Canada is selling more of its interest in Petro-Canada.
The company has filed a preliminary short form prospectus in Canada and a registration statement in the U.S. for 118 million common shares to be sold by the government in an offering expected to be completed this month.
The government has granted to the underwriters an overallotment option to buy as many as 5.9 million common shares.
The offering will reduce the government's holding to about 20% of the common shares of Petro-Canada. Ottawa said last year it was preparing to sell its remaining 70% stake in Petro-Canada (OGJ, Apr. 11, 1994, Newsletter). It sold about 30% of the company in 1991 and 1992.
Increased demand for gas fired power generation due to hot weather pushed up the average U.S. spot natural gas price 19/MMBTU for September to $1.45/MMBTU. For the first 9 months of 1995, prices averaged $1.42/MMBTU vs. $1.86/MMBTU same time last year.
Electric vehicles enjoy broad support among the U.S. public, concludes a nationwide poll by Cambridge Reports/Research International (see related stories, p. 21). Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Pres. Thomas Kuhn notes, "Government officials should know that the public is fully behind policies to support electric vehicles. The public has spoken, and they want electric vehicles." The poll was conducted in August for EEI.
Seventy-three percent of those polled favor government support for development of electric vehicles, 75% support tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles, as well as allowing electric car owners to drive in carpool lanes and providing cheaper electric rates for overnight charging.
Seventy-two percent said they would buy an electric vehicle capable of going 75 miles on a single charge, with fast charging readily available at service stations and/or home recharging.
The Energy Policy Act of 1992 requires state and fuel provider fleets (such as electric utilities) to begin phasing in alternative fuel vehicles. Fifty-three percent of those polled said utilities should be responsible for installing and maintaining public charging stations, and of those, 60% said they would be willing to pay more each month for electricity service to support those stations.
Japanese companies have secured two large overseas projects.
Toyo Engineering and Mitsui & Co. started work on a $100 million project to upgrade a refinery at Kuybyshev, 1,000 km east of Moscow, Tokyo's Nikkei Weekly newspaper reports. The project halted last year when ownership of the plant changed under realignment of Russia's oil industry. The contract includes design, construction, and employee training at the 24,000 b/d refinery.
Meantime, Mitsui agreed with Myanmar's government to build a power plant using gas from fields off southern Myanmar, Reuters reports.
The $700 million project involves building a 200,000 kw power plant and a 570,000 metric ton/year fertilizer plant near Rangoon.
Venezuela's Corpoven hopes to increase light and medium crude reserves by 315 million bbl this year.
The company plans to drill 15 wildcats by yearend, four in eastern Venezuela and nine in the west central part of the country.
Corpoven shot about 553 line km of seismic in the west central Apure state during first half this year.
The Asia-Pacific region's hunger for oil, gas, and electricity may outstrip supplies the next 15 years, holding back the area's booming economies, reports Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd., Edinburgh.
"By 2010 we expect 4,100 million metric tons/year of oil equivalent to be consumed in the region," says Wood Mackenzie, "more than twice the level used in 1990 and double the level forecast for Europe at the end of the next decade."
Wood Mackenzie expects local energy production to increase 85% during the period, not enough to meet fuel needs. As a result, net energy imports will increase to 212 times present levels to 1.2 billion metric tons/year of oil equivalent by the end of the next decade.
In 2010, the analyst predicts, oil will account for 70% of the Asia-Pacific region's energy imports, which will total nearly 17 million b/d, double the current volume. Asia-Pacific gas production will increase almost 70% by 2010, reaching 360 billion cu m/year. Gas demand is expected to more than double in the same period to more than 460 billion cu m/year, yielding imports that will increase to 110 billion cu m/year.
Indonesia has approved plans to construct two private refineries at a total cost of about $3.52 billion. PT Paras Refining Co. (PRC) and PT Asia Pacific Bontang (APB) plan refineries in East Java and East Kalimantan, respectively.
PRC plans a plant that will produce gasoline, kerosine, gas oil, coke, and sulfur, while APB's main product will be high octane gasoline.
A major expansion project is under way in Pakistan.
The Pak-Arab Co, Ltd. broke ground for a refinery near Multan and a 350 km pipeline, projects that will cost more than $900 million.
The 90,000 b/d refinery at Mahmood Kot is to be complete by yearend 1996, as is the 350 km pipeline.
Meantime, Total has pulled out of a refinery project in Viet Nam.
