INDUSTRY BRIEFS

TRANSPORTATION

UKRAINE

plans to build a tanker terminal at the Black Sea port of Odessa capable of handling 240,000 b/d of crude for delivery to the republic's underutilized refineries. The project's first phase is to be placed in operation during 1994. Ukraine's State Committee for Oil and Gas will offer a tender for rights to build the first of these unloading facilities. Financing will be obtained from foreign credits or from government guaranteed investments.

EXPLORATION

INDIA

announced a fifth bidding round for private sector exploration, involving 45 onshore and offshore blocks. Twenty-one of the blocks on offer are new, and the rest are reoffered from the fourth round. In that fourth round, held in late 1992, only 24 bids were submitted for 13 blocks out of 72 on offer. The government also has sweetened fiscal terms for bidders.

AZTEC ENERGY CORP.,

Dallas, Abacan Resources Corp., Calgary, and Abacan International Resources Management Inc. will participate in exploration of three contiguous blocks of more than 2 million acres total in the Benin basin of Nigeria and Benin. Oil prospects lie in several Tertiary and Cretaceous formations. Two concessions of 500,000 acres each are in Nigeria, one offshore and one onshore, and the third is 1 million acres onshore in Benin. The companies plan an initial $10 million exploration program.

COMPANIES

KELT ENERGY PLC

signed a letter of intent to buy Total's exploration and production assets in Cameroon. Included is the 5,000 b/d offshore Moudi-Victoria oil field and nonproducing fields in other permits. Total's refining/marketing assets in Cameroon are not involved.

W.R. GRACE & CO.,

Boca Raton, Fla., signed definitive agreements to sell the components of Grace Offshore Co. to two third party buyers. Grace figures the divestiture is worth about $57 million. It will sell Huthnance Drilling Division, New Iberia, La., to a joint venture of Mike Mullen Energy Equipment Resources Inc. and Falcon Drilling Co. And it will sell Booker Workover Division, Houma, La., to Offshore Rigs LLC. Closing is expected during second quarter 1993.

ALAMCO INC.,

Clarksburg, W.Va., increased its 1993 capital spending budget 44% to $4.7 million. Most of the outlay will go to drill as many as 20 development wells.

CO-OPERATIVE ENERGY CORP.

completed the $61 million (Canadian) sale of its remaining 23% interest in Co-enerco Resources Ltd., Calgary. Co-operative Energy, a joint venture of 37 cooperative organizations and the Canadian government, founded Co-enerco in 1982. Shares were sold to a syndicate of investment underwriters.

GAS PROCESSING

GPM GAS CORP.,

Houston, began construction of a 29 MMcfd turboexpander autorefrigeration gas processing plant in Lea County, N.M. The $7 million Zia plant, GPM's fourth in the Lea-Eddy counties area, will begin taking gas Sept. 1. The 8-10 in. gathering system that feeds the existing plants will be reconfigured to direct sweet gas to the new plant and mostly sour gas to the Artesia, Lea, and Eunice plants. The new plant, to incorporate process skids from plants in Oklahoma and Texas, will produce 2,500 b/d of natural gas liquids, split about 50-50 ethane and a C3-C4 MiX.

FERRELL NORTH AMERICA DIVISION

of Ferrellgas Inc., Liberty, Mo., plans to build a 6,000 b/d deisobutanizer at its Adamana, Ariz., underground storage site. Scheduled to be in operation the first week of October, the unit offers U.S. West Coast refineries a facility to handle seasonal butane supply and demand imbalances. Plans call for addition of treating and isomerization units.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

BENTON OIL & GAS CO.,

Oxnard, Calif., and partner Vinccler CA began oil production at an initial rate of 2,100 b/d from four wells in eastern Venezuela's reactivated Uracoa field. Development will focus on returning nine wells to production, drilling three vertical wells and one horizontal well, building permanent production facilities, and laying an 11 mile pipeline with 25,000 b/d design capacity.

BRITISH PETROLEUM CO. PLC

signed a 20 year operating contract with Petroleos de Venezuela SA subsidiary Lagoven to reactivate Venezuela's Pedernales oil field, which has been off production since the mid-1980s. BP said it can resume production soon, achieving as much as 20,000 b/d by 1997. The field is 600 km east of Caracas in Monagas oil province's Orinoco delta heavy oil belt.

