INDUSTRY BRIEFS
GAS STORAGE
FRANCE'S Gaz de France (GDF) late last month commissioned its 13th underground natural gas storage facility. The Cere-La-Ronde site in the Loire region is designed for storage capacity of 31.5-45.5 bcf and working gas capacity of 14-21 bcf. The 31.5 bcf level is expected to be reached in 2000. GDF's combined gas storage capacity in France is 700 bcf, or one third of western Europe's total.
PETAL GAS STORAGE CO., a unit of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., is offering 3.2 bcf of working gas capacity at its Forrest County, Miss., salt dome gas storage site. An orientation conference was scheduled Nov. 17 in Houston, with a registration phase to begin Nov. 24 and an auction phase to begin Dec. 9. Prospective storage clients are required to have access to Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.'s 500 pipeline or to Koch Gateway pipeline.
EXPLORATION
ALASKA will offer oil and gas leases in Cook Inlet Sale 78 scheduled Jan. 24, 1994, in Anchorage. The sale will feature 92 tracts covering 402.916 acres in the Matanuska-Susitna and Kenai Peninsula boroughs and Anchorage. It includes state uplands in the lower Susitna Valley and on the Kenai Peninsula as well as tidelands and submerged acreage in Cook Inlet.
JOINT VENTURE companies in Yemen's 1.9 million acre East Shabwa contract area during the next 2 years will acquire at least 500 km of seismic data and drill at least two wildcats. The acreage is west of the Masila block, estimated to hold recoverable reserves of more than 300 million bbl of oil. Block operator is Total Aden Exploration & Production. Its partners are Unocal Corp., Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration, and Pecten Yemen, which is being acquired by Nomeco Oil & Gas Co., Jackson, Mich., and Australian companies Command Petroleum Holdings NL and Coplex Resources NL.
ARCO ALASKA INC. plugged a test of its Wild Weasel prospect 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay, Alas., and 9 miles offshore in the eastern Beaufort Sea. ARCO's 1 OCS-Y-1597, drilled to 9,314 ft, failed to find commercial hydrocarbons. The well required 35 days to drill and cost $22 million. ARCO held a 46% working interest, Phillips Petroleum Co. 54%.
CHINA NATIONAL OFFSHORE OIL CORP. and Maxus Energy Corp., Dallas, signed a three phase exploration contract covering two large tracts 50 miles off China in the East China Sea. In the first exploratory phase of 3 years, Maxus is to collect seismic data and complete an unspecified drilling program on 3,624 sq km Block 25/20 and 2,422 sq km Block 25/31. The agreement includes two optional exploratory phases of 2 years each.
ISRAMCO INC., Tel Aviv, chartered the Benreoch semisubmersible rig from Ross Offshore AS, Oslo, to drill a wildcat off Israel in January 1994. According to Norwell Ltd., Aberdeen, appointed by Isramco to manage the project, 1 Yam Yafo will be the first offshore wildcat drilled in the region since the late 1980s. The Benreoch charter term is for 5 months. Isramco has an option to extend the contract for two more wells. One would be a 60-80 day reentry and workover of a well drilled in the late 1980s on the same license. The other would be a second wildcat on the block.
GIVOT OLAM OIL LTD., Jerusalem, plans to drill on Israeli onshore License 242 and is looking for a drilling contractor to start work immediately under a turnkey contract. The company intends to drill one well to 4,000 m and may drill a second to 5,500 m.
TAIWAN'S Chinese Petroleum Corp. and Alberta signed an access agreement to facilitate free exchange of information in oil exploration technology between Taiwan and the Canadian province. The agreement is seen in Taiwan as a possible precursor to purchases of Alberta petroleum products and sulfur.
EXPORTS-IMPORTS
ITALY'S electrical power monopoly ENEL agreed to continue purchases of Algerian natural gas transported by Snam SpA via the Transmed pipeline between Italy and Algeria. ENEL will buy from Snam, the gas unit of Italy's Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, 210 bcf/year with an option for another 140 bcf/year. That matches current volumes, but ENEL extended the contract to 10 years from 3 years. After 1997, ENEL will buy another 140 bcf/year directly from Algeria's Sonatrach. Snam's gas price is to be indexed to high sulfur and low sulfur fuel oil.