A feasibility study conducted the last 18 months shows low profitability due to the inland site chosen by Viet Nam authorities. Total recommended a coastal site (OGJ, May 1, p. 42). Total says it remains committed to the region and Viet Nam specifically, where it is still developing LPG, lube oil, and jet fuel markets and will continue to look for upstream and downstream opportunities.
Nigeria is leading last minute efforts by OPEC to stop Gabon from leaving the organization. Nigeria's Petroleum Resources Minister Dan Etete and OPEC Sec. Gen. Rilwanu Lukman were expected to leave early this month for meetings in Gabon with President Omar Bongo.
Gabon has made it clear it plans to quit the group (OGJ, Jan. 16, p. 26).
A much needed pipeline moves one step closer to fruition.
Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana signed a pact Sept. 5 agreeing to cooperate on the $270 million project that will move gas from Nigeria's fields to the other three countries' power plants.
The countries, members of the Economic Communities of the West Africa States, will jointly establish a West African pipeline company to run the project, which will be incorporated in an agreed upon country. Ownership has not been determined. Energy ministers from member countries will form a committee to coordinate financing and monitor project management.
South Africa will allow Iran to use spare capacity at Saldanha Bay to store nearly 15 million bbl of crude under an agreement signed late last month, Xinhua News Agency reports.
The crude needs a home because of the U.S. ban on oil imports from Iran. Implementation of the agreement is subject to results of an environmental impact assesment being carried out by South Africa's Strategic Fuel Fund.
Operations in Russia's big petrochemical complex at Tobolsk, Tyumen region, are at a standstill. The plant's assistant technical director, Leonid Zhernakov, blames "exorbitant" tariffs for railway shipments of products to buyers.
The high charges have rendered further production "senseless," Zhernakov said. Shutdown of the complex idled a gas processing unit, as well as a butadiene plant. A safety hazard lurks in about 600 railway tank cars left on tracks leading to the complex. Russia's Tass news agency reported, "Most of these are empty, and they are most likely to catch fire."
A site survey reveals Chirag field off Azerbaijan is more geologically complex than any it has worked in, says BP Exploration.
Survey project leader Roger Lott says BP expected geological hazards and thought it better to identify problem areas before detailed planning went ahead.
"On the scale of geohazards you expect to face," says Lott, "Chirag comes out higher than anything seen before in BP Exploration's experience worldwide.
"The soils contain much shallow gas, there are several mud volcanoes, and we've discovered some areas of very unstable slopes. It is geologically active, with more faults coming to the seabed that any of us in the team can recall seeing before." BP is a partner in Azerbaijan International Operating Co., which plans an $8 billion phased development of Chirag, Azeri, and Guneshli fields, where estimated reserves are 3.8 billion bbl of oil (OGJ, June 19, p. 26).
Union Texas is increasing its exploration campaign in Italy.
The company's Union Texas Adriatic unit agreed to acquire a 20% working interest in the onshore Baragiano exploration permit in the southern Apennines oil play from Enterprise Oil Exploration. The permit covers about 92,890 acres.
Site preparation is under way for the permit's first wildcat, 1 Monte Foi, expected to spud in fourth quarter 1995. Projected depth is 20,670 ft.
Earlier this year Union Texas acquired interests in the Serra Corneta, Tempa dei Mercanti, and Forenza permits in the same region (see map, OGJ, Feb. 27, p. 64) and has applied for another exploration permit near the Serra Corneta and Tempa dei Mercanti areas.
Norway will decide by yearend on virgin acreage in the Barents Sea to be offered for exploration in the country's 16th licensing round.
Speaking at Aberdeen's Offshore Europe conference last week, Gunnar Myrvang, state secretary at the Ministry of Industry & Energy, said blocks will be nominated by yearend to allow announcement of acreage in early 1996.
Oil companies will be required to submit applications for acreage in spring 1996, and licenses will be awarded next summer.
"We have faith in the Barents Sea despite having spent 10 billion kroner ($1.6 billion) in the area to date without finding oil and discovering no commercial gas...," Myrvang said.
Last year Statoil, Norsk Hydro, and Saga Petroleum pooled exploration data for future studies of Barents Sea prospects and were joined by Amoco Norway, Elf Petroleum Norge, and Mobil Norge.
Myrvang says the companies have reevaluted the Barents Sea and are "looking at possibilities to begin application for part of this area." Myrvang noted the government now allows group applications, a move made at the request of oil companies.
Early last year, Statoil tested a small oil discovery in the Barents Sea, which proved to be noncommercial but gave hope for the area.
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