INDUSTRY BRIEFS

Correction

Commissioning of a natural gas liquefaction train at Indonesia's Bontang plant was incorrectly attributed to Total SA (OGJ, Dec. 8, 1997, p. 27). The Bontang plant is owned and operated by state firm Pertamina. Total supplies gas feed to the plant through its production-sharing contract (PSC) with Pertamina. Unocal Corp. and a combine of Union Texas Petroleum and Lasmo plc also supply gas to the Bontang LNG plant through PSCs with Pertamina.

Companies

Amber Energy Inc., Calgary, acquired a 100% working interest in 102 sections of oil leases in the Wabasca/Pelican Lake area of Alberta for $16.9 million (Canadian). Amber has an average 98% working interest in 305 net sections of contiguous lands in the area.

Drilling-production

Pertamina gained control of a gas well blowout and resulting eruptions from fissures near the well that caused mass evacuations at Rantau, Sumatra (OGJ, Dec. 8, 1997, p. 26). At presstime, the company had not yet allowed evacuees to return to their homes. Agence France Presse reports that Pertamina has taken full responsibility for the incident and will compensate residents for any damages incurred as a result of the blowout.

Union Pacific Resources Group Inc.
let a $150 million, 5-year contract for Noble Drilling Inc.'s Noble Max Smith semisubmersible drilling rig rated to 5,000 ft of water. UPR will share the rig 50-50 with Amerada Hess Corp. in the Gulf of Mexico. UPR will put the semi to work in mid-1999 on Mississippi Canyon Block 755 in its Gomez prospect area. Block 755 field, discovered in October, has proved reserves of 20-25 million bbl of oil. The Gomez prospect area covers 20 contiguous blocks.

Petroleos Mexicanos
let a $390 million contract to Corp. Mexicana de Mantenimiento Integral SA de CV (Commisa), a joint venture of Brown & Root Energy Services and Grupo R, a Mexican conglomerate. Commisa is responsible for management, design, fabrication, installation, and commissioning of two major gas processing platforms and related facilities in Akal-C complex in Campeche Sound. These major project components will increase sour gas compression, dehydration, and sweetening capacity in the Cantarell producing complex. Work is scheduled for completion in 2000.

Elf Petroland
a Dutch oil and gas affiliate of Elf Aquitaine, brought on stream two gas fields. Its K4aD field, on Block K41 on the Dutch continental shelf, is producing 700,000 cu m/day. K4aD, Elf Petroland's first subsea development, is linked to Markham field. The company says it is the first in the Netherlands to produce gas exclusively from a carboniferous reservoir. Elf Petroland also started production from a platform in K5E North field, discovered in 1992 on Block K4b/K5a. Production from K5C field, overlapping blocks K4b/K5a and K5b, is to follow by yearend.

California Coastal Commission
approved resumption of Houston-based Nuevo Energy Co.'s Point Pedernales field production following an oil pipeline leak Sept. 29 (OGJ, Oct. 6, 1997, p. 38). Prior to the shut-in, the field averaged 7,270 b/d net for the first 9 months of 1997. Nuevo is operator with a 85% working interest and expects to reach full production again by yearend.

Algerian state firm Sonatrach
and British Petroleum Co. plc hired JGC/Kellogg, a joint venture of Japanese firm JGC Corp. and Houston's M.W. Kellogg Co., to perform conceptual engineering for the In Salah gas development in southern Algeria. Based in London, the engineering project team includes members from both parent companies and Kellogg's upstream sister companies Granherne Ltd., Woking, U.K., and Dresser Kellogg Well Management. About $3.5 billion in capital spending is earmarked for the In Salah project.

Inuvialuit Petroleum Corp.,
Calgary, will supply about 15 bcf of natural gas from a Mackenzie Delta field to a Northwest Territories Power Corp. plant near Inuvik, N.W.T. Inuvialuit will begin deliveries under the 15-year, $30 million (Canadian) supply contract in mid-1999.

Refining

Aden Refinery Co. will begin construction on a $300 million revamp of its refinery at Aden, Yemen, in first half 1998 (OGJ, Dec. 15, 1997, p. 30). Plans call for a capacity increase to 150,000 b/d from 110,000 b/d. Yemen expects to increase oil production to 450,000 b/d from the current 390,000 b/d by mid-1998.

