INDUSTRY BRIEFS

SPILLS

TWO PRODUCTS BARGES and a freighter loaded with phosphate collided Aug. 10 in Florida's Tampa Bay, causing a fire on one barge carrying 250,000 bbl of jet fuel and a spill from a pierced hull on the second barge, which was carrying 2,800 bbl of fuel oil. The Balsa 37 freighter took on water but remained afloat. Containment booms were placed around the leaking barge and environmentally sensitive areas, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The main channel to the bay was closed. The collision occurred 2 miles west of the Sunshine Sky Bridge.

REFINING

PETROLCHEMIE & KRAFTSTOFFE AG signed a license agreement to use UOP's Penex process and a UOP designed naphtha hydrotreater at its 230,000 b/cd Schwedt, Germany, refinery to help meet rising demand for higher octane gasoline in eastern Germany. The Penex unit is to be on stream in mid-1995 with a 1,650 metric ton/day capacity at first. The unit is designed to accommodate addition of deisohexanizer recycle facilities to yield even higher octane.

FINLAND'S NESTE CORP., Catalytica Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., and Conoco Inc. started up a 7 b/d pilot plant at Neste's Porvoo, Finland, technology center to demonstrate solid catalyst gasoline alkylation technology. Their proprietary process is being developed to replace hydrofluoric and sulfuric acid catalyst alkylation units used to produce high octane gasoline. Licensing is to be available in 1994.

NIPPON EURECAT CO. LTD., a new joint venture company at Niihama on Japan's Shikoku Island, is building a plant there that includes a 3,000 metric ton/year regeneration unit and an off site 10,000 metric ton/year presulfiding unit. The JV is owned 50-50 by Eurecat SA, La Voulte, France, and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. and related companies. Plant start-up is scheduled for third quarter 1994.

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT let a $1.2 million contract to John Brown's Chicago office to study petroleum refining in Ukraine. Objectives include a profile of Ukraine's refining industry, along with evaluating plant operations to pinpoint opportunities for privatization, improve energy efficiency, and reduce environmental effects. John Brown will publish results of the study, to be completed at yearend.

UOP, Des Plaines, III., Huels AG, and an ARCO Chemical Co. unit in Newtown Square, Pa., signed an agreement enabling ARCO to offer key aspects of the UOP/Huels Ethermax process to its oxygenated fuels licensees in the U.S. and Canada. The process features Koch Engineering Go. Inc.'s reaction with distillation (RWD) technology. The deal allows ARCO to offer tertiary amyl methyl ether (TAME) technology by incorporating RWD into ARCO's TAME process.

MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL of Russia's Kirishi refinery, southeast of St. Petersburg, are accused of illegally selling large volumes of gasoline, diesel, heavy fuel oil, and asphalt to customers in non-Russian republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States. An official of the Leningrad province branch of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes to issue forged export licenses for Kirishi refinery products.

EXPLORATION

SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES, Albuquerque, let a $1.4 million contract to the Montek division of E-Systems Inc., Dallas, to develop, fabricate, and demonstrate a prototype nondestructive, downhole sounding tool for cross well seismology. The tool, to be based on direct drive, servo valve technology, is to be capable of generating a downhole seismic signal from one well to others more than 1,000 ft away and at depths as great as 20,000 ft. Los Alamos National Lab, Chevron Corp., Conoco Inc., and Pelton Co., Ponca City, Okla., are cooperating in the 3 year development program.

SHELL INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM CO. LTD. found oil and gas for the second time on its Obayed permit in Egypt's Western Desert, Middle East Economic Survey reported. Shell's 3 Obayed flowed 3,000 b/d of 450 gravity crude oil and 5.7 MMcfd of gas. Shell estimated the well could raise field reserves to 3.1 tcf from 1.4 tcf, MEES said.

AZERBAIJAN found another Caspian Sea gas field, this one in pay at 3,500-3,750 m (11,48312,303 ft). Nakhchevan field, 52 miles northeast of Baku, holds an estimated 25 billion cu m (883 bcf) of reserves. Development is expected to start within 3 years, Interfax news agency reported. Peak flow is likely to be 145-193 MMcfd.

