INDUSTRY BRIEFS

COMPANIES

PHILIPPINES will sell part of its 27.5% interest in Oriental Petroleum & Minerals Corp. (OPMC) via public offering to raise cash for the country's strapped treasury and prevent either of two feuding stockholders in the company from taking majority control of the firm. OPMC is Philippines's biggest oil exploration company. Plans are to place 12.25 billion government shares of OPMC, valued at $27 million, on the stock market.

KUWAIT OIL CO. (KOC) and Enterra Corp., Houston, dispute a contract between them that focuses on oil field services rendered by Enterra in 1992 and 1993. Enterra said that as of June 30 about $10 million worth of receivables from KOC is in question. Work performed by Enterra on more than 700 wells immediately following the 1991 Persian Gulf war is not involved.

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC. and other claimants reached settlement with Peru stemming from expropriation of Belco Petroleum Corp. assets. Terms call for Peru to pay $184.7 million plus interest to AIG and several of its units, various insurers, and other parties. Peru made an initial $30 million payment Sept. 28. A payment of accrued interest will be made Jan. 31 , 1994, with the rest of the principal and accrued interest to be paid in six equal annual installments starting July 1, 1994.

EXPLORATION CO. OF LOUISIANA INC., Lafayette, La., completed an $8.25 million financing deal to provide working capital and to fund exploration on the Zhao Dong block of China's Bohai Bay and development and exploration in Berry R. Cox field of South Texas. Before yearend it plans to complete a stock offering of $25 million to help finance more drilling through 1994.

SHAMROCK INC., San Antonio, will take two nonrecurring third quarter charges. One is a $23.6 million or $14.2 million after tax cost to be paid to Maxus Energy Corp. stemming from a 1987 agreement in a spinoff. The other is $2 million to restate deferred taxes.

PETROCHEMICALS

CHINESE PETROLEUM CORP.'S (CPC) fifth naphtha cracker is scheduled to start up in February 1994. It will produce 400.000 metric tons/year of ethylene and 230,000 tons/year of propylene. Separately, a $230 million joint venture of CPC and Taiwan Cement Corp. will begin producing phenol and acetone in September 1994 and bisphenol A in June 1995.

FORMOSA PLASTICS GROUP'S Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp. will spend $100 million to revamp a plant acquired from Nan Ya Plastics Corp. to produce acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS). When the plant, near Chiayi in Central Taiwan, goes on stream in 2 years, it will have a capacity of 150,000 metric tons/year.

COMPUTERS

MOBIL CORP. bought a massively parallel computer, a 128 processing node connection machine, from Thinking Machines Corp., Cambridge, Mass. Price isn't disclosed. The computer produces high fidelity, 3D seismic images. Thinking Machines calls the sale the largest commercial acquisition of a massively parallel computer in the oil industry.

COGENERATION

A JOINT VENTURE of Italy's API refining group and Asea Brown Boveri agreed to install a $440 million, 2 million kw resid gasification/combined cycle cogeneration power plant at API's Falconara, Italy, refinery. To start up in 1998, it will supply power to Italy's electric utility ENEL and eliminate all resids at the refinery while complying with European Community's toughest standards for sulfur and nitrogen oxides emissions.

LNG

TAIWAN'S Chinese Petroleum Corp. signed a letter of intent with Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co. Ltd. of Qatar to purchase 2 million metric tons/year of LNG. Ras Laffan, a joint venture of Qatar General Petroleum Corp. 70% and Mobil Corp. 30%, was formed in December 1992 to develop, produce, and market LNG from North field off Qatar. Ras Laffan earlier signed a letter of intent with Korea Gas Corp. to supply 2.4 million tons/year of LNG. Under both deals, deliveries are to begin in 1998.

REFINING

PLACID REFINING CO. placed a $20 million, 12,000 b/d hydrotreater on stream at its 50,000 b/d Port Allen, La., refinery. The unit allows Placid to meet U.S. regulations requiring that highway diesel sold after Oct. 1 meet 0.05 wt % sulfur specification.

