Gas storage
Equitable Storage Co.
(ESC), a unit of Equitable Resources Inc., Pittsburgh, completed construction of the Jefferson Island underground gas storage site at Erath, La. The site, with working gas capacity of 3.6 bcf, has direct access to Henry hub. Minimum injection capacity is 180 MMcfd, maximum withdrawal capacity 360 MMcfd. ESC also completed a 15 mile interchange system consisting of twin 16 in. pipelines that link the storage site to Louisiana Intrastate Gas Co.'s system and an ESC affiliate.
Exploration
Newfoundland Hunt Oil Co.,
a unit of Dallas' Hunt Oil Co.; and Calgary's PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., plan to spud the Hunt PCP St. George's Bay A-36 wildcat off western Newfoundland this spring. It will probe a structure about 6 km southwest of Cape St. George off the Port au Port Peninsula. The Hunt-PanCanadian combine last week was preparing to abandon the Hunt PCP Long Point M-16 wildcat in western Newfoundland, drilled to an undisclosed depth.
Argentina
called for tenders on seven exploration licenses near a disputed area at the southwest edge of Malvinas/Falkland Islands territorial waters in the South Atlantic Ocean (OGJ, Oct. 30, 1995, Newsletter). Last year the Falklands government opened its first offshore exploration licensing round after the Argentine and U.K. governments forged a deal over rights to the disputed area (OGJ, Oct. 16, 1995, p. 34).
Coplex Resources NL,
Hobart, Tasmania, secured an exploration license in Northeast Colombia that it says is an extension of Venezuela's prolific Maracaibo basin. Coplex's Maracas tract covers 223,482 acres in the Cesar basin. Processing of 150 line km of existing seismic data is to get under way at once, with a wildcat to spud by midyear. Colombia's Cano Limon oil export pipeline lies 70 km southwest. Coplex holds a 15% interest in the license and will be operator.
Elf Exploration Angola
let a $31.7 million contract to Reading & Bates Corp., Houston, for its Jim Cunningham semisubmersible to drill three deepwater wells off Angola in about 270 days beginning in the third quarter. Plans involve upgrading the rig to work in 1,100 m of water. The contract calls for Elf to have options for as many as three more wells in another 270 days for another $24.3 million. The rig upgrade will commence upon completion of work off Viet Nam.
Dover Technology,
Houston, and partners will spud a wildcat in April on Belize's 1,420 sq km Gladden block. A unit of Petrofina SA will hold a 30% interest in the block, operator Dover, Magellan Petroleum Corp.'s Australian unit, and Germany's Deminex each a 20% interest, and two undisclosed small U.S. firms 5% each.
Companies
A unit of Enron Corp.,
Houston, paid $11.9 million for an 8% interest in Beau Exploration Ltd., Calgary. The purchase by Enron Capital & Trade Resources Canada Corp. (ECT) is Enron's first investment in Canada's upstream sector. Beau has production of 6,300 b/d of oil and 53 MMcfd of gas and predicts that will rise to 7,600 b/d and 61 MMcfd in 1996.
Gulf Canada Resources Ltd.,
Calgary, will begin paying $57.7 million (Canadian) in dividends it owes to preferred shareholders. Dividend payments for two series of preferred shares were suspended in March 1993, when the company was experiencing financial problems. Gulf said the company met its goals in 1995, and the decision to resume dividend payments reflects a turnaround. It will begin paying dividends in arrears of about $1 million/month in 1996, but further payments will depend on Gulf's continuing financial health.
Kerr-McGee Corp.
Oklahoma City, budgeted $400 million in capital and exploration outlays for 1996, about $90 million less than it spent in 1995. The 1996 budget includes about $240 million for exploration and production, of which about $150 million is targeted for U.S. operations. This is a drop of $145 million from 1995 spending, due mainly to a high level of acquisitions of producing and undeveloped acreage in 1995. Kerr-McGee also budgeted $110 million for 1996 chemical operations, an increase of $40 million, and $45 million for coal operations, up $15 million.
Amoco Corp.
will take a noncash, after tax charge of about $380 million for fourth quarter 1995 to reflect its adoption of Financial Accounting Standard No. 121 that deals with impairment of long lived assets. About 80% of the charge relates to Amoco's North American producing leases.
