INDUSTRY BRIEFS

Correction

Robsearch Australia Pty. Ltd. did not issue an estimate of postulated oil resources within the ZOCA 96-16 permit in the Timor Sea, as reported (OGJ, Feb. 16, 1998, p. 32). A press release issued by the permit operator attributed an estimate of 1 billion bbl of postulated oil resources in the permit area to Robsearch, which the North Sydney, Australia, consultant says is not a realistic assessment of the potential recoverable oil in ZOCA 96-16, based on available data.

Mountain West Exploration Inc.,
Albuquerque, N.M., was inadvertently omitted as a 0.88% interest partner in operator Chevron Niugini Pty. Ltd.'s Gobe onshore project in Papua New Guinea. The field is producing 10,000 b/d of crude oil (OGJ, Mar. 16, 1998, p. 38).

Research

Snyder Oil Corp., Fort Worth, and Belco Oil & Gas Corp., New York, will partner in a $2.8 million project to assist in the discovery and development of gas resources in basin-centered, low-permeability reservoirs. Operator Snyder and Belco will acquire 45 sq miles of 3D seismic and perform stimulation tests in two exploration wells on the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Wind River Indian reservation in Fremont County, Wyo. The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $1.2 million in funding. The University of Wyoming Institute of Energy Research will provide project management and exploration technologies.

LNG

Asia's economic crisis will delay a proposed $1.5 billion liquefied natural gas project at Kitimat, B.C., a Pac-Rim LNG Inc. executive said. The project, with an annual production of 4 million tons of LNG for export to South Korea, will not come on stream before mid-2001. Earlier plans called for production to begin in 2000, but the Calgary-based company had difficulty securing a 20-year gas supply deal with Canadian producers. Phillips Petroleum Resources Ltd., which had held a 35% stake in the joint venture before dropping out last November, headed initial efforts to obtain gas supplies.

Cogeneration

Sonat Energy Services Co., Birmingham, Ala., purchased a 50% limited partnership interest in the Mid-Georgia Cogen LP power plant from New Jersey-based GPU International Inc. The 300 MW gas-fired, combined cycle power plant at Kathleen, Ga., is scheduled to begin operating by early summer.

Petrochemicals

DSM Polyolefins GmbH let contract to Technip SA, Paris, for design and construction of a $180 million polypropylene plant at Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The plant will incorporate gas-phase polypropylene technology license from Amoco Corp. It will have capacity to produce 250,000 metric tons/year of poly- propylene and is expected on stream early in 2000. DSM also let contract to Technip to revamp an ethylene cracker at the Geleen complex near Maastricht, the Netherlands. The work will raise ethylene capacity to 1.2 million tons/year, with the revamped unit expected on line in 2000.

Montell Polyolefins Co.
signed a letter of intent with Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Co. to study the feasibility of building a joint venture polypropylene unit at Maoming, China. The partners want to expand capacity of an existing 140,000 metric ton/year polypropylene plant and market the output domestically. The plant was started up in 1996 and is based on Montell's Spheripol process.

Drilling-production

A U.K. joint venture of Amerada Hess Ltd., Shell U.K. Exploration & Production, and Texaco North Sea U.K. Co. received U.K. Department of Trade and Industry approval for a combined development of Bittern, Guillemot West, and Guillemot Northwest fields. Bittern straddles blocks operated by Amerada and Shell, while Guillemot West and Northwest are operated by Texaco. The fields will be developed with a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (OGJ, Nov. 17, 1997, p. 32). First oil is expected in third quarter 1999, and plateau production is anticipated to be 100,000 b/d of oil.

India's crude oil production
was up 3.3% in the 11 months of fiscal year 1997-98 to 30.912 million metric tons. Crude oil production in the same period a year ago was 29.917 million tons. Government officials said natural gas output rose 8.8% to 17.994 billion cu m during April 1997-February 1998, compared with 16.352 billion cu m in April 1996-February 1997.

