INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

PIPELINES

THAI PETROLEUM PIPELINE CO. LTD. let an engineering and related services contract to John Brown Engineers & Constructors Ltd. for the first phase of a 234 km pipeline in Thailand to move refined products from Sriracha refineries to north and east Bangkok terminals and storage sites. The project, to include pump stations, receiving terminals, storage tanks, and loading facilities, is expected to be complete by yearend 1993.

REFINING

ESSO SAF, Exxon Corp.'s downstream arm in France, let contract to Foster Wheeler CEE, Paris, to design and build a 4,000 b/d alkylation unit at its Port Jerome, France, refinery (OGJ, July 8, p. 25). Project cost is estimated at about $58 million.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

DARTMOUTH POWER ASSOCIATES LP Dartmouth, Mass., received a 15 year natural gas export license from Canada's National Energy Board, authorizing the export of about 77.7 bcf of gas beginning Nov. 1, 1992, from near Iroquois, Ont. The gas will be used to fuel a proposed independent power generating plant in Dartmouth, Mass.

EXPLORATION

INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM CORP. acquired from the government of Sudan exploration and production concessions on the Delta Toker and Halaib blocks in the Red Sea. The blocks cover more than 30,000 sq km. Delta Toker includes Suakin/Bashayir gas/condensate discoveries made by Chevron in the mid 1970s. Six wells are planned on the two blocks during a 6 year exploration period.

JAPAN NATIONAL OIL CORP. signed a 2 year contract with the Algeria's Sonatrach to conduct seismic surveys in a 33,000 sq km area in the Sahara Desert of Southwest Algeria. Algeria is meantime preparing legislation to give foreign companies a tax break to encourage investment.

GLOBEX INTERNATIONAL, Dallas, received government approval to assume a 10% working interest in Blocks A-12, A-13, B-12, and B-13 off Equatorial Guinea. Exploratory drilling is planned for next year. Globex also is participating with operator Walter International Inc. in developing nearby Alba field, expected on stream in September following completion of the 2 Alba well.

HAMILTON BROS.OIL & GAS LTD.'S 43/26a wildcat in the southern U.K. North Sea flowed 47 MMcfd of gas from Permian sandstone. The well is about 2 miles northeast of Hamilton's North Ravenspurn gas field. Participants are ARCO British Ltd., Enterprise Oil plc, Ultramar Exploration Ltd., Hamilton Oil Great Britain plc, Hardy Oil & Gas (U.K.) Ltd., Hamilton Bros. U.K. Petroleum Corp., and Monument Resources Ltd.

TANKERS

PANAMANIAN FLAGGED tanker Tital Minerva exploded and caught fire while unloading oil off Tripoli, about 50 miles north of Beirut, Aug. 18, killing five persons and injuring four others. Cause of the explosion was not known.

COMPANIES

UNION PACIFIC RESOURCES CO. will consolidate most of the exploration and production activities of Union Pacific Resources Inc., Calgary, beginning in mid-September. It will lay off about 55 employees in Calgary and move a small number of its original 90 member staff there to Fort Worth. Several persons will remain in Calgary to manage production.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

ALCORN INTERNATIONAL, Houston, let a turnkey contract to Wellstream Corp., Panama City, Fla., for engineering, manufacture, and installation of three 5 in. flow lines and three 5 in. risers for development of West Linapacan field (OGJ, Dec. 12, 1990, Newsletter), off the west coast of Palawan, Philippines. The field will be developed with subsea completions and a floating production, storage, and offloading unit. Flow lines and risers are to be installed by April 1992.

MARATHON OIL U.K. LTD. 16/7a-32 appraisal well in West Brae field flowed 5,500 b/d of 23 gravity oil through a 1 1/2 in. choke from Paleocene Rogaland and 29 MMcfd of gas from Balder sandstone.

EVERGREEN RESOURCES U.K. LTD.'S proposed work program for an onshore 4,500 ft coalbed methane test won approval by the U.K. British Department of Energy, subject to license award. Evergreen is negotiating with an undisclosed U.K. company to be a 50-50 partner in the well, with Evergreen as operator. Evergreen applied to DOE for licenses on several blocks with known coal deposits in the U.K., and DOE is expected to announce license awards by early September.

AMOCO NETHERLANDS PETROLEUM CO. signed an agreement with ABN AMRO, Bank of America, and 14 other banks setting up a multi-currency, $220 million loan facility for development of Blocks P/15 and P/18 off Netherlands. Production is to begin in late 1993 from platforms with productive capacity of 500 MMcfd of gas.

CHINA'S Sichuan Oil Administration Bureau assembled a team of 62 Chinese firefighters, who left Chengdu Aug. 16 for Kuwait to help extinguish well fires.

LNG

ABU DHABI Gas Liquefaction Co. Ltd. (Adgas) let an engineering services contract to Ralph M. Parsons Co. Ltd. to upgrade two sulfur recovery units on Das Island in the Persian Gulf. The project includes expansion of each unit to 550 metric tons/day from 460 tons/day. Completion is scheduled for September 1992. Parsons also will provide process design for a sulfur recovery unit for a third Adgas gas liquefaction plant on Das Island.

SPILLS

HAIFA OIL REFINERIES' pipeline in northern Israel ruptured Aug. 14, spilling several dozen tons of crude into Haifa Bay and contaminating 3 km of beaches. Some of the oil moved into the Mediterranean Sea, where heavy equipment was mobilized for cleanup. The pipeline cracked while oil was being pumped from a tanker anchored about 2 miles offshore.

PETROCHEMICALS

ADCHEMCO CORP., a subsidiary of Japan's NKK Corp., let contract to HRI Inc., Princeton, N.J., for the license and basic engineering design of an aromatics plant, including a two stage hydrotreater and an aromatics extraction unit, at its petrochemical complex in Kasaoka, Japan. The plant, using technologies developed by ARCO, will process a mixture of coke oven light oils and pyrolysis gasoline feedstocks to produce benzene, toluene, and mixed xylenes.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.