El Paso Natural Gas Co.
El Paso, will cut its 2,400 employee work force by 600-800 through incentive programs and layoffs. Most cuts will occur by the end of the first quarter.
Petrochemicals
BP Chemicals Ltd.
granted DSM Resins International BV, Hook of Holland, Netherlands, an option to purchase a license for its Innovene gas phase polyethylene technology. DSM plans to make C6 linear low density polyethylene (Lldpe) with the process and expects to decide later this year on construction of a 200,000 metric tons/year Lldpe plant to serve the European plastic films market.
Novacor Chemicals,
a unit of NOVA Corp., Calgary, proposed a joint venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. to operate a $1 billion olefins complex in Abu Dhabi. Novacor likely will take a 40% interest in the ethylene/polyethylene complex owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Mitsui Corp. and British Petroleum plc are also reported to be bidders for the project.
Shanghai Petrochemical Co.
and Phillips Petroleum Co. formed a joint venture, Shanghai Golden Phillips Petroleum Co. Ltd., to build a 100,000 ton/year linear polyethylene resins plant and a 10,000 ton/year plant to provide feedstock for manufacturing polyethylene pipelines at Jinshanwei, Shanghai. Total investment will be $100 million. Both projects are to be complete in 1998.
Spills
Edison Chouest Offshore Inc.
agreed to make its fleet of 57 vessels available to help National Response Corp. respond to oil spills on the U.S. East Coast, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere (OGJ, Jan. 1, p. 22). NRC may use the vessels if Edison Chouest can make arrangements with its regular customers. NRC has access to more than 800 vessels in the U.S. for oil spill response efforts.
LNG
Atlantic LNG Co.
of Trinidad & Tobago
chose Point Fortin, Trinidad, as site of a planned 400 MMcfd gas liquefaction plant and will negotiate a final engineering, procurement, and construction contract with Overseas Bechtel Inc. Participants in Atlantic LNG are Amoco Trinidad LNG 34%, British Gas Trinidad LNG Ltd. 26%, Repsol International Finance BV 20%, and Cabot Trinidad LNG Ltd. and NGC Trinidad & Tobago LNG Ltd. 10% each.
Drilling-production
Clyde Petroleum plc,
Ledbury, U.K., signed a heads of agreement with Marathon International Oil Co. that sets out a deal involving Marathon operated Kakap production sharing contract (PSC) in the Natuna Sea off Indonesia. Clyde said under the deal it will acquire a 31.25% interest and become operator of the Kakap PSC area, which holds four oil fields.
Agip SpA
tested the first horizontal well in its Monte Alpi oil field in Italy's southern Apennines, reported license partner Enterprise Oil plc, London. The 5 Monte Alpi well flowed 3,700 b/d of 37 gravity oil through a 1/2 in. choke, a rate constrained by gas flaring restrictions. Enterprise said 8,000 b/d will be achievable when the well is connected to permanent production facilities. Monte Alpi, owned 60% by operator Agip and 40% by Enterprise, is producing about 5,000 b/d of oil on long term test.
Chevron U.K. Ltd.
let a $45 million contract to Brown & Root AOC Ltd., Aberdeen, for modifications in North Sea Alba field. The contractor will design and build facilities on Alba Northern platform to enable development of the field's southern portion with extended reach wells drilled from the platform.
Norske Shell AS
will pay $17 million to Kvaerner AS, Oslo, to accelerate topsides construction during development of Draugen field off Central Norway. This follows a court ruling on a dispute in which Shell alleged misconduct over the contract and Kvaerner demanded compensation for changes to the original work schedule. Shell was also ordered to repay a bank guarantee of $30 million on the work.
BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd.
let contract to Aberdeen's Baker Hughes Inteq and Schlumberger Oilfield Services for well engineering during development of the Schiehallion discovery in the U.K.'s West of Shetland offshore play. The contract hinges on government approval of the field development plan and will cover all aspects of subsea work and well engineering. Schiehallion will be developed with a floating production vessel. It is expected to start up in 1998.
