INDUSTRY BRIEFS

SPILLS

A 200 BBL OIL SPILL May 21 in the port of Valdez, Alas., temporarily closed the marine terminal of the trans-AlAska pipeline. Cause of the spill from Maritime Overseas Corp.'s Eastern Lion tanker was undetermined at presstime last week. Containment booms are deployed, cleanup is under way, and shipping resumed May 23 on a limited basis.

A MALAYSIAN FLAG tanker carrying 1,600 metric tons of crude oil grounded and began seeping its cargo May 12 in the Gauthami River in Southeast India's Andhra Pradesh state. Officials report the vessel is in danger of capsizing and breaking up, spilling its cargo. Indian Coast Guard vessels are at the site to aid spill response operations.

A PIPELINE that ties Okruzhnoye oil field to the nearby 200,000 metric ton/year Petrosakh refinery on Russia's Sakhalin Island ruptured and spilled 60 tons of crude near Pervomaiskoye township. Fifty-four tons were recovered, and the rest was encircled by a dam. The spill occurred near the scheduled startup date of the U.S.-Russian joint venture refinery.

FUEL CELLS

FUEL CELL ENGINEERING CORP., a unit of Energy Research Corp., Danbury, Conn., let a $46 million contract to Fluor Daniel Inc., Irvine, Calif., to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services to build what Fluor believes is the world's first demonstration of a 2,000 kw carbonate fuel cell power plant. The Santa Clara, Calif., plant is scheduled for completion in mid-1995.

LUBRICANTS

MOBIL CORP. will spend a combined $35 million on a series of investment projects to make its Mobil Oil Francaise lubricant blending plant at Gravenchon, France, the company's key blending site in Northwest Europe. It will add automated equipment, measurement/control items, and associated equipment during 1995.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

HAMILTON OIL CO. LTD., London, let a 30 million ($45 million) contract to Brown & Root Highland Fabricators Ltd., Nigg, Scotland, for fabrication of satellite jackets, piles, and topsides for its Liverpool Bay development project in the Irish Sea.

MCDERMOTT INTERNATIONAL INC., New Orleans, said, contrary to press reports, it has no immediate intention to withdraw from the MMMSM group seeking to develop fields off Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East. The group consists of Marathon 30%, McDermott, Mitsui, and Shell 20% each, and Mitsubishi 10%.

NORWAY'S Den norske stats oljeselskap AS submitted a plan to the Norwegian government to boost production from Veslefrikk oil field in the North Sea. Statoil intends to tap a satellite reservoir with estimated reserves of 15 million bbl. A water alternating gas injection scheme in the main field is expected to increase reserves by 13 million bbl from an original 280 million bbl.

AMOCO (U.K.) EXPLORATION CO. let contract to Kvaerner Oil & Gas Services Ltd., Aberdeen, Scotland, for refurbishment of southern North Sea Leman field 49/27E production platform. The contractor will return the platform to Amoco in October as a not normally manned installation,

THE U.S. SENATE'S energy committee approved a bill to allow leasing of gas rights on two naval oil shale reserves in Garfield County, Colo., to private operators. To prevent drainage, the Department of Energy drilled 13 gas wells on the acreage but has netted only $143,000 in revenues.

TEXACO LTD. appraised the Galley discovery as operator of U.K. North Sea Block 15/23a, not Conoco (U.K.) Ltd. as incorrectly reported in our story on floating production systems (OGJ, May 23, p. 23).

NORWAY'S Smedvig Ltd. dropped out as a bidder for the drilling contract on the $6.2 billion (Canadian) Hibernia oil field development project off Newfoundland. The bid award is to be announced by Sept. 15 by Hibernia Management & Development Co. Ltd. Three Alberta companies, a Texas company, and a Norwegian driller remain as bidders.

VENEZUELA'S Lagoven SA let a combined $40 million contract to Pride Petroleum Services Inc., Houston, to build and operate two cantilever drilling/workover rigs for service in Lake Maracaibo. Texas Drydock Inc. will build the Pride I and Pride II units. The rigs are expected to start working for Lagoven before yearend.

