GAS PROCESSING
PETRO-CANADA will install Institut Francais du Petrole's integrated functions processing system (Ifpexol) at its East Gilby gas processing plant in Alberta. The process is used for hydrate protection, dewpoint control, dehydration, and acid gas removal. The new Ifpex-1 unit, which will simultaneously extract water and condensate from natural gas, can treat 24 MMcfd of water saturated gas to less than 5 ppm water content. It is the first application of the new technology and will be ready for start-up this fall.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
AMERADA HESS LTD.'S 15/21a-43 well extended Scott field south in the U.K. North Sea. The well cut a substantial oil column in Upper Jurassic Piper, and cores and logs indicate a high quality reservoir, Amerada said. Scott, with reserves of 450 million bbl of oil, 290 bcf of gas, and 40 million bbl of condensate, is under development and expected to start up in 1993. Production will average 180,000 b/d.
QATAR GENERAL PETROLEUM CORP. let two contracts for offshore work to National Petroleum Construction Co. of Abu Dhabi. One worth 23 million Qatar riyals is for design, procurement, fabrication, and installation of the ISND water injection test wellhead jacket. The other, worth 10 million riyals, is for modification, load-out, and installation of the BH-K6 wellhead jacket. Completion of both projects is expected in August.
GULF OIL CO. (NIGERIA) LTD. let contract to Chiles Offshore Corp., Houston, for drilling services off Nigeria with the Hornet and Yucatan jack ups. Pending approval by Nigerian National Petroleum Co., drilling could begin as early as September.
PETROLEOS BRASILEIRO SA agreed to acquire Chiles' Intrepid semisubmersible rig through a financed lease arrangement for $28.7 million plus a modification of the rig to an offshore production unit, subject to contract negotiations.
PINNACLE RESOURCES LTD. and Pancanadian Petroleum Ltd., both of Calgary, estimate proved reserves of their recently discovered Dina oil field in the Provost area of East Central Alberta at 5 million bbl of oil covering 320 acres. Six wells drilled to date are producing 1 400 b/d of oil. Plans call for 14 more wells by yearend to boost production to 4,000 b/d. Working interest ownership is split about 50-50.
WESTCOAST ENERGY INC., Vancouver, B.C., sold its 10.5% interest in Ranger Oil Ltd., Calgary, to an undisclosed buyer for $82.3 million (Canadian). Ranger assets include an 11.5% interest in Ninian oil field in the U.K. North Sea, interests of 142% in 69 exploration blocks in the U.K. and Dutch North Sea, and exploration and development operations in western Canada.
STRIKE ENERGY INC., Vancouver, B.C., agreed to a farmout to Lasmo Canada Inc. calling for a horizontal well in Tatagwa field, Southeast Saskatchewan. Strike will receive a 50% working interest in the well after payout at no cost. Lasmo earlier completed a horizontal well in the field on acreage adjacent to the farmout and began a second well there. Strike plans two horizontal wells on its lease south of the agreement area.
SHELL INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM MIJ. BV let contract to KTI Belgium NV to provide eleven 15 skid, 30,000 b/d flow station modules for various fields in Nigeria. The contract includes training Nigerian personnel.
VIKOR RESOURCES LTD., Calgary, produces 500 b/d from Joffre field, not 132 b/d, and expects peak production of 1,500 b/d, not 395 b/d as incorrectly reported (OGJ, June 3, p. 44).
PETROCHEMICALS
CHINA NATIONAL TECHNICAL IMPORT & EXPORT CORP. let contract to Spain's United Technical Corp. and Japan's Toyo Engineering Corp. to provide design and equipment for a steam cracker at its proposed 140,000 metric ton/year ethylene plant in Tianjin, China. The contract incorporates a $150 million loan from the Spanish government.
COGENERATION
TEESSIDE POWER LTD. completed financing for a $1.3 billion, 1,725,000 kw, gas fired, combined cycle cogeneration power plant under construction at Teesside in the U.K. (OGJ, May 13, p. 38). An international group of 14 banks put in place a credit facility for construction and permanent financing for the plant, which will be fed directly by U.K. North Sea gas. Construction began in late 1990, and commercial start-up is scheduled for early 1993.
