INDUSTRY BRIEFS

Drilling-production

Nabors Industries Inc.'s Rig No. 269 collapsed July 17 during installation on an Ocean Energy Inc. platform 10 miles off Louisiana in federal waters. An employee of Houston-based Nabors and a contract welder from Cajun Cutters Inc. died at the scene. At presstime, attempts by the U.S. Coast Guard and other parties to find a missing employee had failed. Twelve people were evacuated to an area hospital; two remained hospitalized last week. Nabors supervisory, engineering, and accident investigation personnel and third-party investigators were on site. The cause of the collapse is unknown.

U.S. Minerals Management Service
granted deepwater royalty relief valued at $143 million to Amoco Corp. to develop its Desoto Canyon Block 133 field about 120 miles southeast of New Orleans in 6,700 ft of water. Royalties will be suspended on the first 87.5 million boe produced from the field, King's Peak. The field contains dry natural gas and lies next to Amoco's King field, which was granted royalty relief in May.

Willbros Group Inc.,
Tulsa, signed a 3-year contract to provide dredging services in the Niger Delta for Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria. Revenues will be at least $40 million over the contract term, depending on the amount of dredging required by Shell to support its drilling and production work there.

Equatorial Energy Inc.,
Calgary, through its unit Equatorial Energy (International) Inc., will purchase the oil and gas assets of First Dynasty Mines Ltd., Singapore, for $20 million in debt assumption. The sales involves an 80% interest in Sembakung oil field in northeastern Kalimantan, Indonesia. Sembakung has reserves of 39 million bbl of light oil and produces 3,200 b/d. Remedial workover operations will begin immediately.

LPG

Superior Propane Inc. agreed to acquire Petro-Canada Ltd.'s wholly owned subsidiary ICG Propane Inc. Net proceeds to Petro-Canada will be about $175 million (Canadian). ICG Propane sells and distributes propane and related services to about 100,000 residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and automotive customers in Canada. In 1997, its propane sales were about 1.1 billion l., or about 80% of Canada's retail propane market. No gain or loss will be attributable to Petro-Canada as a result of the transaction.

Energy Transportation Group Inc.
and UGI Enterprises Inc., both of New York, formed a 50-50 venture called Chinagas Partners LP. The partnership acquired a 50% interest in a Chinese joint venture, Nantong Huayang LPG Port Co., to import, store, distribute, and sell LPG at retail outlets along China's Yangtze River. The Chinese partner in the JV is state-owned China National Chemical Supply & Sales Corp. (China Chem). China Chem operates an LPG import terminal at Nantong on the Yangtze; current sales for the terminal are $33.4 million/year. Chinagas Partners plans an initial investment of $10 million.

Terminals

TE Products Pipeline Co. Ltd., Houston, reported its Helena, Ark., terminal is operational. The terminal receives refined products from barges on the Mississippi River and has more than 800,000 bbl of storage capacity. The terminal and recent pipeline upgrades will allow an additional 20,000-40,000 b/d of products to reach U.S. Midwest markets. Petroleos y Asfalto Cordex SA, Santiago, Chile, let a $31 million turnkey design and construction contract to PDM Engineered Construction, a unit of Pitt-Des Moines Inc., Houston. The firm will design and construct an asphalt and fuel oil terminal in Ventanas, Chile. The terminal is slated for completion in second quarter 1999. The project includes a ship loading and unloading facility at the port of Ventanas and a 19-tank storage, blending, and truck-loading terminal.

Refining

Equilon Enterprises LLC, a joint venture of Shell Oil Co. and Texaco Inc., plans to idle its 28,000 b/d Odessa, Tex., refinery and modify and expand a pipeline system to bring refined products from the Gulf Coast to West Texas and other markets. Equilon expects to complete both projects by October 1998. The refinery will be modified and used as a products storage/ distribution terminal, tied into the pipeline system. The new pipeline will supply gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel to Equilon customers currently served by the Odessa refinery.

Catalysts

CRI International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell Oil Co., is planning a $50-70 million expansion of its Tuas catalyst plant in Singapore. CRI said the Tuas plant is the only facility in Southeast Asia capable of manufacturing, recycling, and presulfiding refining catalysts.

Companies

Indo-Burmah Petroleum Co. (IBP) is exiting its joint venture with Caltex Petroleum Corp., called IBP-Caltex. Caltex will acquire IBP's 49% equity stake for $4.67 million and make the new company a wholly owned subsidiary. Under new arrangements with IBP, Caltex lubricants will be sold through IBP retail outlets for an initial period of 2 years. The lubricants will continue to be blended at IBP's blending plant at Budge, India, near Calcutta. The deal must be approved by India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the Reserve Bank of India.

