INDUSTRY BRIEFS

CNG

AMOCO PRODUCTION CO. opened its first refueling station dedicated solely to compressed natural gas at Farmington, N.M. It is New Mexico's first retail CNG station. The outlet will serve fleets and individuals. Amoco's southern Rockies business unit is converting 200 vehicles to operate on CNG and negotiating with area fleet owners to convert their vehicles to CNG.

LNG

JAPAN'S Tohoku Electric Power Co. let a $1.6 billion, 20 year contract to Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd. to supply 500,000 metric tons/year of liquefied natural gas during 1996-2016.

KOREA GAS CORP. let a $4.6 million contract to Osaka Gas Engineering Co. to serve as a technical adviser in a project to build a 3 million metric ton/year LNG receiving terminal in South Korea. Osaka Gas will provide technical assistance for services ranging from basic design to test runs through 1996. Korea Gas plans to build the terminal by reclaiming land off Inchon about 40 km west of Seoul, Japan Economic Newswire reported.

REFINING

A JUDGE in a Delaware federal court ordered Texaco Refining & Marketing Inc. to pay $1.68 million in civil penalties for allegedly discharging toxic chemicals from its Delaware City refinery into the Delaware River, violating the U.S. Clean Water Act. Delaware Audubon Society and Natural Resources Defense Council claimed in their suit the refinery has exceeded federal limits for discharging ammonia, phenols, and other chemicals 377 times since 1983. The decision came more than 1 year after a 3 week trial. Texaco had not reviewed the decision at presstime.

REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES INC. and Tetra Technologies Inc. formed a joint venture to provide technology and services for use of thermal desorption to treat and recycle refinery waste sludges designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as K-048 through K-052. The process is designed to meet best demonstrated available technology standards, minimize waste volumes, and recover hydrocarbons for recycling. The venture will offer onsite facilities and services via multiyear, performance based contracts.

THE CONTRACT between Hondo Oil & Gas Co., Roswell, N.M., and Signal Hill Petroleum Inc., Signal Hill, Calif., calling for Signal Hill to buy Hondo's 29,657 b/d Fletcher refinery at Carson, Calif. (OGJ, Apr. 13, p. 21), expired July 31, after investigation of antitrust concerns by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Hondo expects to continue processing arrangements with Enron Oil Trading & Transporting Co. and has started talks with other prospective buyers.

PILIPINAS SHELL PETROLEUM CORP. let contract to Dresser-Rand Turbo Products Division for shipment of three centrifugal turbocompressors, one steam turbine, and one induction motor driver. The units, worth a total $10 million, will be shipped in August 1993 for installation at Pilipinas Shell's refinery in Tabangao, Batangas, Philippines.

ACQUISITIONS

DEEPTECH INTERNATIONAL INC., Houston, paid Penrod Drilling Corp., Dallas, $3 million for the capital stock of Penrod OCS Inc., including interests in more than 30 mainly deepwater oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and a 10% interest in two pipelines from Ship Shoal Block 207 to Green Canyon Block 29. The pipelines and related facilities are part of the Green Canyon deepwater gathering system installed in 1986 by Placid Oil Co.

GAS PROCESSING

GPM GAS CORP., Houston, this fall will restart its Quarry gas processing plant near Brenham, Tex., shut down since 1988. Coupled with the recent expansion of its Giddings, Tex., plant, GPM plans to meet the needs of area Cretaceous Austin chalk producers. The Quarry plant was built in 1982 to process 75 MMcfd of gas. After restart the plant will process about 30 MMcfd, and capacity can be added as needed. GM expanded the Giddings plant capacity to 92 MMcfd from 75 MMcfd through debottlenecking, with current throughput at about 85 MMcfd.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

GAS flowing from a well in Komsomolsk field in the Tyumen region of Russia caught fire, sending flames 60 m high and creating a huge crater in the permafrost into which a drilling rig collapsed earlier this month. Agence France Presse reported that as of Aug. 15, an emergency team was trying to put out the fire.