Products marketing

Mobil Sekiyu KK, a Japanese subsidiary of Mobil Corp., will begin large-scale distribution of oil products with other Mobil companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Mobil claims this is the first time a Japanese unit of a major oil company will supply group companies in Asia. Mobil's goal is to improve the cost competitiveness of its oil products, increase refinery capacity, and expand exports. Mobil will use Japan as a supply base for neighboring spots such as Hong Kong and Guam.

Energy marketing

Engage Energy US LP and HEC Inc. formed a strategic alliance to provide customized energy services to U.S. markets. Engage is a joint venture of Coastal Corp. and Westcoast Energy Inc., Vancouver, B.C. HEC, Natick, Mass., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northeast Utilities System, Hartford, Conn. Engage will provide natural gas and electricity sales and trading activities, energy management services, structured storage and transportation services, power management, and energy risk financial services.

Exploration

Elf Aquitaine and partners may have another giant oil field discovery 200 km off Luanda, Angola. The Dalia 2 well, in 1,250 m of water, flowed on test at a rate of 15,000 b/d of oil. Preliminary results indicate reserves could be on the order of those initially estimated for Dalia 1, discovered in August 1997, and it is not yet clear whether the two are linked. Elf's first well, Girassol, discovered in May 1996 in 1,350 m of water, has estimated reserves of 660 million bbl. Operator Elf holds 35% of the block; partners are Esso Ltd., British Petroleum, Norway's Statoil, Norsk Hydro AS, and Fina SA.

Burlington Resources unit
LL&E Algeria Ltd., Sonatrach, and Talisman Energy Inc. tested a delineation well on Menzel Lejmat Block 405 in Algeria's Ghadames basin. The MLN-4 well flowed 22,700 b/d of oil and 58 MMcfd of gas. The well encountered two Triassic TAG intervals and a new reservoir in a deeper Paleozoic interval. The stepout is 1.75 miles south-southwest of the MLN-1 discovery well. The drilling rig will be moved 17.5 miles south to drill the MLSE-1 wildcat in the southeast quadrant of Block 405.

Terra Nova Alliance
let a $24 million (Canadian) contract to Seacore Ltd., a British registered company, for glory holes to protect wellheads and subsea templates from iceberg scouring in oil fields being developed on Newfoundland's Grand Banks. Work is set for the summer seasons of 1998 and 1999. Seacore is also 50% owned by Calgary-based Agra Inc. The alliance partners are Petro-Canada Ltd., Mobil Oil Canada Ltd., Husky Oil Operations, Norsk Hydro, Murphy Oil Co. Ltd., and Mosbacher Operating Ltd.

Unocal Vietnam Exploration Ltd.
made a significant gas discovery on Block B in 180-245 ft of water off southwestern Viet Nam. In two drill stem tests, B-KL-LX well flowed a combined 52.9 MMcfd of gas from Miocene sands on the Malay basin's Kim Long prospect. Unocal operates the 1.3 million acre block under a production-sharing contract with Petrovietnam. Partners in the PSC are: Unocal 45%; Repsol Exploracion Vietnam Petroleum Co., a unit of Spanish state firm Repsol SA, 30%; and Moeco Vietnam Petroleum Co., a subsidiary of Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., 25%.

Bids worth $16.3 million
submitted during the western Gulf of Mexico lease sale (OGJ, Sept. 8, 1997, p. 36) were rejected by the U.S. Minerals Management Service out of 1,198 high bids accepted totaling $599.6 million. MMS returned unopened an undisclosed number of bids submitted by companies for tracts in an area claimed by both Mexico and the U.S. (OGJ, Dec. 15, 1997, p. 28).

Pakistan granted
exploration license to a joint venture of Union Texas Pakistan Inc. (UTP), Occidental Petroleum (Pakistan) Inc., Oil & Gas Development Co. Ltd., and Government Holdings (repository of state interests) in the Thatta district, Sindh province. UTP is operator of the 186 sq km block. The group plans to spend about $250,000 to acquire 50 sq km of 3D seismic.

Petrochemicals

Mitsubishi Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. will construct a ?50 billion, 500,000 metric ton/year ethylene plant on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines by 2001 to help meet double-digit demand growth for petrochemicals. The business venture will include local investors and M.W. Kellogg Co. A group of Kellogg, Chiyoda Corp., and JGC Corp. will construct the plant. Mitsubishi already operates a vinyl chloride joint venture in a Bataan industrial park, and Sumitomo is a participant in several ventures making polypropylene and polyethylene at that site.

Huntsman Corp.
installed a new high-activity catalyst (HAC) process for polypropylene production at its Woodbury, N.J., plant. Huntsman developed the process in-house. HAC will increase the plant's polypropylene production to 400 million lb/year and provide additional lines of polypropylene grades for use in film and fiber markets.