Equiva Trading Co.,
Houston, the trading unit jointly held by Equilon Enterprises LLC and Motiva Enterprises LLC (OGJ, Jan. 26, 1998, p. 55), started supply and trading services. The company expects to buy and sell more than 7 million b/d of hydrocarbons in physical markets. The company will acquire, sell, and trade U.S. and non-U.S. crude oil and refined products and provide other administrative services to Equilon Enterprises.

Terraco Participacoes SA,
a unit of Enron International Inc., successfully bid $1.3 billion to purchase a controlling interest in Elektro Eletricidade e Servicos SA, Brazil's sixth largest electricity distributor. Elektro is a unit of Cia. Energetica de Sao Paulo and serves 1.5 million customers through 51,000 miles of distribution lines.

SouthStar Energy Services LLC,
Atlanta, a new combine of AGL Resources Inc., Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc., and Dynegy Inc. (formerly NGC Corp.), began marketing energy products and services to industrial and commercial customers throughout the Southeast U.S. The company will also offer residential and small business energy services to customers in Georgia as that market opens to competition in November. The products and services will include natural gas, electricity, fuel oil, propane, and related retail services.

Petrochemicals

Indian firm Nirma Ltd. commissioned a 75,000 metric ton/year linear alkylbenzene (LAB) plant at Baroda, Gujarat. The plant incorporates the Pascol, Detal, and PEP technologies of UOP LLC, Des Plaines, Ill. The complex includes a 420,000 metric ton/year soda ash plant.

Celanese,
a unit of the Frankfurt-based Hoechst Group, let contract to Foster Wheeler USA Corp., Clinton, N.J., for a 500,000 metric ton/year acetic acid plant to be built at Singapore. Foster Wheeler Asia Ltd.'s Singapore offices will provide engineering and construction management support and assistance. The plant, scheduled for start-up in July 2000, will be built next to a Celanese vinyl acetate monomer plant on Palau Sakra and will include a 100,000 metric ton/year facility for the production of acetate esters.

Gas processing

Texaco Inc. and Dynegy Inc. formed Versado Gas Processors LLC, a joint venture combining their processing facilities in southeastern New Mexico and associated natural gas gathering assets in New Mexico and West Texas. Texaco will own 37% and Dynegy 63% of the new entity. Dynegy will operate the plants under contract with Versado. Included in the JV are Texaco's Buckeye and Eunice North and South gathering systems and plants, and Dynegy's Eunice, Monument, and Saunders Complex gathering systems and plants.

Exploration

PTT Exploration & Production plc (Pttep) sold half its interest in Block B5/27 in the Gulf of Thailand to Harrods Natural Resources Inc. Pttep, a Petroleum Authority of Thailand affiliate, will transfer its interest in the 3,700 sq km block to Harrods Energy (Thailand) Ltd. Under the deal, Harrods will operate the block, complete a 500-km 2D seismic survey, and drill one well. Two wells were drilled in 1992, one of which flowed 200 b/d of oil. Harrods is also bidding for Block B2/38 (OGJ, June 29, 1998, p. 37).

Egypt
awarded two concessions in its western desert to IPR TransOil Corp., Dallas, and partner Sipetrol, the international upstream arm of Chilean state oil firm Empresa Nacional del Petroleo. One agreement is for a 742 sq km block in the North Ras Qattara concession. A 200 km seismic survey and four exploration wells are required, costing an estimated $11 million, including a $500,000 signature bonus. The second agreement is for an 888 sq km block on North Bahariya concession. A 600-km seismic survey and five exploratory wells are required, costing about $12.6 million, including a $750,000 signature bonus.

Tullow Oil plc,
London, secured three production-sharing contracts (PSCs) in India. Tullow is operator and 32.5% interest holder in Block GK-OSJ-1, in Gujarat Kutch basin off northwestern India, where it plans new seismic surveys to select drilling targets. Tullow is 45% interest holder and operator in Block KG-ON-1 in southeastern India's Godavari basin, where it will reprocess existing seismic data and acquire new data. For onshore Block CR-ON-90/1 in Assam's Arakan basin, Tullow acquired a farmout from Essar Oil Ltd. of a 25% interest and joint operatorship. The block has producing oil and gas fields and is thought to have potential for deep gas finds.

China National Oil Offshore Corp.
(Cnooc) awarded an exploration and production agreement for Qibei 09/11 block, an 850-sq km area in the Gulf of Chihli in China's Yellow Sea, to Italian state firm ENI. The company began operations in the Gulf of Chihli last year when it signed an initial contract to explore the Beipuxi block.