MAXUS COLOMBIA INC., a unit of Maxus Energy Corp., Dallas, 1 Volcanera wildcat in Colombia flowed 7.2 MMcfd of gas and 240 b/d of liquid hydrocarbons through a 1/2 in. choke with 1 450 psi flowing tubing pressure from Mirador pay at 18,520-695 ft. It was drilled to 19,103 ft 100 miles northeast of Bogota on the Recetor block in the Llanos basin. Operator Maxus Colombia holds a 53.3% interest, Deilmann Erdol Erdgas GmbH of Germany 20%, Inaquimicas SA of Colombia 16.7%, and British Petroleum Exploration Co. (Colombia) Ltd. 10%.

GAS PROCESSING

SANTA FE ENERGY RESOURCES INC., Houston, agreed to assign its gas gathering and processing assets to Hadson Corp., Dallas, in exchange for $52 million worth of Hadson 11.25% preferred stock and 40% of Hadson's common stock. The assets include 630 miles of pipeline in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, three processing plants in Texas and New Mexico, an intrastate pipeline supplying gas to commercial customers in Lubbock, Tex., and a 7 year gas sales contract. Hadson expects the deal to increase to about 1 bcfd its gas deliveries to U.S. local distribution and end use customers.

PETROCHEMICALS

IRAN'S Arak petrochemical complex started up late last month after completion of first phase construction. Production capacity is pegged at 550,000 metric tons/year of polyethylene and acetic acid. Construction cost was $60 million. Feedstock comes from refineries in Isfahan and Arak.

GAS STORAGE

WILD GOOSE GAS STORAGE CO., a unit of First Reserve Gas Co., Dallas, signed a 15 year contract to provide underground gas storage to CanWest Gas Supply Inc., Vancouver, B.C. Storage will be provided in the depleted Wild Goose gas field, 50 miles north of Sacramento. Terms call for CanWest to commit to firm storage service for three fourths of the project's initial capacity of 6 bcf of storage space and 400 MMcfd of withdrawal capacity. Project start-up is scheduled for late 1995.

NUEVO ENERGY CO., Houston, acquired a 48.5% interest in a long life storage facility in Morton County in the southwest corner of Kansas for $6.4 million. Richfield Gas Storage System, which hooks into four pipelines, operates in a depleted gas field with related facilities in the Hugoton area. The storage site has working capacity of 5 bcf and peak withdrawal capacity of 100 MMcfd.

TEJAS POWER CORP., Houston, agreed to buy Phibro Energy U.S.A. Inc.'s 50% interest in Moss Bluff Gas Storage Systems, a trade that will leave Tejas sole owner of the Moss Bluff storage site in Liberty County of Southeast Texas. Included in the deal are compression and other surface facilities, an injection/withdrawal well, and a storage cavern with 1.7 bcf of working capacity. The site's peak injection rate is 150 MMcfd and withdrawal 450 MMcfd. Moss Bluff's Phase 11 expansion, which is in progress, will boost working capacity to 5.5 bcf. Closing is expected by Oct. 1.

PIPELINES

U.S. FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION approved San Diego Gas & Electric's plan to lay a pipeline to move natural gas to Mexico. Its 36 in. Project Vecinos transmission line will extend 80 miles from the company's Moreno compressor station in South Riverside County, Calif., to Santee, Calif., linking with another 1.2 mile, 36 in. pipeline from SDG&E's distribution system in Otay Mesa to the U.S.-Mexico border. The project awaits final decision from Mexico's government.

WILLIAMS FIELD SERVICES GROUP, Tulsa, is expanding its coal seam gas gathering and treating capacities in the San Juan basin. The project, to be fully operational by Jan. 1, 1994, will increase nominal Manzanares gas system capacity to 750 MMcfd from 575 MMcfd. Work is under way on pipeline, compressor, and treating facilities in Northwest New Mexico. Another expansion is planned for 1994, which will increase Williams's total coal seam system capacity to more than 850 MMcfd.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

EUROPEAN BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT approved an $80 million loan to the KomiArcticOil joint venture in Russia to provide more capital for the first two phases of Upper Vozey Silurian oil field development. JV partners are Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. and British Gas Exploration & Production Ltd. with Russian companies Komineft and Ukhtaneftegasgeologia. The arctic field is near Usinsk, 1,500 km northeast of Moscow.