Shell Offshore Inc.
signed a letter of intent to buy Benton Oil & Gas Co. of Louisiana (Bogla) for $35.4 million from Benton Oil & Gas Co., Carpinteria, Calif. Bogla owns Rabbit Island, Belle Isle, and West Cote Blanche Bay fields in state waters of St. Mary and Iberia parishes, La. Benton will use some of the proceeds to accelerate work in Venezuela's Tucupita field under that country's marginal fields reactivation program.
Snyder Oil Corp.,
Fort Worth, and Gerrity Oil & Gas Corp., Denver, agreed to combine their assets and operations in Colorado's Wattenberg oil field into a new public company, Patina Oil & Gas Corp. Gerrity, through merger, will become a subsidiary of Patina. The new company will hold interests in about 4,000 wells in Wattenberg field and operate about 3,500 wells. Its proved reserves are estimated at more than 85 million bbl of oil equivalent.
Saba Petroleum Co.,
Irvine, Calif., acquired from Texaco Inc. a 50% interest in its Cocorna concession in Colombia. Cocorna field produces about 700 b/d of oil. This completes a Colombian acquisition program Saba began last year when it purchased a 25% interest in Texaco's Teca and Nare oil fields, which produce 12,500 b/d, and the 117 mile Velasquez-Galan pipeline (OGJ, Sept. 25, 1995, p. 46).
Exports-imports
Finland's
Gasum Oy, a venture of Finland's Neste Oy and Russia's Gazprom, signed an additional gas supply contract with Russia's VEP Gazexport to increase imports from Russia by 10%. Last year Gasum imported 115.5 bcf of Russian gas, and it expects demand to build to about 140 bcf by 2000 (OGJ, May 22, 1995, p. 17). The extra imports will meet rising industrial and municipal demand. Gasum also is expanding southern Finland's gas pipeline grid.
Futures
International Petroleum Exchange
(IPE), London, claims a trading day record Jan. 11. A total 154,201 futures contracts were traded that day, 27% more than the previous record in April 1995. With the record, contracts for almost 96 million bbl of Brent crude oil changed hands, and more than 56,000 gas oil futures contracts were traded.
Refining
Petroleo Brasileiro SA
let contract to environmental consultant Entec Europe Ltd., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K., to carry out risk assessment at its 170,000 b/d Cubatao, Brazil, refinery. The work will take 18 months, and recommendations will be incorporated into an upgrade currently under way at the refinery.
Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers
International Union (OCAW)
rejected a proposal for a 2 year pattern contract from Amoco Oil Co. governing union contracts that expire Jan. 31. OCAW said the proposed contract, which would set a pattern for many of the 40,000 OCAW workers at U.S. refineries, deals with only three of 10 issues the union proposed last year (OGJ, Sept. 25, 1995, p. 35).
India's
state owned Indian Oil Corp. and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. let contract to Fluor Daniel for engineering services for a detailed feasibility study of a joint venture, 120,000 b/d grassroots refinery they propose to build in Orissa state on India's eastern coast. The study is to be complete by mid-1996.
Conoco Ltd.
will build a $45 million calciner at its Humber, U.K., refinery to raise productive capacity for calcined petroleum coke. The new unit will be built during the next 2 years. It will hike coke productive capacity by 160,000 metric tons/year from the current 550,000 tons/year. Conoco earlier expanded coke production at Humber by 120,000 tons/year (OGJ, Nov. 7, 1994, p. 36).
Pipelines
Lakehead Pipe Line Partners LP,
Duluth, plans to expand oil pipeline capacity into the Chicago area by as much as 170,000 b/d at a cost of $300 million, complementing a system expansion proposed by Lakehead affiliate Interprovincial Pipe Line Inc., Calgary. This is in addition to an expansion Lakehead disclosed last year that will add 120,000 b/d of capacity into the Chicago area, expected to start up late this year.
GPM Gas Corp.,
a unit of Phillips Petroleum Co., agreed to acquire gas gathering systems in Northwest Oklahoma from Coastal Corp. unit ANR Pipeline Co. The systems, which gather about 200 MMcfd, include 1,570 miles of gathering pipelines and 14 compressor stations.
Copyright 1996 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.