INDUSTRY BRIEFS

Correction

Maxus Energy Corp. does not receive revenues from power generation in Widuri field, as reported incorrectly (OGJ, Nov. 24, 1997, p. 36). Nor was Maxus involved in the boiler conversions or associated capital expenditure. Also, Hamworthy Combustion Engineering did not supply replacement steam turbo-alternators.

Power

Enron International plans a 513-MW, $400 million power project at Kannur in India's southern state of Kerala. Enron has a 74% stake in Kannur Power Project Ltd., and India's K.P.P. Nambiar group has a 26% stake. Enron obtained a naphtha allocation from an Indian state oil company. With the plant's location on the coast, its conversion from naphtha fuel to liquefied natural gas as a fuel source is possible, Enron confirmed.

Lubes

Antwerp Distribution & Product Operations NV (ADPO) acquired Ethyl Corp.'s Ethyl Additives unit, which operates a lubricants manufacturing and blending plant at Ghent, Belgium. Ethyl acquired the Ghent plant as part of Texaco Inc.'s worldwide lubricants additives business in 1996. ADPO will continue to provide additives to Ethyl from the Ghent unit.

Drilling-production

ARCO British Ltd. and partner Calgary-based PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd.'s development plan for the North Sea's Waveney gas field was approved by the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry. The field lies in P780 license area covering Blocks 48/16c and 48/17c in the southern gas basin. Waveney has estimated reserves of 84 bcf. Operator ARCO 85.71% and PanCanadian 14.29% plan to start production start late in 1998.

Transocean Offshore Inc.,
Houston, will cease U.S.-based turnkey drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico by month's end following $12.6 million in losses attributed to abandoning one of two turnkey wells. Transocean also reported losses in its turnkey business for the full year of 1996 and the first 9 months of 1997. International turnkey drilling operations such as a multiwell project off Mexico in the Bay of Campeche will continue, the company said.

Tosco Corp.
was the first to purchase crude oil, an 850,000 bbl cargo, from the Hibernia oil field development off Newfoundland. Although terms of the sale were not disclosed, Hibernia's developers claimed the oil was sold at a premium to dated Brent crude-which closed Dec. 29 at $16.60 (U.S.)/bbl for February delivery. During the first year of production, Mobil Oil Canada Ltd. and Chevron Canada Ltd. will purchase crude from other Hibernia owners. The other partners, Petro-Canada Ltd., Canadian Hibernia Holding Corp., Murphy Oil, and Norsk Hydro Canada Oil & Gas, can market oil independently.

ARCO Alaska Inc.'s
West Sak oil field on Alaska's North Slope began commercial production Dec. 26. Operator ARCO 55% and partners BP Exploration Alaska 39% and Unocal Corp. 5% said the well is producing 200 b/d but should reach production target of 300 b/d/well. There are 50 production and injection wells scheduled for completion under a first-phase program by early 1999. Work on the field began in October 1997.

Basin Exploration Inc.,
Denver, operator of Eugene Island Block 64 S/2 and South Timbalier Block 146 in the Gulf of Mexico, logged 100 net ft of gas pay in two Miocene sands below 12,750 ft TVD. Installation of production facilities is scheduled late in first quarter 1998. Interests in the block are Basin 50%, GHP Exploration Corp. 25%, and Houston Exploration Co. 25%. Basin also received U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) approval to go ahead with the $31.3 million acquisition of Midcon Offshore Inc.'s gulf assets. Basin estimates net production from Midcon's High Island Block A-568 will reach 20 MMcfd by yearend.

EEX Corp.,
formerly Enserch Exploration Inc., Houston, said that production from East Cameron 349/350 fields in the Gulf of Mexico could reach 35 MMcfd of gas and 3,200 b/d of oil when a fourth well comes on line this month. A fifth well, drilling ahead, is the last in the field's development. Interests are operator EEX and Meridian Resources Corp. 37.5% each and Chieftain International Inc. 25%. Meanwhile, EEX's production from two wells on East Cameron Block 303 is 12 MMcfd of gas and 18 b/d of condensate, with peak production at 17 MMcfd and 70 b/d expected by yearend.