British-Borneo Exploration Inc.
let a contract to Deep Gulf Contractors LLC, a joint venture of Aker Marine Contractors and J. Ray McDermott, to transport and install four completion guide bases and keel haul four 25-ton subsea trees to the drilling rig Ocean Endeavor for the Morpeth field development in the Gulf of Mexico. Work has begun.

Unocal Indonesia Co.
drilled two more successful wells in the deepwater Merah Besar area, further delineating a recent discovery off Indonesia (OGJ, Mar. 2, 1998, p. 9). The two wells, Merah Besar No. 9 and Hitam Besar No. 1, both cut shallow gas on the East Kalimantan production-sharing contract area. The Merah Besar No. 9 well also found deeper oil pay in the Miocene formation, but well problems prevented evaluation of the Miocene sands in Hitam Besar No. 1 well. Unocal, operator and 100% owner of the PSA, is estimating "gross resource potential" for the Merah Besar area at 75-300 million boe.

Chevron Nigeria Ltd.
announced first oil from Opolo field off Nigeria. Opolo is the first of four oil fields scheduled to begin production this year in a joint venture with Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. Operator Chevron 40% and NNPC 60% said Opolo is producing 20,000 b/d of oil in 140 ft of water in the western Niger Delta.

Phillips Petroleum Co.,
Bartlesville, Okla., let contract to Coflexip Stena Offshore Inc. for installation of 3.5-in. subsea rigid flow lines, one flow line termination sled, and one electrohydraulic umbilical in Agate field on Ship Shoal Block 361 in 400 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico. Agate production will be transported about 6 miles to the Mahogany platform on Ship Shoal 349.

Shell Petroleum Development Co.
and partner Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) announced first oil from seven wells in Ogbotobo and Agbaya fields last month. The new wells are producing 10,000 b/d, bringing the joint venture's total production to 930,000 b/d. The fields are expected to produce 26,000 b/d by yearend, say operator Shell and NNPC. The partners are planning to begin exploration drilling in the Gongola basin in northeastern Nigeria as soon as seismic studies are completed this year.

Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp.,
Oklahoma City, let a turnkey contract to Oceaneering International Inc., Houston, for tie-back of a subsea well on West Cameron Block 638 in 400 ft of water to a platform on West Cameron 648 in the Gulf of Mexico. The scope of work includes the supply and installation of a coiled tubing flow line, control umbilical, flow line and umbilical risers, a hydraulic control system, chemical injection skid, and related interface hookup hardware. Oceaneering will also perform systems engineering for the project and supervise the overall systems integration testing.

Terminals

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. commissioned a tanker vapor-control system at its Valdez, Alas., marine terminal. Construction of the $100 million system to recover hydrocarbon vapors began in May 1996.

U.S. Department of Energy
is coordinating participation by U.S. firms interested in helping the Ukrainian government reduce pollution at its tanker terminal at Odessa. Ukraine plans to apply any improvements made at Odessa to other Black Sea ports.

Exploration

Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) of India plans to conduct geophysical studies and drilling in the Bengal basin and reprocess seismic data collected about 20 years ago. ONGC's plan to re-enter Bengal comes at a time when the production from its main producing area at Bombay High is dropping, and oil companies are confronted with operating problems in the northeastern region of the country. ONGC has decided to "re-test" the Ichapur sand from the only well of nearly 30 drilled in the Bengal basin that it considers promising.

Ranger Oil Ltd.,
Calgary, reports a significant natural gas discovery in southwestern Northwest Territories. The P66-A well in the Liard River area flowed on test 16 MMcfd from the structure's upper zones. Operator Ranger 50%, with partners Unocal Corp. 35% and Canadian Forest Oil Ltd. 15%, said pool reserves on initial testing are at least 200 bcf. The well was spudded in January. Production will commence in 1999 and could reach 20 MMcfd of gas. The well is 15 miles from a pipeline connection. Additional seismic is planned in the area, and a delineation well is scheduled in early 1999.

