INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

LNG

MALAYSIA'S state owned Petronas let a contract worth more than $150 million to Nuovo Pignone, Florence,to supply process turbo-compressors for three natural gas liquefaction trains in an expansion of its LNG plant at Bintulu, Malaysia. Each train entails a centrifugal and an axial compressor with a total of 400,000 kw of power. The expansion will boost production to 7.5 million metric tons/year of LNG.

EXPLORATION

BELIZE awarded an oil exploration license on three tracts covering 353,361 acres to Santa Barbara Oil Corp. and DIM Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah. Geological and seismic surveys will begin this summer, with drilling of the first wildcat planned by yearend.

BRASPETRO'S 1 Awant discovery well in Ecuador flowed a combined rate of 1,937 b/d of 13-15.5 gravity oil from four zones. Site is on Block 17 in the Oriente region.

ARCO'S 1 Meretecocha discovery in Ecuador flowed 529 b/d of 26.81 gravity oil from Hollin, 311 b/d of 16.5 gravity oil from Napo T sands, and 11 b/d of extra heavy crude from A limestone, all in the Cretaceous. Site is on Block 10 in the Oriente region.

REFINING

MEXICO'S Petroleos Mexicanos licensed technologies and related engineering services from HRI Inc., Princeton, N.J., for a resid hydrodesulfurization unit in its Miguel Hidalgo refinery at Tula Hidalgo. It will use the H-Oil process to upgrade 50,000 b/d of 4.7 wt % sulfur content, 700 ppm vanadium content vacuum resid from a blend of Maya and Isthmus crudes to 0.8 wt % sulfur content fuel oil. HRI also will provide technology for fractionation and light ends recovery, gas sweetening, a hydrogen plant, and a sulfur plant.

PETROLEOS DE VENEZUELA SA affiliate Lagoven SA let a $220 million contract to Fluor Daniel BY for engineering, procurement, and construction management services for a 2,000 metric ton/day delayed coker at its Amuay refinery in Venezuela. Work is to include construction of a coke conveyor, loading dock, water treating plant, and associated facilities. Project completion is scheduled for mid-1993.

BARIVEN CORP. let contract to Foster Wheeler Ltd., St. Catharines, Ont., to design and build two 375,000 lb/hr steam generators for Lagoven's Amuay refinery. They will burn low volatility, high vanadium content petroleum coke from a flexicoker.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

PETROLEOS DEL ECUADOR signed a contract to purchase 250,000 metric tons/year of liquefied petroleum gas from Venezuela's Corpoven SA. Petroecuador sells imported LPG to three private companies for domestic distribution. Until last year, Ecuador imported all of its LPG from the U.S.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

SOVIET UNION is inviting bids Aug. 10 for rights to develop oil and gas reserves off Sakhalin Island. Seventeen major oil and trading companies were informed of the bid request by the Soviets. Japan's Kyodo News Service said Exxon Corp., Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Mitsui & Co., Idemitsu Kosan Co., and Hyundai Group plan to participate, among others. Development of the area is expected to cost about $10 billion (OGJ, Mar. 18, p. 33).

SPERRY-SUN DRILLING SERVICES, Houston, signed a joint venture agreement with Nizhnevartovsk Neftegaz and the Siberian Drilling Association to provide horizontal and directional drilling services and surveying in Soviet oil fields. Siberian Sperry-Sun will have its headquarters in Nefteyugansk in western Siberia. Sperry-Sun holds a 50% share of the venture and each Soviet partner 25%.

RANGER OIL LTD., Calgary, agreed to sell 70 bcf of gas from Anglia field in the U.K. North Sea to Britain's National Power plc. Sales are to begin Oct. 1, 1993, after a 22 month contract with British Petroleum Co. plc and Kinetica Ltd. expires.

HAMILTON OIL CORP.'S 110/13-6 appraisal well on Block 110/13 in the Irish Sea off England flowed at a stabilized rate of 3,300 b/d of 45 gravity oil. The well is about 1 mile northwest of Hamilton's 110/13-2 discovery well (OGJ, Dec. 24, 1990, p. 27).

CHEVRON NIUGINI PTY LTD. let contract of undisclosed value to Solar Turbines Inc. for manufacture of three 3,880 kw generator sets and seven 5,500 hp gas compressor sets for its $1 billion Kutubu oil development and export project in Papua New Guinea.

PETROLEOS DE VENEZUELA SA affiliate Maraven SA placed a $120 million order with Dresser-Rand Co. for three 90 MMcfd gas compression units, including compression modules and auxiliary equipment, to be installed on platforms in Lake Maracaibo. Estimated completion is in late 1992.

GOLAR-NOR OFFSHORE AS let contract to Bremer Vulkan AG, Schiffbau U. Maschinenfabrik to build a larger, more sophisticated version of the Petrojarl floating production ship. Petrojarl 2 will be turret moored like the first vessel but have several production risers to boost production capacity to 100,000 b/d of oil and 4.6 MMcfd of gas. The vessel, to be built in Germany, is scheduled for delivery in 1994.

COMPANIES

NORWAY'S Den norske stats oljeselskap AS acquired a 12.5% interest in Saga Petroleum AS from Volvo for $190 million. Volvo sold another 3.7% interest in Saga to an undisclosed buyer, trimming its interest in the company to 6.7%. Statoil said it plans no further purchase of Saga stock.

PETROCHEMICALS

FINANESTE NV placed a 450,000 metric ton/year ethylene plant on stream at its Antwerp refining complex 3 years after initial contract award (OGJ, Mar. 6, 1989, p. 32). The plant uses M.W. Kellogg's millisecond furnace technology.

DSM-HOLLAND let an engineering, procurement, and construction management services contract to John Brown Engineers & Constructors Ltd. to upgrade its acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plant at Geleen, Netherlands. The contract includes modification of reactors and overall upgrade of instrumentation systems. The project is to be complete by yearend 1992.

CHINA PETROCHEMICAL CORP. subsidiary Sinopec International let a $123 million contract to Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. for its 75,000 metric ton/year purified terephthalic acid plant in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China (OGJ, June 24, p. 37). Foster Wheeler will provide engineering, technology, equipment, and assistance for the project.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.