RUSSIA reports two workers were killed and two injured by an explosion at a refinery in Samara (formerly Kuibyshev). Moscow's Izvestia newspaper said the accident occurred during repair work on a gasoline installation and resulted from violation of safety regulations.

TERMINALS

CROWN CENTRAL PETROLEUM CORP. put out a fire Sept. 29 at the Red Bluff tank farm at its Pasadena, Tex., products terminal. The fire that started the day before was limited to the loading rack 1 mile from Crown Central's 100,000 b/cd Houston refinery and did not affect plant operations.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

SEAGULL MID-SOUTH INC., a unit of Seagull Energy Corp., Houston, agreed to pay $26.6 million for an interest in Oak Hill gas field in East Texas' Rusk County. The interest, with estimated proved reserves of 28.7 bcf and 115,000 bbl of condensate, produces 7.5 MMcfd and 54 b/d of condensate from 50 wells. Oak Hill is near two fields Seagull operates.

MAXUS ENERGY CORP., Dallas, rejected bids for the purchase of all of its interest in the Northwest Java contract area of Indonesia. Maxus holds a 24.27% interest in the 5.8 million acre production sharing contract area operated by ARCO. Maxus' current net share of oil sales from the area is 20,000 b/d.

CANADA'S Beta Well Service Inc. continues to suspend well servicing work in western Siberia's Chernogor region (OGJ, Sept. 27, p. 29), waiting on payments that total a combined $4.1 million (U.S.) from contractor Calgary Overseas Development. A payment of $1.2 million comes due in mid-October. Beta said its four service rigs on the job can be redeployed if the contract dispute isn't resolved.

FOREST OIL CORP., Denver, signed a letter of intent to buy ARCO's interest in one offshore and three onshore fields in the U.S. Gulf Coast for $29.5 million. The leases have production net to ARCO of 6.5 MMcfd of gas and 600 b/d of oil. Production rate is expected to increase in fourth quarter when a well that flowed 2.8 MMcfd net to ARCO's interest goes on production.

LOUISIANA LAND & EXPLORATION CO., New Orleans, completed its $353.7 million cash acquisition of Nerco Oil & Gas Inc. (OGJ, July 26, p. 42). The purchase includes working interests in 50 producing oil and gas fields mainly in the Gulf of Mexico.

ARAKIS ENERGY CORP., Vancouver, B.C., named Strand Partners Ltd., London, financial adviser for the $140 million (U.S.) funding in the first phase of its oil recovery and development project in Sudan. The project covers blocks with a combined 42.2 million acres that hold 1.2 billion bbl of oil, 280 million bbl of it recoverable (see map, OGJ, May 3, p. 48).

LIQUID AIR CORP., Walnut Creek, Calif., is supplying 250 tons/day of carbon dioxide to Texaco Exploration & Production Inc.'s Port Neches, Tex., enhanced oil recovery project. CO2 delivery began in September via a 9 mile pipeline from Liquid Air's Beaumont, Tex., plant. Wells in the field are in 8 ft of water in a tidal area of the Gulf Coast.

ANADARKO PETROLEUM CORP. unit Anadarko Algeria Corp.'s 2 EMK confirmation well in Algeria tested 45 gravity oil with no water at noncommercial rates. The well is 3 miles northeast of the 1 EMK discovery. The rig will move 6 miles south to drill 1 EME, the third well in the area, scheduled to spud this month. Another rig will deploy to Block 404 where it will drill the 1 HBN wildcat, starting in November. The two rigs will be used to drill more prospects in 1994.

MIM HOLDINGS unit Barracuda Ltd. in partnership with Chevron Niugini formed a venture to develop South East Gobe oil discovery in the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea. The field straddles the border of the Barracuda and Chevron permits in the region. Barracuda is to be operator. Field reserves are estimated at 100 million bbl, based on five wells drilled to date.

YEMEN'S Masila project officially opened Sept. 23 consisting of 10 oil fields, production capacity of 120,000 b/d, 138 km of pipelines, and port facilities with 2.5 million bbl storage capacity and tanker loading berths. Development and construction on eastern Yemen's Masila block (OGJ, Mar. 9, 1992, p. 49) were completed in 17 months, and production started 3 months ago. Project partners are Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd., Occidental Petroleum Corp., Shell Oil Co. unit Pecten Yemen Co., Consolidated Contractors International Co. SAL, and the government of Yemen.

