U.S. BRIEFS

COGENERATION

MOBIL OIL CORP. let a turnkey contract to Chas. T. Main Inc., Boston, for a 54,000 kw, combined cycle cogeneration plant at its Beaumont, Tex., refinery. The plant will burn refinery fuel gas and natural gas. The project is to be complete in summer 1993.

EXPLORATION

UNOCAL CORP. ordered an eight processor C3880 supercomputer for seismic data processing from Convex Computer Corp., Richardson, Tex. Purchase price was not disclosed.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

MOBIL EXPLORATION & PRODUCING U.S. INC. 1 K.P. Romero in Kaplan field, Vermilion Parish, La., flowed 15.4 MMcfd of gas and 1,044 b/d of condensate through a 15/64 in. choke with 9,260 psi flowing tubing pressure from Oligocene First Camerina at 16,614-680 ft in a new fault block revealed by 3-D seismic. The well cut 120 ft of net gas pay in four sands, including 88 ft of net pay in First Camerina. Mobil holds 53.7% interest in the well, Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas Co. and partners the remainder.

W.R. GRACE & CO. plans to sell its Grace Energy Corp. unit as part of an effort to raise $1.5 billion through asset sales, reduce debt, and attract investors. Included in the proposed sale is Grace Drilling Co., which owns 178 land rigs, and Grace Offshore Co., which owns 21 workover rigs, seven jack ups, and three platform rigs.

UNOCAL EXPLORATION CORP. plans to install a platform on Brazos Block A-105 off Texas to develop a reservoir found by its 6 OCS-G 1757 wildcat. The well flowed 16.2 MMcfd of gas and 18 b/d of condensate through a 21/64 in. choke from middle Miocene. Production, to begin by fall 1992, will be processed at Unocal's Platform A about 2 miles northwest. Unocal owns a 56.25% interest in the well, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. 31.25%, and Hardy Oil & Gas U.S.A. Inc., Houston, 12.5%.

PARKER & PARSLEY PETROLEUM CO., Midland, Tex., signed a letter of understanding with Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc. to acquire Mobil's interest in about 600 producing oil and gas wells, mainly in the Permian basin of West Texas, for about $125 million. The leases include units in the Spraberry trend and three secondary recovery projects complementing Parker & Parsley's leasehold in the area. The deal is to close by yearend.

WEATHERBY SUPPLY INC., Bowling Green, Ky., pled guilty to one count of an 11 count indictment charging it with felony violations of underground injection control provisions of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. It is the first felony conviction under those provisions. Weatherby pled guilty to injecting gas and fluids into an oil well in Bowling Green without a permit.

KANSAS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY geologists will study the methane producing potential of Northeast Kansas coal beds. Plans call for a 1,200 ft well in Leavenworth County. The group will core the well and measure the amount of methane released immediately and during the next 1-2 months to estimate the amount of methane the entire coal seam can produce. KGS hopes to find about 200 cu ft of methane/ton of coal.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY granted $636,000 to the Kentucky Geological Survey to help define and catalog major natural gas producing areas in the Appalachian basin. The 3 year project is part of a plan to develop a national natural gas database. Researchers will develop a classification scheme for gas reservoirs, identify and consolidate existing gas databases, and assemble information into atlases covering parts of seven states.

ABRAXAS PRODUCTION CORP., San Antonio, agreed to acquire interests in 29 oil and gas wells from an undisclosed independent producer for $2.275 million. The wells, in five fields along the Texas Gulf Coast and in Alabama, have estimated net proved producing reserves of 303,000 bbl of oil and 1.53 bcf of gas. The acquisition will increase Abraxas' oil reserves about 68% and gas reserves about 57%. The deal is to close within 1 month.

PRIDE PETROLEUM SERVICES INC., Houston, signed a letter of intent to buy 17 service rigs from Well-Tech Inc., also of Houston. The rigs generated revenue of about $5 million the past 12 months. The rigs, based in Bakersfield, Calif., will be incorporated into Pride's operations there. The purchase will bring Pride's U.S. service rig fleet to 441.

PIPELINES

TRANSWESTERN PIPELINE CO., Houston, is accepting requests for reassignment of as much as 400 MMcfd of firm transportation capacity to California during an open season extending to Dec. 6. Reassignment is subject to capacity release by Southern California Gas Co. and implementation of Transwestern rates pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. SoCalGas will retain capacity not reassigned.

CONSOLIDATED NATURAL GAS CO., Pittsburgh, asked for FERC approval to sell and transport 23 MMcfd of gas to Public Service Co. of North Carolina Inc. for 20 years starting in 1993. CNG Transmission Corp. will deliver the gas to its Nokesville, Va., connection with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp.'s system, which will deliver it to North Carolina.

DELHI GAS PIPELINE CORP., Dallas, began deliveries of 18 MMcfd of gas to Bright Star Partnership, owned 90% by Lasmo plc unit Bright Star Gathering Inc. and 10% by Continental Natural Gas Inc., Tulsa, under a 5 year transportation and processing agreement. Volumes are to increase to about 25 MMcfd by yearend. Bright Star dedicated gas from its Leon County, Tex., gathering system, while Delhi linked the two systems.

REFINING

PHILLIPS 66 CO. will retain its 25,000 b/d Woods Cross, Utah, refinery and related product terminals and marketing assets. Phillips considered selling the facilities (OGJ, June 17, P. 26) but did not receive an acceptable offer.

MARKETING

LOUIS DREYFUS ENERGY CORP., Wilton, Conn., is negotiating to buy Unocal Corp.'s Southeast U.S. petroleum products marketing and distribution operations. The deal includes Unocal's interest in 25 distribution terminals in the Southeast but not its lubricants plant at Savannah, Ga.

SPILLS

A SUPERIOR COURT judge in Anchorage, Alas., ordered civil trials involving the Exxon Valdez oil spill to begin in 1993. The judge divided the cases into requests for punitive damages and lawsuits filed for other compensation. Exxon Corp. said it expects to hand in about 30 million pages of documents for the trials and face about 19,000 lawsuits.