ARAKIS ENERGY CORP., Vancouver, B.C., asked Parker Drilling Co., Tulsa, to act as its drilling and servicing contractor in Sudan when work gets under way there. Arakis and partner State Petroleum Corp. submitted to the government of Sudan the final draft of a production sharing agreement (PSA) covering a combined total of 170,000 sq km of acreage containing 280 million bbl of proved, recoverable reserves. A Parker proposal calls for it to drill five wells within 1 year after the PSA is signed.

ENERGY BIOSYSTEMS CORP., The Woodlands, Tex., and Texaco Inc.'s exploration and production technology division teamed up to develop a biotechnology based process to reduce sulfur content in crude oil. Energy BioSystems will be mainly responsible for improving performance of biocatalysts used in desulfurization, Texaco for field operations and analytical chemistry work. Process engineering will be a joint effort.

SWIFT ENERGY CO. unit Swift Energy de Venezuela CA submitted a bid to Venezuelan state company Lagoven for reactivation of the Quiriquire unit in Northeast Venezuela. The unit is one of 1 3 out for bid under Venezuela's marginal oil field reactivation program. Other bidders are Mobil, Shell, Pennzoil, Maxus, and Elf Aquitaine. The winner is expected to be named early in October.

CODA ENERGY INC., Dallas, paid $15.8 million for interests in Southwest Kansas oil and gas leases holding a combined 71 wells producing 700 b/.d of oil and 1.25 MMcfd of gas net to Coda. Effective Aug. 1, it became operator of 66 of the wells. Net production gained by Coda equals 25% of its daily oil production in the first 6 months of 1993 and 18% of daily gas production.

DEKALB ENERGY CO. LTD., Calgary, shut down operations in the U.S. to concentrate on oil and gas development in Canada. It closed an office in Bakersfield, Calif., and sold gas wells in California's Sacramento and San Joaquin basins to Samedan Oil Corp. for $5.1 million (Canadian). Dekalb still owns an interest in a recent California oil discovery where it is not operator.

SHELL CANADA LTD. will build a $5.5 million (Canadian) dehydration plant for one of its Monkman Pass gas wells in Northeast British Columbia. The plant is next to the West Bullmoose well, 150 km northeast of Prince George. The well, scheduled to start production in November, flowed as much as 45 MMcfd. The plant will remove water before the gas moves via pipeline to a processing plant at Pine River.

SNYDER OIL CORP. (SOCO), Fort Worth, agreed to pay $30 million for leases holding estimated reserves of more than 8 million bbl of oil equivalent (BOE) in SOCO operating areas in Colorado and Wyoming, associated gathering and processing facilities, and undeveloped acreage with resources not estimated. Assets acquired in Colorado include interests in 225 producing wells and 272 undrilled wellsites in Wattenberg field. In Wyoming, SOCO is to buy an investor's 25% interest in Barrel Springs and Duck Lake fields in Carbon and Sweetwater counties.

SMEDVIG AS let contract to ABB Environmental Norsk Viftefabrikk AS, Oslo, for a 320,000 b/d water injection treatment system. It's to be installed on AS Smedvig Drilling Co.'s West Omikron jack up rig adjacent to Phillips Petroleum Co. Norway's Ekofisk field water injection platform on Block 2/4K in the Norwegian North Sea.

TECO COALBED METHANE INC., a unit of TECO Energy Inc., Tampa, acquired interests in 500 coalbed methane wells in Alabama's Black Warrior basin from Magnolia Methane Corp., a unit of Transco Energy Co., Houston. TECO paid Magnolia $15.5 million for the leases. Magnolia is to receive production payments based on percentages of net proceeds generated by future gas production from wells covered by the deal.

TANKERS

FIRST LIFTING of Point Arguello field crude in the Santa Barbara Channel off California occurred Aug. 9-10 at the long idled Gaviota marine terminal by Chevron Corp.'s double hull Chevron Oregon tanker. Liftings will occur every 5 days, allowing Chevron and partners to boost field production to 85,000 b/d from about 50,000 b/d. The lifting followed 4 years of controversy over direct tankering of Arguello crude from the channel. A dry run of the lifting occurred July 26 (OGJ, Aug. 2, p. 38).