ARCO BRITISH LTD. received U.K. government approval to develop Orwell gas field on Block 50/26a in the southern North Sea. Recoverable reserves are pegged at 247 bcf. Production start-up is planned for October 1993, and field life is expected to be 10 years. The field will be developed subsea via tieback to ARCO's Thames complex 35 km away, the longest distance satellite development attempted off the U.K.

ALBANIA'S oil company Albpetrol postponed opening bids for enhanced oil recovery projects in seven onshore fields to Sept. 15, with closing scheduled for Nov. 30 (OGJ, July 20, p. 40). The delay is to give bidders time to evaluate data packages prepared by Albpetrol's engineering unit ITNG and conduct feasibility studies.

A UNIT of Sonat Exploration Co. completed purchase of the Oklahoma oil and gas leases of Louisiana Land & Exploration Co. (LL&E) for $50.2 million effective Jan. 1, 1992. Net reserves attributed to the interests at yearend 1991 were 9.7 million bbl of oil equivalent. LL&E plans to use proceeds from the sale for general purposes, including acquiring oil and gas leases.

CHINA began development of Pinghu oil and gas field in the East China Sea (OGJ, July 20, p. 128), with the project to be complete in 3 years. Xinhua News Agency reported the field is expected to produce 28.3-42.4 MMcfd of gas for 15 years. Crude reserves are estimated at 11.7-13.2 million bbl.

AMERADA HESS LTD. (AHL) agreed to buy Elf Exploration U.K. plc's 16.46% interest in North Sea Blocks 48/18b and 48/19b containing Anglia gas field. Elf will buy AHL's 12.5% share of Block 29/5b containing the Franklin gas discovery. The move gives AHL 29.29% of Anglia and Elf 48.75% of Franklin, in which it is operator.

NOMECO OIL & GAS CO., Jackson, Mich., acquired from Nerco Oil & Gas Co., Vancouver, Wash., interests in 13 federal oil and gas leases off Texas and Louisiana for $6.8 million. Nomeco held interests in the leases prior to the purchase but has increased interests to 37.5-50%. LL&E operates the leases, two of which produce gas and condensate. The rest are undeveloped. Total proved reserves acquired are about 5.7 bcf of gas and 200,000 bbl of condensate.

ATLANTIC DRILLING CO. LTD. is pulling out of the North Sea. Its Benroach and Benvrackie rigs will be stacked, Benloyal marketed outside the U.K., and Bennevis remain in the Middle East. Sixteen Aberdeen office staff, 30 Edinburgh headquarters staff, and 200 offshore workers will lose their jobs.

GOVERNMENT

HUNGARY'S STATE PROPERTY AGENCY appointed law firm Clifford Chance and accountants Price Waterhouse & Co., London, advisers for privatization of five gas distribution companies (OGJ, Aug. 10, Newsletter).

TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION, with 6 weeks remaining in its 1992 fiscal year, has plugged a record 1,026 abandoned Texas oil and gas wells at a cost of $4.478 million, eclipsing the old mark of 714 abandoned wells plugged in fiscal 1986 at a cost of $2.5 million. TRC in fiscal 1991 plugged 455 abandoned wells. Since TRC's plugging program began in 1984, it has spent more than $20.6 million to plug more than 5,000 wells.

POWER GENERATION

LAKE SUPERIOR POWER LP, Toronto, let a $29.1 million contract to GE Power Generation to supply two 40,000 kw gas turbine generators and a 25,000 kw steam turbine generator for a 95,000 kw cogeneration plant to be built at Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Electricity will be sold to Ontario Hydro and steam to St. Marys Paper. Commercial start-up is slated for April 1994.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY agreed to provide as much as $198 million of cost sharing funds to Destec Energy Inc., Houston, and PSI Energy Inc., Plainfield, Ind., to build a 270,000 kw coal gasification/combined cycle power plant at PSI's Wabash River generating station in West Terre Haute, Ind. It is the largest cost share award under DOE's clean coal technology program. Total cost of the project and a 3 year demonstration to end in 1996 is estimated at $592 million.