Monument Oil & Gas plc,
London, acquired a farm-out from BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. for joint exploration around Andrew and Cyrus fields in the central U.K. North Sea. The companies have identified exploration prospects and potential satellite developments that could be tied back to BP-operated Andrew and Cyrus facilities. The deal calls for Monument to fund drilling of as many as four wells on Blocks 16/23, 16/28, and 22/3a in return for 50% of BP's equity in the blocks. First drilling is expected this year.

Pipelines

Northern Border Pipeline Co., Omaha, Neb., selected five contractors for the $839 million expansion and extension of the Northern Border pipeline system. The project includes laying 390 miles of 36 and 30-in. pipe, extending the system to Chicago, and adding 303,500 hp of compression. Construction is divided into five segments. The contractors are: Associated Pipe Line Contractors Inc., Gregory & Cook Inc., Willbros Energy Services Inc., Sheehan Pipeline Construction, and U.S. Pipelines Inc. The project will be on stream in November; the line will transport an additional 700 MMcfd of Canadian natural gas to U.S. markets.

Plains Resources Inc.,
Houston, purchased All American Pipeline Co., Celeron Gathering Corp., and Celeron Trading & Transportation Co. from Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for $420 million in cash. All American Pipeline owns and operates a 1,233-mile pipeline that carries crude oil from the California coast to refineries in California and, via other connections, to refineries in Texas and the Midwest. Celeron Gathering operates a 43-mile crude oil gathering system in California's San Joaquin Valley. Celeron Trading buys and sells crude oil.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd.,
Calgary, applied to Canada's National Energy Board to construct a $14.7 million pipeline loop in southern Ontario. Construction of the 6.5-km line was planned in 1999 but was pushed forward to meet demands for additional capacity at the Parkway delivery point, the company said. TransCanada already has approval to add 417 MMcfd of pipeline capacity in 1998. The loop will add 30 MMcfd through Parkway during the summer season and ease bottlenecks when more shippers deliver volumes into the Union Gas system for injection into storage. The project is scheduled for completion in mid-July.

Wingas GmbH,
Kassel, Germany, began construction on a 220-km pipeline section from Soest to Aachen, Germany. The new line is an extension of the existing Wedal pipeline built by Wingas to transport gas from Russia to northern Germany beginning early in 1997.

Refining

Pemex Refinacion let contract to Bloomfield, N.J.-based ABB Lummus Global Inc. and Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo for the license and basic engineering of a 30,500 b/d fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit and four gas oil hydrotreaters. The units will be installed at Pemex's refinery in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, and are slated to start up late in 2000. The FCC unit will use microjet feed injection nozzles and direct-coupled cyclones to convert low-quality gas oils to lighter products, with an emphasis on gasoline production.

Turkish national oil company
Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS let a $160 million contract to Foster Wheeler Italiana SpA to supply continuous catalytic reforming and isomerization units and related facilities at its Izir refinery in Turkey. Completion is set for late in 2000. Foster Wheeler will install: a 28,300 b/sd naphtha splitter; a 20,000 b/sd heavy naphtha hydrotreater; a 20,000 b/sd Platformer; a 12,000 b/sd light naphtha hydrotreater; a 12,000 b/sd light naphtha isomerization unit; plus utilities, interconnections, and offsites. Foster Wheeler Italiana formed a combine with Turkish construction firm Gama for construction work.

LPG

China's first group of 120 LPG-fueled buses will begin operating in May. The vehicles will help reduce emissions primarily in Beijing, where about 1.3 million automobiles are contributing to pollution problems. Meanwhile, a local automobile plant and a Beijing LPG company have developed a dual-duel truck that can use either gasoline or LPG.

Lubes

Caltex Oil Co. will begin construction of a $30 million refined lubricating oil and additives bottling plant in northern China's Tianjin port. Installation of equipment will be completed in 12 months. Most of the lubricating oil products will be sold locally.

Power

Ghana National Petroleum Corp. let an $80 million contract to Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Ansaldo Energia for a 125 MW gas-fired power plant barge and accessories. The power plant will be constructed near the villages of Efasu and Mangyea in Ghana's western region. The plant will use gas from Tano fields (OGJ, Apr. 15, 1996, p.16).

Copyright 1998 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.