MOBIL NORTH SEA LTD. completed installation of Excalibur gas production platform in U.K. southern North Sea Block 48/17a. Production is expected to begin Oct. 1 for sale in the U.K. commercial and industrial market by Mobil's independent gas supply unit.

ARCO BRITISH LTD. won U.K. Department of Trade & Industry approval for its plan to develop North Sea Block 16/21b using the Petrojarl 1 production ship (OGJ, May 23, p. 23). ARCO estimates that 23 million bbl of oil will be recovered during a field life of 3-5 years. Production is to start in January 1995.

AMOCO (U.K.) EXPLORATION CO. let a 7 million ($10.5 million) contract to Stena Offshore Ltd., Aberdeen, Scotland, for 3 years of inspection, repair, and maintenance work. Stena's first project will send its Orelia support vessel on a 120 day tour of Amoco's 40 U.K. offshore sites. En route Orelia will install eight 40 metric ton riser guards.

COMPANIES

BRITISH GAS PLC agreed to sell its 53% shareholding in Bow Valley Energy Inc., Calgary, to Talisman Energy Inc., also of Calgary, for $720 million (Canadian). Other terms of the sale were disclosed a week ago (OGJ, May 23, p. 40).

CODY ENERGY INC., Denver, bought Penmax Exploration Inc., Calgary, for $13.3 million (U.S.). Penmax which produces 1,100 b/d of oil and 500 MMcfd of gas, will be renamed Cody Energy Canada Ltd.

GAS PROCESSING

SAUDI ARAMCO OIL CO. let a $100 million contract to ABB Lummus Crest, Houston, for engineering, procurement, and construction of a gas treating plant in eastern Saudi Arabia, 20 km north of Jubail. The plant, to start up by mid-1996, will include a high pressure amine train, gas sweetening, amine regeneration, and triethylene glycol gas drying units.

REFINING

CONSTRUCTION started May 25 on the 9 million metric ton/year Mitteldeutsche Erdoel Raffineria GmbH refinery in the Leipzig region of Central Germany. Construction is expected to take 3 years.

CONSTRUCTION is under way at Petrolite Corp., St. Louis, on a continuous pilot plant designed to use biotechnology to remove sulfur from fuel. The $1.5 million, 5 b/d unit will demonstrate a biocatalytic desulfurization process developed by Energy BioSystems Corp., Houston. M.W. Kellogg Co. is building the plant.

RUSSIA expects to call for bids this fall on an estimated $500 million project to build a hydrocracker at its 420,000 b/d Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery. The new unit is expected to start up in 2-3 years.

ARCADIA REFINING & MARKETING CO. LP completed its combined $4.3 million purchase of Cornerstone Natural Gas Inc.'s Claiborne refinery and certain idle refining assets of Cornerstone's Dubach plant in North Louisiana. An Arcadia unit expects to close in second quarter on a $1 million purchase of the rest of Cornerstone's idle Dubach refinery units.

TOSCO CORP. will spend as much as $25 million to improve the 65,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracker at its 148,000 b/cd Avon refinery at Martinez, Calif. Work is to be completed during the unit's scheduled turnaround in first quarter 1995.

EXXON CO. U.S.A. is to start work in July on a $200 million clean fuels project at its 128,000 b/cd Benicia, Calif., refinery. Completion is scheduled for March 1996.

PHIBRO ENERGY USA let contract to Belmont, Houston, to install a residfiner it is moving to Texas City, Tex., from Freeport, Tex. The project requires transport of 250 truckloads of equipment, with work scheduled to begin in September.

GOVERNMENT

JAPAN'S Ministry of International Trade & Industry (MITI) urged the nation's petrochemical companies to restructure. Many companies were reported by Tokyo's Nihon Keizai Shimbun to be competing with small volume production of similar materials. A MITI report recommends reducing the number of one product companies to 5-7 from 10 through mergers and business tieups.

