LNG
JAPAN'S Osaka Gas Co. plans to build a 700-800 billion yen ($5.6-6.4 billion), 4 million metric ton/year, liquefied natural gas complex at Tsuruga on the Sea of Japan by 2010. The project will include more than a dozen storage tanks and a regasification plant. An LNG tanker berth is to be built at Tsuruga Port, and a gas pipeline is planned to connect the complex to Kyoto.
NUOVO PIGNONE, Florence, Italy, let a $30 million subcontract to GE Power Generation for three GE MS7001EA gas turbines under a contract with Malaysia state oil company Petronas to supply process turbocompressors for three LNG trains for an expansion at Petronas' Bintulu, Malaysia, plant. Primary fuel source will be natural gas. The units will be shipped this year to Nuovo Pignone's Florence factory for testing and to Malaysia next year for commercial operation of the expansion in 1995.
GOVERNMENT
IRAQ and Azerbaijan signed a protocol June 27 covering cooperation in exploration, refining, gas processing, and petroleum industry personnel training. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported the two plan to implement joint oil industry development projects.
COGENERATION
TUNISIA'S gas and electric utility let a 1.4 billion franc ($259 million) contract to France's GEC-Alsthom engineering group for installation of a 350,000 kw, gas fired, combined cycle, cogeneration plant to expand power capacity at the Souisse thermal power plant in the Sahel area of Tunisia. Due on stream between March 1994 and February 1995, it will be the first unit of its kind in Africa.
EXPLORATION
PETROVIETNAM awarded a 3 year exploration contract to Idemitsu Kosan Co. unit Idemitsu Haiphong Oil Exploration Co. on Block 102 covering about 2,000 sq km off Haiphong, Viet Nam. Japan's Kyodo News Service reported Idemitsu will begin exploration this year and drill two wells next year, but other contract details are undisclosed. Japan National Oil Corp. is expected to fund the project, estimated to cost $30-50 million.
MARATHON OIL CO.'S 1 Zarat wildcat on the Zarat permit in 295 ft of water about 66 miles northeast of Marathon's Ezzaouia field in southern Tunisia flowed at a combined rate of 17.5 MMcfd of gas and 1,498 b/d of liquids on two drillstem tests of Eocene El Gueria at 8,629-8,842 ft. Operations will be suspended at the well, and the rig will move to drill a wildcat near the Elyssa gas/condensate discovery, also on the 246,116 acre Zarat block.
INDONESIA'S Pertamina 1 Pasircatung wildcat flowed 30.31 MMcfd of gas and 285 b/d of condensate in West Java about 210 km east of Jakarta.
TEXACO INC. is halting its exploration campaign in the Taylorsville basin of the lower Potomac River of Virginia and Maryland (OGJ, May 29, 1989, p. 36). It plans to assign its permits to drill two more wildcats, one near Faulkner in Charles County, Md., and the other in Virginia, to Eastern Virginia Gas Co.
REFINING
LYONDELL PETROCHEMICAL CO. let contract to Bechtel Corp., Houston, to upgrade the wastewater system at its Houston refinery. Bechtel will provide engineering, procurement, and construction management services to determine the scope and cost, followed by detailed engineering for pond closures and wastewater characterization and treatment to comply with environmental rules.
MADRAS REFINERIES LTD. last week broke ground for its 10,000 b/d refinery near Madras in the Cauvery basin region of Tamil Nadu, India. The refinery, at Panangadi near Nagapattinam, is expected to meet growing demand for petroleum products in southern Tamil Nadu. Recent exploration has turned up more oil and gas in the Cauvery basin, and a future refinery expansion could spawn development of a petrochemical industry and other industries in the largely agrarian region.
PETROLEOS DEL PERU plans to sell its 8,000 b/d Conchan refinery at auction this week. Peru's state oil company, in the midst of privatization pushed by embattled President Alberto Fujimori, also put up for sale 83 retail service stations June 23 (see related story, p. 59). In addition, the government unveiled plans to gradually deregulate domestic prices for gasoline, kerosine, and gas oil to encourage private investment in Peru's downstream industry. Some companies in Peru are importing lower cost, subsidized products from neighboring countries, notably Ecuador.