TEXACO INC.

reported reserve additions last year replaced 94% of 1992 production. It listed worldwide assets of 2.7 billion bbl of proved liquid reserves and 6.07 tcf of net proved gas reserves at yearend 1992. For the year, finding and development costs were $4.88/bbl of oil equivalent (BOE), averaging $4.48/BOE during 1990-92.

MYANMAR

began offshore gas production this month at its 1 Yadana, 112 km off Bogale township in the Andaman Sea. The project was carried out under a production sharing contract between Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise, Yangon, and an undisclosed French company.

AMOCO CANADA PETROLEUM CO. LTD.,

Calgary, expects to file regulatory applications this summer for a 50,000 b/d heavy oil project in the Cold Lake region of Alberta. The company acquired a permit that has never been activated when it took over Dome Petroleum Ltd. in 1987. Amoco doesn't expect regulatory decisions on an application until 1994. The company currently produces about 89,200 b/d of conventional crude, heavy oil, and gas liquids.

RUSSIA

let two contracts to Beta Well Service Inc., Leduc, Alta., to work over 654 more oil and gas wells in western Siberia. The first contract for 386 wells modifies and extends an initial 500 well agreement with Beta last year. About 300 of those 500 wells have been serviced. The other contract is for 268 wells in a new region of western Siberia, with work expected to start in April. Four more Beta rigs are on their way to Russia to join six company units currently at work.

AROSCO U.S.A. INC.,

Houston, negotiated financing through western banks to allow ROV Zarubezhneft, Moscow, a Russian trading company, to buy 40 U.S. workover rigs on behalf of several Russian production associations. Three U.S. manufacturers are to immediately begin fabricating the workover units, and delivery is expected by midsummer 1993. IRI International Corp., Pampa, Tex., is to supply 20 of the rigs and Kremco Inc., Houston, and Cardwell International Inc., El Dorado, Kan., 10 each (OGJ, Mar. 15, p. 34).

NORWEGIAN

drilling contractor Smedvig AS, Stavanger, agreed to a 25-75 joint venture with fabricator Far East Levingston Shipbuilding Ltd., Singapore, to own the $150 million FELS Hull 822 harsh environment jack up. Originally built for A. P. Moller, Copenhagen, the rig was rejected upon completion last October because of a cost dispute. Smedvig will take delivery Mar. 31 and market the rig under the name West Epsilon in the Norwegian and U.K. North Sea.

ELF ENTERPRISE CALEDONIA LTD.

let contract to Kvaerner H&G Offshore Ltd., London, for detailed design of a jacket for the North Sea Claymore field accommodation platform. The jacket will weigh 6,235 metric tons including piles. Fabrication will take place at SLP Engineering Ltd.'s Teesside, U.K., yard, with installation set for spring 1995.

REFINING

INDIAN OIL CORP.

shortlisted three companies-Chevron Corp., UOP Inc., and Institut Francaise de Petrole-to provide technology for its proposed 120,000 b/d grassroots Karnal refinery. The project involves capital outlay of 39 billion rupees ($1.19 billion), with the refinery accounting for 28 billion rupees ($853 million). Plans also call for laying a pipeline from Chaksa, Gujarat, to Karnal, Haryana, at a cost of 5.5 billion rupees ($167.6 million).

RUSSIA'S

refinery output in 1992 declined sharply from 1991. Automotive gasoline production was down 74,000 b/d (10.5%), diesel fuel 140,000 b/d (10.7%), heavy fuel oil 182,000 b/d (10.3%), and kerosine 46,000 b/d (16.9%). Products exports dropped 23% to 540,000 b/d, and their value slipped 7% to $4.69 billion from $5.034 billion.

SHELL REFINING & MARKETING CO.

and its joint venture partner, Petroleos Mexicanos, let contract to Foster Wheeler USA Corp., Clinton, N.J., for design, procurement, and construction management of a delayed coker at Shell's Deer Park, Tex., refinery. The project includes a four drum coker, gas oil hydrotreater, amine recovery, sour water stripper, and two sulfur plants. Start-up is scheduled for mid-1995.