SPILLS

BALLARD SHIPPING CO., New York, agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Rhode Island over the 1989 grounding of Ballard's World Prodigy tanker, which spilled about 8,300 bbl of heating oil into Narragansett Bay. Ballard earlier paid the state more than $1.3 million for cleanup, damage to natural resources, and losses to commercial shell-fishers. Ballard agreed to pay another $775,000 to four state environmental funds and six cities and towns affected by the spill and paid the federal government $3.5 million for its claims.

U.S. NAVY established rates under which it will rent its salvage and oil spill response equipment to private industry. The rates include $48,700/day for a salvage ship, $6,800/day for a large tug, and $2,400/day for an oil skimming vessel.

TRANSPORTATION

MOBIL PRODUCING NIGERIA UNLIMITED let contract to ABB Randall Corp. to provide design, engineering, and construction services for upgrading the 21 year old Qua Iboe crude oil and gas terminal in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom state. The project will double the terminal's oil capacity to 600,000 b/d by adding two separators to process 300,000 b/d, a power generation unit, associated switchgear, and crude storage tanks. Randall will be project manager of a group including ABB SOIMI and Entrepose.

CONSOLIDATED NATURAL GAS CO., Pittsburgh, placed into service the last leg of its gas pipeline in Virginia, linking it to CNG's interstate network. The project included adding 55 miles of pipeline from Richmond to Williamsburg, Va., and placing in service 21 miles of line in northern Virginia that link with Virginia Natural Gas' 135 mile intrastate line and another CNG line. Gas customers for the system are in an area extending from Washington, D.C., to the Norfolk area.

ARCO BRITISH LTD. let contract to Allseas Marine Contractors SA for installation of subsea pipelines for the Orwell gas development project in the U.K. North Sea. Work, to begin in spring 1993, will include laying 21 miles of 16 in. line and 21 miles of piggybacked line and installing one pipeline crossing and three cable crossings. Allseas will lay the lines with its Lorelay pipelay vessel and trench the lines from its Trenchsetter trenching support vessel.

PETROCHEMICALS

AROMATICS (THAILAND) CO. (TAC) named Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. and Foster Wheeler (Pacific) Ltd. project consultants to assist TAC in awarding a contract for a world scale aromatics and reformer complex under an international tender. The plant, to be built in Thailand's Rayong Province at Mab Ta Phud, will have capacities of 230,000 metric tons/year of benzene, 52,000 metric tons/year of toluene, and 355,000 metric tons/year of xylenes. The main contract is to be awarded near yearend. The units are planned to be on line by yearend 1995.

BP CHEMICALS LTD. plans to sell its 120,000 metric ton/year polyethylene plant at Antwerp, Belgium, to Neste Chemicals International NV. BP America Inc. will sell its 40,000 ton/year performance polymers plant at Hackettstown, N.J., to Neste in a separate deal.

EXPLORATION

TOTAL'S 2 Halewah flowed on separate tests 5,885 b/d and 4,250 b/d of light crude on Jannah Block 5 in the Marib area east of Sanaa, Yemen. Earlier this year, Total 1 Jannah found gas/condensate pay on the block. Total is operator with other interests held by Hunt Oil Co., Exxon Corp., Kufpec, Machinoimport, and Zarubezhgeologia.

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS will conduct a sealed bid oil and gas lease sale Oct. 20, with reduced minimum bonuses, rentals, and royalties and tracts covering a combined 648,532 acres in El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, and Terrell counties, Tex. Primary lease terms will be 10 years for all leases.

JAPAN-CHINA OIL DEVELOPMENT CORP. will explore BZ35-2 and CFD21-2 offshore concessions in Bohai Bay, with drilling expected to begin this year. The joint venture, which includes 48 companies, has developed oil fields in Bohai Bay since the Chinese government opened the area to foreign investment in 1987 (OGJ, Oct. 5, 1987, p. 36).

NOVA SCOTIA'S Department of Natural Resources issued a call for applications to explore for coalbed methane in the Cumberland basin near the New Brunswick border. Applications have a deadline of Sept. 30 and must include an outline of the planned work program, description of the program's geological and technical effects on other rights holders, equipment description, and proposed starting date and duration. Results will be announced within 90 days of closing.