ISAB SPA, Genoa, licensed Kerr-McGee Corp.'s residuum oil supercritical extraction process to produce asphaltenes for electrical power generation at its Syracuse, Sicily, refinery. ISAB will use the process to extract deasphalted oil from visbroken resid and provide an asphaltene feedstock to a gasifier for electrical power generation (see related story, p. 38).
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
DEVON ENERGY CORP., Oklahoma City, and Hondo Oil & Gas Co., Roswell, N.M., said the price Hondo will receive for its U.S. oil and gas leases will be $126.6 million. The two previously agreed for Devon to purchase the leases for $139.2 million (OGJ, Mar. 30, p. 30). Hondo expects to receive an added $1.6 million from third parties that have exercised preferential rights to purchase some of the leases. Devon is offering 8 million shares of common stock in a public offering to help finance the deal, which was to close July 1.
ECUADOR'S Petroamazonas let contracts to the Intairdril Ltd. unit of Pool Energy Services Co., Houston, to operate one drilling rig and three workover rigs in Ecuador's Oriente region under 2 year contracts. Tripetrol Exploration & Production Co. awarded Intairdril a two rig, multiwell contract for drilling and workovers in Pacoa field near Guayaquil on Ecuador's west coast.
DOW CHEMICAL CO. licensed Shell Oil Co.'s SulFerox H2S removal process to Chevron U.S.A. Production Co., marking the first offshore application of the process. Chevron will use the process on its Gail platform off California to treat 18 MMcfd of associated gas. The process is to reduce H2S to less than 4 ppm, and the processing unit will be capable of removing 7.5 long tons/day of sulfur.
ALTA ENERGY CORP., Midland, Tex., closed a $2.8 million loan to fund drilling of eight 4,000 ft infill wells in Grayburg-Jackson field, Eddy County, N.M. Alta also plans to drill 52 more infill wells in the field the next 18 months at a cost of about $19.2 million, subject to available funding. The program is expected to double Alta's production to 4,000 b/d of oil equivalent.
INDONESIA'S Meta Epsi Pribumi Drilling Co. (Medco) bought the Indonesian oil and gas contracts of Tesoro Petroleum Corp., San Antonio, including a technical assistance contract and a production sharing contract covering Sanga-Sanga, Samboja, and Tarakan field on an island off the northeast coast of Kalimantan. Current production is slightly more than 5,000 b/d. Tesoro operated the fields in East Kalimantan since 1971.
COMPANIES
FLOGAS PLC plans to enter the U.K. natural gas market and has been allotted 1.78 bcf of natural gas under the British Gas plc release program that requires BG to withdraw from 60% of its commercial and industrial markets by 1995. Flogas operates with an established customer base from Leeds, Leicester, Newport, Glasgow, Newcastle upon Tyne, and London.
AMERADA HESS GAS LTD., agreed with South Wales Energy Ltd., a unit of South Wales Electricity plc, to sell gas to customers in South Wales, Amerada Hess expects to take 5-6% of the U.K. industrial and commercial gas market within the next 5 years. It produces 150 MMcfd, largely from Leman and Indefatigable fields in the southern North Sea and has reserves of more than 1.5 tcf, which it says will last well into the next century. Amerada set up the gas marketing unit in August 1991 and currently supplies gas to more than 200 sites in the U.K.
TOTAL formed a joint venture with Britain's Yorkshire Electricity, Yorkshire Total Gas, to supply industrial and commercial customers in Yorkshire and Humberside with Total's North Sea gas supplies. Plans call for extending the service to residential gas users. The gas will move through BG's pipelines. Total has been supplying gas to U.K. customers since December 1991. The venture will start supplying customers effective Aug. 1 .
PETROCHEMICALS
ALBERTA ENVIROFUELS INC., a joint venture of Chevron Canada Ltd. and Neste Canada Inc., commissioned a 10,600 b/d methyl tertiary butyl ether complex at Edmonton (OGJ, Dec. 30, 1991, p. 39). The complex uses the UOP butamer process for butane isomerization and UOP's oleflex process for isobutane dehydrogenation.
