SPILLS
GREENHILL PETROLEUM CORP., Houston, hired Boots & Coots Inc., Houston, to kill NO. 250 development well blowout in Timbalier Bay oil field, Lafourche Parish, La., after losing control of the well Sept. 29 while recompleting it in a lower zone. Uncontrolled well flow was estimated at several hundred barrels per day, but Greenhill captured most of the oil in field storage tanks. However, enough oil had escaped by dusk Sept. 30 to cause a slick about 5 miles long and 75 yd wide.
MALAYSIA detained the Liberian registered Nagasaki Spirit tanker that collided with a container ship in the Strait of Malacca off Sumatra Sept. 20 (OGJ, Sept. 28, p. 44) and will inspect it to ensure it is no longer a pollution threat. Sixteen bodies have been recovered from the container ship, five of its crew remain missing, and 20 tanker personnel were still missing Sept. 28, reported Agence France Presse. The tanker is owned by Canada's T.K. Shipping.
REFINING
ARGENTINA'S Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales SA let contract to ABB Simcon Inc., Houston, to study instrumentation modernization and unification of control rooms at its 216,000 b/d La Plata and 129,000 b/d Lujan de Cuyo refineries. The study, to be funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will focus on control modernization options and engineering costs.
SHELL CANADA PRODUCTS LTD. commissioned its world scale lubricants blending and packaging plant at Brockville, Ont., Sept. 24. The plant, which replaces two older plants in Toronto and Montreal, is designed to produce about 943,000 bbl/ year of lubricants and will supply customers in Canada and other countries.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
CHINA let a 5 billion yen construction and related services contract to Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsubishi Kasei Corp., and Mitsubishi Kasei Engineering Co. for a 50,000 ton/year acrylamide plant and related technology to support polymer based tertiary enhanced recovery in supergiant Daqing oil field, where operators recently completed a 1 year polymer flood pilot (OGJ, Sept. 28, p. 23). Construction of the plant, believed the world's largest, is to begin in 1994 and be complete in 1995. The agreement with China National Technical Import & Export Corp. and Daqing Oil Administration Agency includes training and technical aid.
ENERGY VENTURES INC., Houston, Highland Co. unit formed Shengli/Highland Co. with Shengli Petroleum Administration Bureau, a unit of Chinese National Petroleum Co. The joint venture, owned 60% Highland and 40% Shengli, will manufacture and market Highland's Rota-Flex pumping units and artificial lift products. The venture will own and operate two manufacturing plants at Shengli, Shangdong Province, scheduled for summer 1993 start-up. initial marketing will focus on China.
ASAMERA OIL (INDONESIA) LTD.'S 2 Dayung appraisal well in the Corridor block of South Sumatra flowed at a stabilized rate of 5.5 MMcfd of gas through a 1/2 in. choke on drillstem test of a zone in the top of the reservoir and 21.7 MMcfd through a 1 in. choke from a 50 ft thick lower interval. The 1 Dayung discovery was tested in 1991 (OGJ, July 20, p. 36). Parent Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. believes this well, combined with discoveries at Gelam and Sambar, will enable it to proceed with development of Corridor reserves.
EMPLOYMENT of heavy drilling rigs in Russia has fallen to 60 from 300 because of soaring construction costs. Uralmash-built rigs, which used to cost 250,000 to 1 million rubles, now cost 4-50 million rubles. During first half 1992, 75 drilling crews were disbanded. Another 200 crews are idle due to lack of material.
NORTH CANADIAN OILS LTD. completed the $75 million (Canadian) purchase of Shell Canada Ltd.'s interests in the Progress area and related assets in northern Alberta (OGJ, June 29, p. 46).
BJ SERVICES CO., Houston, paid Christian Salvesen plc $52 million for the oil field services business of Salvesen (Oilfield Technology) Ltd. (SOT) and changed SOT's name to BJS Oilfield Technology Ltd. BJS will continue to provide casing, tubing, and coiled tubing services for oil and gas E&P and commissioning and leak detection services for offshore platforms and pipelines, mainly in the U.K. North Sea.
