium. Part of the production feeds a 180,000 ton/year North Sea Petrochemicals polypropylene plant, which has been on stream for about a year.

NIGERIA'S Eleme petrochemical complex is scheduled to begin production of polypropylene and polyethylene resins by mid-1993, 6 months ahead of schedule (OGJ, Dec. 3, 1990, p. 37). The complex will produce 250,000 metric tons/year of linear low density PE and high density PE and 80,000 tons/year of PP. First phase of the project is expected to meet growing demand for PP and PE resins. The second phase includes polyester plants and the third phase a plant to produce polyvinyl chloride resins.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

RUSSIA and Turkmenistan signed a protocol providing for the exchange of about 17 million bbl of Russian crude for 150,000 metric tons of Turkmenistan's cotton. Value of the Russian oil was placed at about $300 million, indicating the sale was made on the basis of world prices.

TAIWAN'S CHINESE PETROLEUM CORP. signed a contract to buy 30,000 b/d of crude from Kuwait. Prior to the Persian Gulf war last year, Taiwan imported 75,000 b/d of crude from Kuwait.