SHELL CHIMIE started construction of a 640 million franc ($3.5 million) Kraton G hydrogenated styrenic thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) plant at its Berre petrochemical complex in Southeast France, the first such plant outside the U.S. With capacity rated at more than 20,000 metric tons/year, the plant is to start up in early 1994. Shell currently supplies TPE to Europe from its Kraton G plant at Belpre, Ohio. The new plant will boost Shell's world TPE capacity to more than 65,000 tons/year.
PIPELINES
RUSSIA reported a final death toll of 765 in a huge explosion of vapor from a leaking natural gas liquids pipeline near Ufa on the west slope of the southern Ural Mountains in mid-1989 (OGJ, June 19, 1989, p. 27). The accident, one of the worst in Russian history, occurred when two Trans-Siberian Railroad trains passing through the vapor cloud ignited it, creating a blast equal to 10,000 metric tons of dynamite. Negligence by the pipeline builders and operators was blamed for the accident.
CANADA'S National Energy Board reversed itself and approved an application by TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Calgary, to lay its $39 million (Canadian), 20.6 km Blackhorse extension from a point near Thorold, Ont., to a new export point at Chippewa, Ont., where it will connect with Empire State Pipeline facilities. Last July NEB found the proposed Empire markets would be better served by expanding TransCanada's existing Niagara line (OGJ, Feb. 17, p. 42).
NEB approved plans by Trans Mountain Pipeline Co. Ltd., Vancouver, to spend $6.48 million (Canadian) to construct facilities to transport methyl tertiary butyl ether to Burnaby, B.C., from Alberta Envirofuel's Edmonton plant. New facilities include added storage tanks, line pipe, and modifications of existing facilities. The application is in response to a request from Chevron Canada Ltd., which wants to export about 6,000 b/d of MTBE to parent Chevron Corp.'s U.S. refineries starting early in 1993. NEB will determine tolls this month.
TRANSCANADA PIPELINES completed its acquisition of Pacific Gas Transmission Co.'s 49.98% interest, or 10.49 million shares, in Alberta Natural Gas Co. Ltd. for about $97.3 million (Canadian) (OGJ, Apr. 27, p. 57). TransCanada still holds first right of refusal to acquire PG&E's 100% interest in PGT, an option deferred until restructuring of gas purchase contracts between ANG affiliate Alberta & Southern Gas Co. Ltd. and Canadian producers is resolved.
FLORIDA will allow SunCoast Pipeline Co. to operate a proposed 856 mile, 530 MMcfd pipeline as an intrastate system. That clears the way for construction of the $1 billion project to begin by late 1993, with completion expected by winter 1994-95 (OGJ, Dec. 9, 1991, p. 44). SunCoast's 30 in. main line is to begin at Walnut Hill in the Florida Panhandle, extend to the Tampa area, and terminate near Fort Lauderdale. Adding compression could expand capacity to more than 700 MMcfd. SunCoast is a partnership of United Gas Pipe Line Co., ANR Pipeline Co., and Florida Power Corp.
EXPORTS-IMPORTS
FRANCE'S Total signed a contract to buy 300,000 metric tons/year of liquefied petroleum gas from Libya beginning in 1993 for an undisclosed term and at prevailing market rates. The contract comes under the framework of a previous crude supply contract Total uses to supply Mediterranean customers.
OXY U.S.A. INC. asked the U.S. Department of Energy office of fossil energy for a permit to export to Mexico and import from Canada as much as 29.2 bcf of natural gas during 2 years. Oxy plans to export its own gas and that purchased from other producers and will use existing and planned pipelines at the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders.
KUTUBU JOINT VENTURE'S initial cargo of 450,000 bbl of Papua New Guinea crude is for export to Japan, not Australia as incorrectly reported (OGJ, June 29, p. 44). The second cargo is for export to Australia.
SPILLS
A BURLINGTON NORTHERN RAILROAD train carrying benzene derailed June 30 south of Superior, Wis., leaking the chemical into the Nemadji River and forming a massive cloud of toxic gas that moved over Lake Superior, forcing evacuation of about 50,000 people in the area. At presstime June 30, spill volume and owner were unknown.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