COMPANIES
FRANCE'S GDF is acquiring Shell France's heating oil business, which consists of Sochan, with sales of 380 million francs ($66.9 million)/year, and Someth, with sales of 300 million francs ($52.7 million)/year. Shell France recently halted efforts to market heating oil in France and is divesting noncore assets. The acquisition will double GDF's share of France's heating oil market to 10%.
AMOCO ENERGY TRADING CORP., Houston, and BC Gas Utility Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., signed two 5 year contracts to supply a combined 20 billion BTU/day of natural gas to British Columbia. The gas, from Amoco's San Juan and Rocky Mountain supply basins in the U.S., began flowing Nov. 1 through the Northwest Pipeline system. Amoco said developing the British Columbia market is important because the California market is oversupplied.
SHAREHOLDERS of Hadson Energy Resources Corp., Oklahoma City, approved Hadson's merger with a unit of Apache Corp., Houston. Terms of the Apache acquisition call for Hadson stockholders to receive their choice of either cash or Apache common stock, whether or not they previously tendered their Hadson shares.
SETPOINT INC. and Aspen Technology Inc. teamed up to provide on-line optimization solutions to the process industry. Setpoint will use Aspen-Tech's RT-OPT modeling technology. Joint projects in the U.S. and Europe are under way.
LITWIN PROCESS AUTOMATION and Process Instrumentation Design & Software Industries (PID), Brussels, will jointly market and coordinate future development of their software products, which manage life cycle requirements of instrumentation systems, ranging from engineering and design to operation and maintenance.
INCHCAPE TESTING SERVICES (ITS) acquired Dahl & Co., a Texas company offering testing and inspection to major chemical producers. The acquisition enables ITS to expand capability into the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
PIPELINES
CONSOLIDATED NATURAL GAS CO. and Texaco Inc. are studying the feasibility of creating a natural gas market hub to serve the U.S. Northeast. The hub would be established on the system of Consolidated's interstate pipeline unit CNG Transmission Corp. and operated jointly by CNG Transmission and Texaco unit Sabine Pipe Line Co. The study is expected to be completed by yearend.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
CONOCO (U.K.) LTD.'S 9/9-11 appraisal well is the last of three drilled this year on a structure 15 km southeast of North Sea Beryl field. The well, drilled to 13,391 ft by the Drillstar semisubmersible, cut Triassic sandstone that flowed an average 6.7 MMcfd of gas and 1,209 b/d of condensate through a 24/64 in. choke. Middle Jurassic pay yielded an average 14.6 MMcfd of gas and 1,321 b/d of condensate through a 52/64 in. choke.
GLOBAL MARINE INC. drilled what it calls the first turnkey well in the North Sea. Its Glomar Labrador I jack up drilled the 44/29b-4 well in the U.K. southern gas basin for Fina Petroleum Development Ltd. The cased and logged well was on budget, 7 days ahead of schedule.
MOBIL NORTH SEA LTD. drilled a sidetrack to its U.K. 29/2c-8 discovery well using the Sedco 706 drilling rig. The 29/2c-8z appraisal well flowed a combined rate of 5,738 b/d of 36 gravity oil and 3.4 MMcfd of associated gas from two reservoirs. The discovery flowed 25 MMcfd and 1,620 b/d of condensate. License partners are operator Mobil 80%, Pict Petroleum plc, London, 17.5%, and Croft Exploration Ltd., Glasgow, 2.5%.
ELF GABON started crude oil production from Hylia and Vanneau fields in 28 m of water off Gabon. Flow of 6,000 b/d is expected to rise to 16,000 b/d after other wells in Hylia go on stream by yearend. Oil moves through the Torpille field installation to Elf's terminal at Cap Lopez. Hylia, discovered in 1989, and Vanneau in 1985 on the Eyena Marin license, are between Torpille and Grondin fields.
THE U.S. SENATE'S energy committee approved a bill, already passed by the House, to suspend drilling for a year on 6,280 acres of federal leases near Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. Yates Energy Corp. planned to drill a well north of the park, but consultants for the National Park Service panel warned drilling could risk contamination of Lechuguilla Cave and others on the north side of the national park.