EXPLORATION

GRANT GEOPHYSICAL INC., Houston, agreed to conduct geophysical surveys for Amoco Production Co.'s Southeast U.S. business unit, The agreement covers Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, and South and East Texas.

CHINA NATIONAL OFFSHORE OIL CORP. (Cnooc) will offer 13 South China Sea blocks covering a combined 39,950 sq km for exploration by foreign companies. Seven blocks are in the Yinggehai Sea and Quiogdongnan basin south of Hainan Island, and six are in the Pearl River delta near Hong Kong. Cnooc will conduct a seminar June 20-24 in Houston to promote the offer.

REPSOL EXPLORACION EGIPTO SA'S Bassel-B wildcat found an oil field on Egypt's Khalda concession. The 6,150 ft well produced 1,455 b/d of 43 gravity oil and 1.3 MMcfd of gas from Cretaceous Bahariya sandstone. Operator Repsol holds 50% of the contractor's concession interest in the well, Phoenix Resource Co. of Egypt 40%, and Samsung Co. Ltd. 10%.

KAZAKHSTAN'S Kazakhstancapishelf commissioned Racal Survey Ltd.. New Malden, U.K., to conduct a geodetic survey of the state's Black Sea coast. Data will be used to establish reference points for satellite based positioning systems.

PETROCHEMICALS

ARGENTINA'S YPF Soc. Anonima agreed to acquire Ipako SA's 51% equity in polypropylene producer Petroken SA for $42 million cash. It will match Petroken minority owner Shell Cia. Argentina de Petroleo SA by guaranteeing liabilities of Petroken for $38 million, which are expected to be paid out of Petroken's cash flow.

JAPAN'S Tosoh Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. each plan to invest 20% of the capital in a $55 million vinyl chloride plant proposed for Philippines, reports Tokyo's Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The plant, to be built on Bataan Peninsula, is to start producing 60,000 metric tons/year within the next few years.

PIPELINES

TRANSCANADA PIPELINES LTD. increased the cost estimate of its 1995-96 facilities application with Canada's National Energy Board, seeking to add items to its main line gas system. Proposed additions will hike capital spending to $189.3 million (Canadian) from $120 million (OGJ, Mar. 28, p. 38).

U.K.'S OIL PIPELINE AGENCY hired Serco Gulf Engineering Ltd., a joint venture of Gulf Interstate Engineering, Houston, and Britain's Serco Ltd., to maintain and operate nine fuel storage depots and a 1,200 mile pipeline system that supply British military and civilian airfields.

STATOIL intends to settle on a route for the next gas trunk line to continental Europe from the Norwegian North Sea in time to submit a placement and operating plan by Sept. 1. Another 12 billion cu m/year of gas pipeline capacity must start up in 1998 to serve expected demand in Belgium, France, and Germany.

STATOIL let a $13.6 million contract to Halliburton Energy Services, Houston, to remove weld blisters, clean and rinse, pressure test, and dry the 40 in. North Sea Europipe and Zeepipe Phase IIA gas pipelines. The lines are scheduled to start up in spring and fall 1995, respectively.

AMOCO CANADA PETROLEUM LTD., Calgary, placed its Cochin gas liquids pipeline back in operation May 17. The line ruptured in an explosion near Regina, Sask., the week before (OGJ, May 23, p. 40).

LPG

VIETNAM GAS 36% and Petroleum Authority of Thailand and Total of France 32% each propose to form joint venture company Vietnam LPG Co. Ltd. to develop and market liquefied petroleum gas for 20 years. The JV is to have sites in Dongnai and Vung Tau, South Viet Nam. Start-up date for the $15.04 million capital investment project is not disclosed.

INTERNATIONAL ENERGY DEVELOPMENT CORP., Redwood City, Calif., completed construction of its LPG terminal at the port of Brownsville, Tex. Its Penn Octane division started building inventory there to meet a 30 day, $1 million order for LPG from Petroleos Mexicanos and make sales to U.S. LPG distributors in the Rio Grande Valley.