Carigali-Triton Operating Co.'s
(CTOC) Cakerawala field development plan was approved by Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority. CTOC is a 50-50 joint venture of Dallas-based Triton Energy Ltd. and Petronas Cariga* (JDA) Sdn. Bhd. The company's Block A-18 spans 731,000 acres in the northern Malay basin. It is the first of eight natural gas fields discovered by operator CTOC on Block A-18. CTOC will develop and produce 2 tcf/year of gas with facilities designed to produce 450 MMcfd of gas by fourth quarter 2000. The plan includes three wellhead, one production, and one living quarters platforms as well as a floating storage and offloading vessel and 35 development wells.

ARCO Qatar Consortium
completed two horizontal oil wells tied to existing facilities in Al-Rayyan field off Qatar. The two wells reached separate intervals of the Jurassic Arab formation and are producing about 18,000 b/d of oil. The field now includes six producing wells and one workover. The group comprises operator ARCO 27.5%, Toronto-based Gulfstream Resources Canada Ltd. 27.5%, BG plc 25%, Wintershall AG 15%, and Preussag Energie GmbH 5%. Al-Rayyan field development began in November 1996.

Pipelines

TransMaritime Gas Transmission Ltd. and Trans Quebec & Maritimes Pipeline Inc. withdrew their applications for their respective natural gas pipelines to carry gas from fields near Sable Island off Nova Scotia, following approval of rival Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline's (MNE) proposal by Canada's National Energy Board last month (OGJ, Dec. 22, 1997, Newsletter). MNE's pipeline, with Mobil Oil Canada Ltd. as a lead partner, will deliver gas to the U.S. Northeast and Canadian Atlantic provinces.

Alliance Pipeline
let a $200 million contract to O.J. Pipelines, a unit of Calgary-based Ocelot Energy Inc., to lay 563 km of 36-in. and 42-in. pipeline in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Construction, pending National Energy Board approval, is scheduled to take from second half 1998 through late 1999.

Millennium Pipeline Co.
applied to U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a 400-mile pipeline supplying 650 MMcfd of gas from western Canada to the U.S. Midwest and Northeast (OGJ, Apr. 14, 1997, p. 28). The $600 million project plans start of gas deliveries Nov. 1, 1999.

Petrochemicals

BP Chemicals Ltd. acquired for about $200 million the Styrenix Kunststoffe unit of H?ls AG, Marl, Germany. This is BP's largest chemicals acquisition in 15 years and could make the company a major European styrenics producer. The sale involves two H?ls plants: one at Marl with capacity to produce 380,000 metric tons/year of styrene, 420,000 tons/year of ethylbenzene, 180,000 tons/year of polystyrene, 75,000 tons/year of expandable polystyrene, and 250,000 tons/year of cumene; and one at Trelleborg, Sweden, with capacity to produce 70,000 tons/year of polystyrene.

Shell Chemical Co.
begins construction next month at its Deer Park, Tex., petrochemicals complex of a world-class phenol plant to provide feedstock for the U.S. polycarbonates market. Scheduled for completion late in 1999, the plant will have capacity for 225,000 metric tons/year of phenol and 135,000 tons/year of acetone. Current capacity at the site is 310,000 tons/year of phenol and 185,000 tons/year of acetone.

Bayer Premier Co. Ltd.,
a Thai unit of Bayer AG, let contract to construct a polycarbonate plant at Map Ta Phut, Thailand, to U.K.-based Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd., a unit of Foster Wheeler Corp., Clinton, N.J. The plant will produce 40,000 tons/year of Bayer Makrolan polycarbonate by yearend and double that production 12 months later.

Refining

Construction of a $1.5 billion oil refinery in central Viet Nam began last week. The Dung Quat refinery, the country's first, will have a capacity of 130,000 b/d by 2004. France's Total SA and other former backers of the project earlier withdrew, claiming the location is too far from oil supplies and consumers ?? to be economically viable. Petrovietnam, the state oil company, decided to proceed with the project, shouldering 40% of the capital burden, about $600 million.

Exploration

China National Offshore Oil Corp. let contract for a 2,150 sq km 3D seismic survey in the Qiong Dong Nan basin, off Hainan Island, China, to Petroleum Geo-Services ASA. PGS, Houston and Oslo, will begin the survey in April and is to complete its work in 3 months. Seismic processing will be conducted onboard the Nordic Explorer seismic vessel. PGS says it is the largest 3D survey to date off China.