CHEVRON PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY CO., Otis Engineering Corp., Dowell Schlumberger, Marathon Oil Co., Petrobras, Shell Development Co., and Nagoaka USA Corp. asked for an antitrust waiver for a joint research program on horizontal well gravel packs. Goal of the project is to collect and distribute data on procedures of gravel packing horizontal wells using Marathon's proprietary 100 ft, full scale, high pressure well bore model.
CHEVRON U.K. LTD. let 5 year contracts worth a combined 24 million ($36 million) for lease of electric submersible pumps to be used in the North Sea's Alba and Ninian oil fields. Centrilift Ltd., Aberdeen, will supply pumps and support staff for 13 wells in Alba. Lasalle Engineering Ltd., Inverurie, Scotland, will provide pumps and support for two wells in Alba and four in Ninian.
HAMILTON OIL CO. LTD., London, leased part of Trafalgar House Offshore Fabricator's Port Glasgow shipyard for refurbishment of the recently acquired Morecambe Flame jack up rig. The rig will be converted to a 60 man accommodation platform by mid-1995 for use in development of Douglas field in the Irish Sea (OGJ, Nov. 1, p. 34). Hamilton expects to award a conversion contract by year end.
KERR-MCGEE OIL (U.K.) PLC agreed with BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. for transshipment of oil from the North Sea's Gryphon field through BP's Nigg terminal, Cromarty Firth. Gryphon field went on stream Oct. 14 (OGJ, Nov. 1, p. 25). The first shuttle tanker of Gryphon crude was scheduled to arrive at Nigg in mid-November. Cargoes will be offloaded into storage tanks at Nigg ready for transfer to oceangoing vessels.
ELF PETROLEUM NORGE AS let a 48 million kroner ($6.6 million) contract to Stena Offshore Ltd., Aberdeen, for pipeline tie-ins during development of Norway's Froy field. Four pipelines will be laid next spring from Froy field to the Frigg TCP-2 platform, 32 km away. Stena will complete tie-ins during 40 days in summer 1994.
REFINING
RAYONG REFINERY CO. let a $1.3 billion contract to 50-50 partners Fluor Corp. unit Fluor Daniel Inc. and Raytheon Co. unit Raytheon Engineers & Constructors Inc. to build a 145.000 b/d refinery 100 miles south of Bangkok in the Mab Ta Phud industrial complex in Thailand's Rayong province. Fluor and Raytheon unit Badger Co. Inc. earlier signed a letter of intent for work on the project (OGJ, Mar. 8, Newsletter).
PETROECUADOR called a tender to prequalify for bids on expanding its Esmeraldas, Ecuador, refinery capacity to 110,000 b/d from the current 90,000 b/d. New units will be able to process increasingly heavier Oriente crudes. Deadline for prequalifying documents is Nov. 30.
PETROECUADOR let a $24 million contract to Kellogg Panamerican Corp. to expand its Amazonas refinery in the Oriente region to 20,000 b/d from the current 10,000 b/d. The expansion is required to meet increasing fuel demand by oil companies operating in the region.
M.W. KELLOGG CO. is licensing Refining Process Services Inc.'s MagnaCat process, which uses magnetic separation to remove older, less active catalyst from fluid catalytic cracking and resid cracking units. This allows refiners to increase conversion or decrease catalyst use.
LYONDELL-CITGO REFINING CO. LTD. licensed UOP's hydrotreating technology as part of a heavy crude upgrade program at its Houston refinery. The new unit will treat 45,000 b/sd of heavy vacuum gas oil, heavy coker gas oil, and light cycle oil to produce desulfurized, saturated feed for the fluid catalytic cracking unit.
ENGELHARD CORP. developed a fluid catalytic cracking catalyst that enables refiners to reduce coke while maintaining bottoms upgrading. The catalyst, called Reduxion, features advanced matrix technology with an acidity distribution that produces 10-20% less coke than traditional bottoms upgrading catalysts, with the same ability to upgrade heavier feed fractions.
PETROCHEMICALS
TAIWAN'S Ministry of Economic Affairs will spend $2.42 billion to develop a petrochemical complex and housing for related companies on about 7,400 acres of land near the Formosa Plastics Group's naphtha cracker at Mailiao. At least 2,100 acres will be set aside for petrochemical plants that will form the heart of a larger industrial zone. Taiwan hopes development of the land, expected to take 70 months, will attract intermediate and downstream petrochemical producers.
Copyright 1993 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.