COMPANIES
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO'S state oil companies received Interamerican Development Bank loans totaling $235 million for petroleum projects expected to cost about $400 million. Trinidad and Tobago Oil Co. (Trintoc) will use the money for a major refinery upgrading and expansion and onshore secondary oil recovery projects. Trinidad Marine Ltd. will use the funds for an undisclosed offshore project. Trintoc plans to expand Point Fortin refinery capacity to 160,000 b/d from 100,000 b/d and boost its yield of light ends.
MOBIL CORP. is restructuring its refining/marketing business in Southeast Asia, creating Mobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. to direct operations at its 235,000 b/d Jurong refinery in Singapore. The new unit also will coordinate marketing of fuels, lubricants, and other products by Mobil affiliates in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Guam/Micronesia, Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan.
ABU DHABI INVESTMENT AUTHORITY reduced its holding in the French oil company Total to less than 1% from 10%. Total Pres. Serge Tchuruk said the divestment had been achieved without affecting the price of Total stock.
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP. sold its 25% net interest in the An Tai Bao coal mine in China to Bank of China Trust & Consultancy Co. (Boctc), another step in Oxy's restructuring program (OGJ, Jan. 21, p. 18). Under terms of the deal, Oxy was relieved of about $145 million in loan guarantees. Oxy held its interest in the Shanxi province mine through Island Creek of China Coal Ltd., jointly owned with Boctc. The project lost $31 million in 1990.
SHELL CANADA LTD. expects a pretax loss of $185 million on sale of an open pit coal mine in British Columbia. The after tax loss on sale of the Line Creek mine to Manalta Coal Ltd., Calgary, will be about $120 million. Shell said earlier it planned to get out of the coal business because demand had not grown in line with forecasts.
ACQUISITIONS
SHERRIT GORDON LTD., Toronto, intends to purchase all outstanding securities of Canada Northwest Energy Ltd., Calgary, for about $82 million (Canadian) pending legal documentation and regulatory, court, and shareholder approvals. The acquisition is to be complete in about 3 months.
PIPELINES
TRANS JAVAGAS PIPELINE let a $300 million contract to Nippon Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. to lay a 430 km pipeline from gas fields near Pagerungan, northeast of Bali, to Gresik, Surabaya. Included are four compressor stations. Construction, to begin at yearend, will be complete in summer 1993.
TRANSCANADA PIPELINES LTD. let a $95 million (Canadian) contract to O.J. Pipelines Ltd. to lay 90 miles of 42 in. line in the North Bay area of northern Ontario.
TRANSCANADA let contract to Solar Turbines Inc. to provide seven 14,100 hp turbine compressor sets as part of a program to increase flow through its eastern Manitoba-northern Ontario system. Installation is to be complete in fall 1 992.
CANADA'S National Energy Board cited incomplete evidence in several environmental and socioeconomic matters, insufficient route selection criteria, and inadequate assessment of potential alternative routes as reasons for denying TransCanada's application for the proposed Gananoque extension, a 25.2 mile spur from its mainline east of Kingston to the U.S. border (OGJ, Mar. 25, p. 38).
REFINING
MOBIL OIL CO. LTD. let an engineering design and development contract to Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd., Reading, England, for a 70 million, 13,500 b/d Penex isomerization unit with Molex recycle and associated pretreating capacity at its Coryton refinery, Essex England. Construction will begin in spring 1992, subject to approvals.
MEXICO'S Petroleos Mexicanos will receive a $315 million line of credit from Japan's Import-Export Bank to reformulate gasoline to cut pollutants. Pemex plans to reduce levels of lead and carbon monoxide in its gasoline. The credit is the first by Eximbank of Japan to a developing country for financing environmental programs.
CHINA'S first domestically built hydrocracker was installed at Zhenhai refinery in Zhejiang province. Jointly developed by the Shanghai Boiler Plant and Shanghai Heavy Duty Machinery Plant, the unit's yield is 40,000 b/d of aviation fuel and gasoline.