CHEVRON U.K. LTD. was blocked from selling its stake in the North Sea J-block gas fields to Enron Corp. Chevron partners Phillips Petroleum Co., British Gas plc, and Agip SpA exercised preemption rights, preventing Enron from gaining entry through the deal into the U.K. gas market. About 190 bcf of gas and 12.5 million bbl of liquids were at stake.
SAGA PETROLEUM AS let a 120 million kroner contract ($20 million) to Rockwater AS, Stavanger, for transportation and installation of a subsea manifold and satellite structures in Tordis field in the Norwegian North Sea. Work will be carried out in 1993-94.
NORCEN EXPLORER INC., Houston, started gas and condensate production on Eugene Island Block 162 in the Gulf of Mexico, 35 miles off Louisiana. Production has averaged 23.8 MMcfd and 700 b/d and is expected to peak at 30 MMcfd and 1,000 b/d. Norcen holds a 60% interest, Petrobras America Inc. 40%.
BWAB INC., Denver, will buy interests in more than 100 producing oil and gas leases from Enterprise 1987 Ltd., a partnership of BWAB and State Farm Insurance. The remaining Enterprise leases, including about 200,000 net undeveloped acres in the Rocky Mountains, will be acquired under a new partnership, and Enterprise 1987 will be liquidated. BWAB will fund the acquisition via a production based loan facility of as much as $20 million.
ENVIRONMENT
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY determined that as of Mar. 8, 1993, recycled used oil does not have to be listed as a hazardous waste. The ruling was prompted by EPA management standards for used oil, effective the same date, that were found to be adequate protection for human health and the environment.
TRANSPORTATION
INDIA'S government approved plans by state owned Oil & Natural Gas Commission to lay the ICP-Heera natural gas pipeline at a cost of $500 million. The government also approved proposed installation of a second Bassein-Hazira gas trunk line and expansion of the Hazira onshore terminal linked to Bombay High offshore area. Both projects are part of India's campaign to eliminate gas flaring onshore and offshore.
DIAMOND SHAMROCK REFINING & MARKETING CO., San Antonio, started up its 270 mile crude oil pipeline from Wichita Falls, Tex., to its 115,000 b/d McKee refinery in the Texas Panhandle (OGJ, Mar. 18, 1991, p. 53). The 14 in. line has initial capacity to ship 53,000 b/d and potential capacity of 100,000 b/d.
NORCO PIPELINE INC., a unit of Continental Ozark Inc., Fayetteville, Ark., plans to acquire ARCO Pipe Line Co.'s 475 mile northern products pipeline system, including connecting terminals, that serves areas from Fort Madison, Iowa, to Toledo, Ohio.
MOJAVE PIPELINE CO., Bakersfield, Calif., based on results of an open season that ended last month, plans to double capacity of a proposed 300 mile northern expansion of its interstate gas pipeline from Bakersfield to Sacramento (OGJ, June 22, p. 41). The open season garnered requests for transportation capacity totaling almost 1.2 bcfd. The line originally was planned for 300-400 MMcfd of capacity. Mojave plans to file its request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January.
EXPLORATION
MOBIL EXPLORATION NORWAY INC.'S 35/11-7 wildcat flowed 14,800 b/d of 34-35 gravity oil from two zones. The well, in the southeast portion of Block 35/11 in the Norwegian North Sea, is the fourth oil discovery on the block, directly north of giant Troll field.
AMPOLEX LTD., Sydney, acquired a farmout from Petrofina SA on acreage off Thailand. Ampolex will take a 25% interest in Block B-11/32 covering 14,300 sq km in the Gulf of Thailand. The block includes the southern extension of the Pattani trough, where several gas/ condensate fields have been discovered. About 5,034 line km of seismic data are being evaluated to develop an exploration drilling program for 1993. Ampolex is operator of another Gulf of Thailand block, B-10/32.
MITSUBISHI CORP. established Japan Viet Nam Petroleum Co. to explore off Vung Tau, southern Viet Nam. Mitsubishi holds concessions just north of Bach Ho oil field, which currently produces more than 70,000 b/d.