NORWAY'S den norske stats oijeselskap AS let a 480 million kroner ($61.6 million) contract to Saipem SpA for installation of two platforms in West Sleipner gas field in the Norwegian North Sea between summer 1995 and spring 1996, using the Micoperi 7000 crane vessel.

MALAYSIA'S Petronas Carigali obtained a revolving syndicated loan of about $96.29 million to fund development of Dulang oil field off Terengganu, Malaysia. It is the second installment of an estimated project outlay of $192.6 million.

TANKERS

U.S. COAST GUARD amended its safety and pollution prevention regulations to ensure they apply to offshore lightering operations. The rule, published in the Sept. 15 Federal Register, sets operating conditions for tankers delivering oil and for lightering vessels.

PETROLEOS DE VENEZUELA SA shipping unit PDV Marina will add eight Korean built double hull tankers in 1994, increasing its fleet to 20 vessels. The company hopes to boost capacity by 50% and ship about 1.5 million metric tons of hydrocarbons during 1994. The increase will allow Venezuela to save foreign exchange and expand its oil industry.

THE ALTAIR crude tanker, an empty 12,101 dwt Panamanian registered vessel, exploded and sank in the South China Sea off Tioman Island, Malaysia, Sept. 25. Two supply ships were standing by in the area to spray chemicals to contain pollution in case the Altair spilled any oil. Three of the Korean crew of 21 are missing. The other 18, all uninjured, were rescued and airlifted to Singapore. Cause of the explosion is not known.

PIPELINES

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION'S research and special programs administration issued a rule requiring gas pipeline companies to install fixed gas detection and alarm systems in compressor buildings within 3 years. The rule, published in the Sept. 16 Federal Register, will not apply to buildings that have 50% of their upright side area permanently open or to unattended field compressor stations of 1,000 hp or less.

NORSK HYDRO hired Allseas Marine Contractors SA to install a gas export pipeline from the Troll Olje production platform to the Troll Phase I gravity base structure in the North Sea. The 18 mile, 16 in. line will be in 335 m of water. Allseas will use its Lorelay dynamically positioned pipelay vessel and begin work in August 1995.

A COMBINE of Australian mining and oil companies led by Western Mining Corp. Holdings Ltd. and including BHP Minerals and Normandy Poseidon Ltd. won the right to develop a feasibility study of its proposed $400 million (Australian), 1,400 km gas pipeline. The line is to extend from the Pilbara region of Northwest Australia to the Kalgoorlie gold/nickel mining area of Western Australia's south central region. It will link Northwest Shelf gas with the mining/industrial region, with demand initially pegged at 57-66.5 MMcfd and design capacity of 142.5 MMcfd.

A NATURAL GAS PIPELINE exploded beneath a highway Sept. 28 in Las Tejerias, Venezuela, 30 miles southwest of Caracas, killing 36 persons. The line ruptured while a state telephone company crew installed fiber optic cables. Pdvsa unit Corpoven SA shut off gas flow soon after the explosion.

GEOTHERMAL

CALIFORNIA ENERGY CO., Omaha, and Philippine national company Energy Development Corp. signed energy conversion agreements for two Philippines geothermal projects with combined 300,000 kw capacity and combined cost of about $350 million. Under a take or pay power sales contract, California Energy agreed to build, own, and operate a 180,000 kw plant in Mahanagdong geothermal field with a completion date of June 1997 and a 120,000 kw plant in Upper Mahiao geothermal field with a completion date of July 1996.

ENVIRONMENT

OXYGENATED FUELS ASSOCIATION awarded a $45,000 grant to University of Alaska Fairbanks's Institute of Arctic Biology for a health study to establish an olfactory threshold. Volunteers from Fairbanks will be asked to sample odors from Alaskan fuels with and without methyl tertiary butyl ether. Determining the threshold is the first step in establishing whether an arctic climate influences sensitivity of people who are using MTBE.