SHELL INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM CO. LTD.

agreed to buy Burmah Castrol Ltd.'s 24.5% share in Pakistan Burmah Shell Ltd. (PBS) as well as Burmah's interests in Burshane Pakistan. Along with the acquisition of public common stock representing an additional 2% interest, this will give Shell a 51% interest in PBS. Shell plans to change the company name to Shell Pakistan Ltd. and have it represent all its downstream oil and chemicals activities in the country. Burmah is shedding its assets in Pakistan (OGJ, Oct. 12, 1992, p. 33).

COURTS

A FEDERAL COURT

in Galveston, Tex., awarded Louis Wardlaw, founder of Hot-Hed Inc., Houston, and Joe Young, president of Southland Rentals, Lafayette, La., more than $8.7 million in damages, attorney fees, and prejudgment interest in a patent infringement lawsuit against Halliburton Co. The suit alleged that Halliburton produced and sold a product line of nonrotating well cementing plug assemblies after rejecting an offer to license nonrotating well plug technology patented by Wardlaw and Young.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

TAIWAN

will begin importing 100,000 bbl/month of crude from Ecuador by yearend. State owned Chinese Petroleum Co. (CPC) holds through affiliate Overseas Petroleum Investment Corp. a one-third interest in two Ecuadorian blocks under separate development by groups led by Maxus Energy Corp., Dallas, and France's Ste. Nationale Elf Aquitaine. Proved reserves in the two prospective producing areas, in which CPC holds a one-third interest, total 210 million bbl.

CANADA'S

National Energy Board issued 12 licenses for export of 355 MMcfd of gas for periods of 7-15 1/2 years. Total export volume during the term of the licenses is about 1.6 tcf. All exports will be made via Kingsgate, B.C., except for a volume that moves out of Canada at Huntingdon, B.C. The gas will go to the U.S. West Coast.

PETROCHEMICALS

CHEVRON CORP.

unit Chevron Chemical Co. and Saudi Venture Capital Group signed a letter of intent to develop a world scale aromatics plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The agreement calls for basic design and feasibility studies to be completed by yearend, with construction to start early in 1994, subject to shareholder approval. Manufacturing capacity of the plant will be 420,000 metric tons/year of benzene and 270,000 tons/year of cyclohexane, with start-up planned for 1995. The plant is to use Chevron's Aromax reforming technology, becoming the first Aromax plant built by Chevron outside the U.S.

LNG

MALAYSIA'S

liquefied natural gas export facilities are at Bintulu, not Arun and Bintulu, as incorrectly reported (OGJ, Dec. 28, 1992, p. 31). Arun is the site of LNG facilities in Indonesia.

PIPELINES

MOJAVE PIPELINE CO.,

Bakersfield, Calif., submitted construction and operation plans for its proposed Northward Expansion gas pipeline to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval. The $466 million California line will move 475 MMcfd from a point northeast of Bakersfield on Mojave's pipeline system and extend north, parallel to Highway 99 through Fresno and Modesto to Ripon, where it is to split into smaller lines to Sacramento, the East Bay area, Palo Alto, and the South Bay.

BROOKLYN UNION GAS CO.

agreed to join Coastal Corp. subsidiary ANR Pipeline Co., Houston, and TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Calgary, as a sponsor of the proposed Mayflower gas transmission system that will serve the U.S. Northeast. The $320-360 million system will extend 200 miles east from the Iroquois Gas Transmission System, serving markets from Canajoharie, N.Y., to Boston. Subject to regulatory approvals, service is to begin in 1996.

PANHANDLE EASTERN CORP.

subsidiaries Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. and Algonquin Gas Transmission Co., both of Houston, restored full customer deliveries of gas last week following equipment problems caused by a blizzard that struck the U.S. mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Compressor unit failures at Barton, Ala., and Holbrook, Pa., required the companies to trim deliveries 15%, or about 450 MMcfd.

GOVERNMENT

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

issued a rule requiring U.S. urban bus manufacturers to reduce particulates emissions from new diesel engines by using trap oxidizers or catalytic converters. The buses will be required to meet a standard of 0.07 g in 1994 and 0.05 in 1996. The current standard is 0.1 g.