INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

REFINING

SOC. NATIONALE ELL AQUITAINE and Agip SpA are negotiating with the Irish government to acquire an interest in state owned Irish Refining plc's 56,000 b/d Whitegates refinery. The government is looking for international partners to participate in upgrading the refinery. The companies said talks with Nigerian and Middle East concerns were fruitless.

AGIP PETROLI SPA, Rome, plans a 20,000 b/sd LC-Fining unit at its Raffineria Meditorranea refinery at Milazzo, Italy. To be complete in 1995, the unit will desulfurize and crack high sulfur vacuum bottoms to produce low sulfur fuel oil and lighter products for blending to distillate products. It will be Europe's first resid hydroconversion unit using expanded bed technology. ABB Lummus Crest will license the technology and provide engineering.

BANGLADESH'S Eastern Refinery Ltd. let a $40 million contract to Technip, Paris, for expansion of its 31,200 b/d refinery at Chittagong. The project will include construction of a visbreaker, a mild hydrocracker, and hydrogen units. The work is to take 30 months.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

UNOCAL NETHERLANDS BV'S 11-L/11b fault block discovery well, drilled from a platform in L/11 gas field in the Dutch North Sea, is producing 20 MMcfd of gas with 1,550 psi tubing pressure from Permian Upper and Lower Slochtern at 14,618-15,276 ft. The field previously produced 12.3 MMcfd. Unocal is operator and holds a 48% working interest in the field. Partners are Nedlloyd Energy BV and Energie Beheer Nederland BV.

AGIP UK installed an eight slot production well template in Tiffany field on Block 16/17 in the U.K. North Sea as the first stage of development to begin producing oil in mid-1993. Peak production from the 125 million bbl field is expected to be 66,000 b/d.

ATLANTIC RESOURCES PLC, Dublin, agreed to farmout terms with Command Petroleum (Netherlands) BV, CEC (Ireland) Pty. Ltd., and Holland Sea Search Holding NV as part of its plan to develop Helvick oil field off southern Ireland on Celtic Sea Block 49/9. Atlantic Resources agreed to assign a 50% interest in Blocks 49/9 and 49/10 in return for the group's agreement to prepare a production plan for Helvick and carry all Atlantic capital and operating expenses during development.

CHEVRON CORP.'S 16/26-21Z gas appraisal well in the U.K. North Sea flowed as much as 26.5 MMcfd of gas and 2,900 b/d of condensate from Lower Cretaceous Kopervik. Oryx Energy Co., Dallas, which owns a 151/2% interest in Block 16/26, said the well "significantly enhances" the reserves estimate for Kilda field. Chevron plans more appraisals before partners decide on development.

TRANSPORTATION

CHINA will build a deepwater harbor at Yaling Bay, Huizhou, Guangdong province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The port will have 20 berths in three zones, including a crude oil berth able to handle 100,000 dwt tankers. Construction of the first six berth phase will begin in 1996, with completion scheduled by 2000.

A GROUP made up of Soc. Nationale Elf Aquitaine, Enagas, and Snam put in a bid for a contract to build a gas pipeline between Lisbon and Braga, Portugal, along with two LNG regasification terminals at Setubal. It is competing with a combine of Total Cie. Francaise des Petroles, Gaz de France, and Ruhrgas AG.

ACQUISITIONS

BROKEN HILL PTY. CO. LTD., Melbourne, extended to Mar. 12 its offer for wholly owned unit BHP Holdings (USA) Inc. to merge with Hamilton Oil Corp. (OGJ, Feb. 18, p. 40).

EXPLORATION

MAERSK OLIE ALGERIET AS acquired from Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Houston, a 25% interest in a partnership that will explore a 5.1 million acre area in Algeria's southeastern desert under a 1989 production sharing contract with state owned Sonatrach. Maersk parent Maersk Olie og Gas AS is part of the Danish AP Moller Group. Interests in the Algerian contract are Anadarko 50% and Maersk and Lasmo Oil (Algeria) Ltd. 25% each.

ELF GABON'S 1 Pengouin wildcat on the Cap Lopez Marin permit off Gabon in 11 4 m of water flowed 1,570 b/d of 22 gravity oil. In addition, Elf Gabon's wholly owned 1 Tchengue Ocean wildcat on Mandji Sud block in the onshore Ogooue permit, 14 km south of Port Gentil, flowed 1,415 b/d of 27, gravity oil.

MOBIL OIL INDONESIA'S D-1 South Lhok Sukon wildcat in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, flowed a combined 46 MMcfd of gas from three Lower Miocene Puetu limestone intervals at 8,250-9,146 ft. Mobil drilled the well, about 50 km southeast of Lhok Seumawe, Aceh province, on a production sharing contract with Indonesia's state owned Pertamina. it is on Mobil's B Block, which also holds Arun gas field.

PETROCHEMICALS

A JOINT VENTURE of Spain's Petroquimica and Soc. Generale de Financement (SGF) will produce and market linear alkylbenzene in Canada. The venture will build a 75,000 ton/year plant at St. Romuald, Quebec, using a fixed bed alkylation process jointly developed by Cepsa and UOP Inc. Cepsa is negotiating another joint venture with SGF to produce paraffins for the Canadian market through a $200 million, 75,000 ton/year plant planned for an undisclosed site in Quebec.

COMPANIES

REPSOL SA of Spain is negotiating separate cooperation agreements with Algeria for exploration and petrochemical projects. Repsol Exploracion wants to drill in Algeria with Sonatrach. Repsol Quimica and Entreprise Nationale pour l'Industrie Petrochimique are seeking a joint venture to produce petrochemicals there.

TUSKAR RESOURCES PLC, Dublin, applied to Colombian state oil company Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos for a commerciality declaration for its Rubiales oil field, Tuskar estimates total recoverable reserves of 390 million bbl, but only about half that is included in the commerciality application. Ecopetrol is expected to make a decision on the application within 90 days. That could lead to first phase development with peak production of 15,000 b/d.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

INDIAN OIL CORP. agreed with Sojuznefte Export, the U.S.S.R. trade organization, to import 90,000 b/d of Soviet crude and 53,000 b/d of products this year for about $1.1 billion. Included are 43,000 b/d of diesel fuel and kerosine. State owned IOC said about 24% of its total crude and 18% of its product imports will come from the Soviet Union. It will pay in rupees.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.