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PETROLEUM and Indian Petrochemicals Ltd. developed a platinum-rhenium refining catalyst used in production of gasoline and aromatics. IIP says use of the bimetallic catalyst will save the country foreign exchange worth $15 million/year because current catalyst needs are met through imports.
ESSO SAF, Exxon Corp.'s downstream arm in France, will spend 350 million francs ($58.3 million) for a 4,000 b/d alkylation unit at its Port Jerome refinery in Normandy. It is due on stream in spring 1993.
EXPLORATION
OCCIDENTAL DE COLOMBIA INC., a joint venture of Occidental Petroleum Corp. 75% and Spanish oil company Repsol SA 25%, signed an association contract with Colombian state oil company Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos to explore the 249,000 acre Araguaney block in the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains, about 100 miles northeast of Bogota. Oxy will acquire at least 100 line km of seismic data during the first year of the contract and has an option to drill a wildcat the second year.
AMOCO NETHERLANDS PETROLEUM CO.'S P/18-4 wildcat on Block P/18 in the Dutch North Sea cut about 670 ft of net gas pay in Triassic Middle Bunter sandstone. Amoco expects the well to flow at rates similar to other wells drilled in 1987-1990 on Block P/18 and adjacent Block P/15 that tested 25-50 MMcfd of gas. The P/18-4 well was drilled to 14,200 ft. Production from Block P/1 8 and other discoveries on Block P/15 is to begin in late 1993.
CLYDE PETROLEUM EXPLORATIE BV'S 1 South Waalwijk wildcat on the onshore Waalwijk concession in North Brabant, Netherlands, flowed a combined rate of 23.4 MMcfd of gas and 500 b/d of oil and condensate on three drillstem tests of a gross interval covering 5,387-10,728 ft. The third test, of pay at 5,387-5,472 ft, produced only small volumes of oil. Clyde will evaluate the zone later in the year with an extended test.
BP CANADA'S West Bulmoose b-90-H, 93-P-4 wildcat in the British Columbia foothills flowed for 94 hr at a constrained rate of about 40 MMcfd from Triassic pay during a single point production test, interest owner Ocelot Industries Ltd. reported. Final stabilized flow at the end of the test was 39.4 MMcfd through a 59/64 in. choke with 2,613 psi flowing tubing pressure. The well is shut in for extended pressure buildup.
DELHI PETROLEUM 1 Patroclus on Total 66 Block of ATP 259P, Queensland, Australia, flowed 1,530 b/d of oil through a 1/2 in. choke on a drillstem test of Jurassic Hutton sandstone at 5,740-80 ft. Proposed total depth is 7,106 ft. The well is 19 km northeast of Ashby field and 10 km northwest of the Tickalara and Jackson pipeline. Operator Delhi holds 30% interest in the block, Santos Ltd. 70%.
ELF GABON 1 Guilette Marine on the Barbler Marine permit in the Atlantic .Ocean about 22 km off Gabon flowed 566 b/d of 17.50 gravity oil on a production test. The well is in 142 ft of water 10 km northeast of Barbler field and 5 km southeast of Mandaros field. Elf Gabon is operator in association with Ste. Nationale Elf Aquitaine.
CHINA NATIONAL TECHNICAL IMPORT CORP. let contract to Input/Output Inc., Stafford, Tex., for two land seismic data acquisition systems, pending export license approval by the U.S. Commerce Department. 1/0 last January shipped one land seismic system to Jilin oil field in Northeast China and expects to send another system to China National Petroleum Corp. by June 1, 1992.
ALTERNATE FUELS
ALCAN ALUMINUM LTD., Montreal, will appeal a Canadian federal court judgment overruling the federal minister of fisheries and oceans' 1987 Kemano settlement agreement. The agreement secured operating conditions for Alcan's $900 million Kemano hydroelectric project in Northwest British Columbia. The project, almost half complete, would add 540,000 kw of generating capacity to existing 896,000 kw capacity at the hydroelectric power/aluminum smelter site. Alcan is not placing further contracts or making other commitments on the project.
Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.