DENMARK will surrender mineral exploitation rights in the Faroe Islands, between Iceland and the Shetland Islands, and surrounding waters. The Faroese government will assume control but faces a territorial boundary dispute with the U.K. Seismic surveys have been conducted and an onshore well drilled in 1980. There has been no exploration since then, but the region is believed prospective for hydrocarbons
ISLE OF MAN will invite petroleum companies to nominate areas in the Irish Sea for a possible licensing round. The Manx government has made no firm commitment to proceed with a round.
SIMON PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY of Llandudno, North Wales, agreed to a joint venture with Albania's Geological Institute for Oil and Gas and the geology department of the University of Tirana to produce an exclusive survey of Albania's petroleum prospects. The contract was placed by state agency Albpetrol, which recently hired Western Geophysical to market data packages for individual onshore blocks (OGJ, Sept. 28, p. 29).
BOW VALLEY PETROLEUM (U.K.) LTD.'S southern North Sea Block 43/22 wildcat flowed 12.6 MMcfd of gas through a 1 in. choke. Total depth is 13,400 ft. Bow Valley holds a 28% interest in the well and plans more exploratory and appraisal drilling on the block.
ASAMERA signed a production sharing agreement with Pertamina covering the Tungkal block in South Sumatra that double's parent Gulf Canada's Indonesian acreage to 3.8 million net acres. The block is adjacent to Asamera's core leases in the area. Asamera holds 1 00% interest in the block and plans to start seismic surveys this fall, with drilling to begin in 1994.
COMPANIES
ALLIED-SIGNAL INC., Morristown, N.J., plans to sell its 39% interest in Union Texas Petroleum Holdings Inc., Houston, in a secondary public offering. Allied-Signal's Union Texas holdings include 33.3 million shares of common stock, as well as shares of preferred stock and warrants for additional Union Texas stock. Union Texas at yearend 1991 had reserves estimated at 353 million bbl of oil equivalent, including 112 million bbl of oil and 1.4 tcf of gas. The company's 1991 net production averaged 26,000 b/d of oil and 283 MMcfd of gas.
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP. filed at the Edinburgh Court of Session to recover more than 100 million ($170 million) compensation paid as a result of the 1988 Piper Alpha platform explosion and fire in the U.K. North Sea. Oxy claims 26 contractors should be liable for repayment of the compensation under indemnity laws in practice prior to the Cullen Report of 1990, which placed responsibility for offshore safety entirely on the operator.
GAZ DE FRANCE agreed to acquire 51% of the stock in Genese, a unit of Agip Petroli SpA's French unit Agip Francaise, for $3.5 million. Agip Francaise markets natural gas and refined products and provides energy services in France. Agip will retain 49% of the stock in Genese, based in Lyon.
ALTERNATE FUELS
INTERCHEM (N.A.) INDUSTRIES INC., Leawood, Kan., received a commitment from Procter & Gamble to produce as much as 15 million gal/year of a synthetic diesel motor fuel made from soybean oil and animal fats. Interchem claims the fuel emits 86% less smoke, more than 50% less particulates and carbon monoxide, and almost no sulfur compared with conventional diesel. More than 100 diesel maintenance vehicles at St. Louis Lambert air field and more than 60 city buses in St. Louis, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Kansas City, Mo., run on the biomass diesel fuel. P&G will supply the fuel at a fixed cost plus feedstock price.
PETROCHEMICALS
INDIA'S government approved state owned Gas Authority of India Ltd.'s proposed $2 billion integrated petrochemical complex near Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh and its $150 million gas processing plant at Lakwa, Assam, which will supply liquefied petroleum gas for feedstock. The petrochemical complex is expected to save India about $750 million/year in foreign exchange.
AMOCO CHEMICAL CO. signed a long term agreement with Phillips Petroleum Co. unit Catalyst Resources Inc. (CRI) under which CRI will build a grassroots catalyst plant to manufacture Amoco's proprietary CD catalyst used in polypropylene manufacture. CRI will build the plant at Bayport, Tex., where it has manufactured the CD catalyst for several years at a semiworks facility. Amoco will be sole purchaser of catalysts from the plant, which will have capacity to supply all Amoco plants plus a number of current and future Amoco licensees.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