Pakistan
will suspend natural gas supplies to fertilizer plants for 2 months during the peak winter season starting Jan. 1, 1998. Pakistan also decided not to honor 9-month supplemental contracts with industrial users during the 3-month peak demand period. Pak-China Fertilizer Ltd., will close its Haripur, Pakistan, plant during Jan. 1-Feb. 28, 1998. To close Jan. 1-Feb. 9 are: Pak-Arab Fertilizer Ltd.'s Multan plant, Daewoo Hercules's Sheikhupura plant, and Pak-American Ltd.'s Dadhkhel plant. When the plants restart, supplies will ramp up to contract volumes.

Amoco Chemical Co.
and Huntsman Corp. entered into a long-term agreement that gives Huntsman sales and marketing responsibility for all fatty alcohol grades C12 and above produced at Amoco's Pasadena, Tex., petrochemical complex. Amoco will produce the alcohols under a toll arrangement.

LPG

Total Gas Can Tho, a 60-40 joint venture of Total SA and Viet Nam's Sea Products, will build and operate an LPG plant at Can Tho, Viet Nam. The unit is due on stream in 1999.

Black Sea LPG Romania SA,
a U.S.-Romania joint venture, will complete a 1 million metric ton deepwater LPG import terminal at Constanta, Romania, on the Black Sea. The $180 million project includes a pipeline to Bucharest, ancillary facilities, satellite terminals, and LPG infrastructure throughout Romania. Start-up is scheduled for 2001. Black Sea LPG is made up of: Romgaz RA, Renel RA, and Rompetrol SA from Romania; Energy Transportation Group Inc., New York; UGI Enterprises Inc., Valley Forge, Pa.; and North American World Trade Ltd., Avon, Conn.

Gas processing

Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) let a $2 million (Canadian) contract to Accent Engineering Consultants Inc., Halifax, N.S., for engineering on a gas fractionation plant to be built at Point Tupper, N.S. Plant construction costs are estimated at $50 million. SOEP is developing natural gas fields near Sable Island off Nova Scotia to supply markets in Canada and the U.S.

Novagas Canada Ltd.
(NCL), Calgary, is awaiting approval from British Columbia's environmental assessment office to construct a $92 million (Canadian) natural gas processing plant and pipelines in the West Stoddart area 50 km northwest of Fort St. John, B.C. The Stoddart project includes a 160 MMcfd processing plant; a 69-km, 16-in. pipeline; and a parallel 6-in. liquids pipeline. Gas and gas liquids from the plant will be transported to NCL's Taylor natural gas extraction plant for further processing. The volumes from Stoddart, combined with other regional gas production, will bring the Taylor facility to full capacity.

Pipelines

Pemex let three contracts worth a combined $160 million to CCC Fabricaciones Y Construcciones SA de CV, a joint venture of Global Industries Ltd. and Grupo Consorcio de Fabricaciones Construcciones SA de CV, for pipeline construction in Campeche Sound. Two contracts require CCC to lay and bury multiple 16, 24, and 36-in. pipelines in 158 ft of water in Pemex's Cantarell producing complex. The third involves design, procurement, laying, burying, and testing of 30 km of 36-in. pipe linking the Akal J complex to Pemex's FSO-1 unit. The offshore installation phase is slated for spring 1998.

Canada's Federal Court of Appeals
dismissed a complaint filed by TransMaritime Pipeline Project (TMPP) and the North Atlantic Pipeline Partners group to halt regulatory approval of rival Maritimes & Northeast Line's (MNE) SOEP pipeline. The MNE group won regulatory approval to lay a pipeline to move natural gas from fields near Nova Scotia's Sable Island to Canadian and U.S. markets (OGJ, Dec. 15, 1997, p. 22). TMPP and North Atlantic asked the trial division of Canada's Supreme Court to uphold their application for appeal. MNE's project is awaiting final approvals from Ottawa and Nova Scotia.

Canada's National Energy Board
approved an $824.5 million (Canadian) natural gas pipeline construction program proposed by TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Calgary. The line will cross Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec and includes 192 miles of pipeline looping, 11 compressor units, and additional metering facilities at five existing stations. Completion is planned for November 1998. This will add about 352 MMcfd of firm transportation service from Empress, Alta., and 65 MMcfd of short-haul firm transportation service from St. Clair, Ont. About 16% of the capacity is for domestic consumption.