Western Geophysical,
Houston, began a 10,000 km 2D speculative seismic survey off Angola covering deepwater and nearshore blocks to be made available during a 1998 licensing round. The survey will cover 5,000 km of nearshore Blocks 26 to 30, which is an infill of a 1997 program. The balance is a 5,000-km program to describe salt limits to the west of existing deepwater blocks. Western Geophysical's 2D vessel, M/V Cove, began acquisition using a 6,000-m, 24-bit digital streamer, sleeve air guns, and Western's interactive onboard seismic processing system.

MMS
issued a rule to ensure geological and geophysical data collection methods on the Gulf of Mexico's Outer Continental Shelf are environmentally safe. The rule also clarifies MMS authority to acquire geological and geophysical data to determine a lease's fair market value. MMS will announce a meeting with industry representatives to explain the rule's implementation.

Spirit Energy 76,
a unit of Unocal Corp., entered into an alliance with Rozel Energy LLC to explore 1 million acres of state and federal waters off southeastern Louisiana. Operator Spirit Energy has a 50% interest in any projects, while Lafayette, La.-based Rozel Energy, will hold a 25% stake. Transworld Exploration & Production Co. also will have a 25% interest. Spirit Energy plans to drill the alliance's first prospect in 1998.

Ocelot NZE Gabon Inc.'s
first exploratory well in Gabon, NZOB-2, flowed on test as much as 1,650 b/d of oil from the Obangue oil pool. Ocelot recompleted the NYOB-1 well, drilled by another company in 1988; testing and possible commercial production are scheduled this year. A 1-km pipeline will be laid from NYOB-1 to production facilities near NZOB-2, which include 16,000 bbl of storage capacity and a 6.5-km sales pipeline to a nearby river where a barge loading facility begins operations early this year. The company holds a 92.5% working interest in three permits in Gabon covering 1.3 million acres.

Unocal Corp.,
with partners Repsol SA and Moeco, found gas with the B-KL-1X well in the Malay basin of the Gulf of Thailand, Viet Nam. The discovery flowed at a rate of 52.9 MMcfd of gas. Operator Unocal 45%, Repsol 30%, and Moeco 25% plan a second well on the Block B prospect, which covers 5,263 sq km. The partners will acquire 3D seismic before drilling appraisal wells. Petrovietnam has an option to purchase up to a 15% working interest.

Terminals

A unit of Williams Cos. purchased a refined products terminal in Dallas from Mobil Oil Corp. for an undisclosed sum. The terminal has storage capacity in excess of 200,000 bbl and a three-spot bottom-loading rack for gasoline and diesel fuels. Product currently is supplied through Texaco Pipe Line Inc.'s pipeline. Williams owns and operates 59 petroleum product terminals along its 11-state midwestern U.S. pipeline, in the U.S. Southeast, and Phoenix. This is its first terminal in the Dallas market.

Companies

Parker Drilling Co., Tulsa, acquired Hercules Offshore Corp. and Hercules Rig Corp. for $195 million. Hercules Offshore, a Houston drilling contractor, was owned by Trenergy (Malaysia) Bhd., and Hercules Rig Corp. was owned by private Malaysian interests. The purchase includes seven jack up rigs and three self-erecting platform rigs.

Refining

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd., an Indian state-owned oil company, and Royal Dutch/Shell Group plan to build a refinery and a 500-MW electric power plant at Shankargarh, near Allahabad in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The partners each hold a 26% interest in the projects. Refining capacity isn't disclosed.

Petronas,
Malaysia's state-owned oil company, received approval from Bangladesh Petroleum Corp. in mid-December to add a $300 million crude distillation unit at Bangladesh's Chittagong refinery. The new unit, scheduled for completion in 2001, will boost refinery capacity to 100,000 b/d from 31,000 b/d.

Total International
and Nigeria's Ministry of Petroleum Resources agreed that turnaround maintenance on the country's 110,000 b/d Kaduna refinery should begin this month. Government officials claim maintenance will cost about $42 million. Ministry officials also cut crude allocations 40% in December to 150,000 b/d from 210,000 b/d at the 125,000 b/d Warri plant and the 150,000 b/d New Port Harcourt refinery. Maintenance on these refineries could begin as early as March. The government estimates total maintenance cost at $158 million.