British-Borneo Petroleum Inc.'s
Leo prospect discovery well in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico penetrated multiple pay zones at 11,500-17,500 ft. The well was drilled to 18,090 ft TD and cut 200 ft of net oil and gas pay. Interest holders are operator British Borneo 37.5%, Spirit Energy 76 37.5%, Petrobras America Inc.12.5%, and Snyder Oil Corp. 12.5%. Plans are to abandon the well, on Mississippi Canyon Block 546 in 2,500 ft of water, until development plans are finalized. Spirit Energy 76's Calypso prospect will be drilled immediately following completion of the Leo well.

Operator Unocal Indonesia Co.
and Mobil Makassar Inc. made another discovery in the Greater Merah Besar area off East Kalimantan (OGJ, Mar. 2, 1998, p. 41). Two deep sidetrack wells in the Makassar Strait PSC area were drilled from discovery well Merah Besar-6. The sidetracks cut an additional 125 ft of net condensate-rich gas pay and 16 ft of net oil pay on adjacent fault blocks. Two wells were drilled to confirm the sidetrack discoveries. Hitam Besar-2, completed on May 6, was drilled in 1,973 ft of water to 9,565 ft TD and cut 66 ft of net pay. Hijau Besar-3 well, completed in early July, was drilled in 2,250 ft of water to 8,000 ft TD and cut 34 ft of net gas pay.

A group
consisting of Perez Companc, Union Pacific Resources Group Inc. (UPR), and Corod de Venezuela made a discovery on the Oritupano-Leona concession in eastern Vene- zuela. Perez Companc operates the area under an operating service agreement with Petroleos de Venezuela SA. ORI-166E well is producing 2,200 b/d of oil. Preliminary proved reserves for the new field are 13 million bbl of oil, said UPR. Plans are to drill two more wells this year to delineate the field. A 3D seismic survey is planned for 1999 that will complete seismic work on the concession.

Two Exxon Corp. affiliates
acquired interests in two large deepwater blocks off the Republic of Congo. The blocks, Mer Tres Profonde Nord and Mer Tres Profonde Sud, each cover about 1.25 million acres. Exxon holds a 30% share in each block through Esso Exploration & Production Congo (Mer Tres Profonde Nord) Ltd. and Esso Exploration & Production Congo (Mer Tres Profonde Sud) Ltd. Other interests in Mer Tres Profonde Nord are operator Agip 40% and Elf Aquitaine 30%. Interests in Mer Tres Profonde Sud are operator Elf 40% and Agip 30%. The blocks are 100 miles west of Pointe Noire.

Gas marketing

Sempra Energy Trading, a unit of San Diego's Sempra Energy, will acquire CNG Energy Services Corp., a subsidiary of Consolidated Natural Gas Co., Pittsburgh. The transaction, valued at $48 million, includes: commodity-trading contracts with municipalities, local distribution companies, and major industrial users; gas storage rights on five pipelines; more than 600 MMcfd of firm gas-transportation capacity on 10 pipelines in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S.; and supply contracts with a variety of industrial customers.

Lubes

Total and Argentina's Distileria Argentina de Petroleo SA (DAP) agreed to form a joint venture called Total Lubricantes Argentina SA. Total will have 51% ownership and DAP 49%. The new company will exclusively market Total brand lubricants. Under the agreement, Total will acquire DAP's lubricant network and replace the DAP brand with its Quartz and Rubia product lines. The lubricants will be produced at DAP's Dock Sud plant near Buenos Aires. The JV plans to export products to Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia.

Pipelines

TransColorado Gas Transmission Co., Lakewood, Colo., will purchase 260 miles of 22-in. and 20 miles of 24-in. pipe from Stupp Corp., Baton Rouge. The pipe is for the company's 292-mile TransColorado gas pipeline project in western Colorado (OGJ, May 18, 1998, p. 45). TransColorado Gas is jointly owned by Questar Corp., Salt Lake City, and KN Energy Inc., Lakewood.

Texaco Inc.
and Dynegy Inc. formed Versado Gas Processors LLC, a joint venture combining their processing facilities in southeastern New Mexico and associated natural gas gathering assets in New Mexico and West Texas. Texaco will own 37% and Dynegy 63 % of the new entity. Dynegy will operate the plants under contract with Versado. Included in the JV are Texaco's Buckeye and Eunice North and South gathering systems and plants, and Dynegy's Eunice, Monument, and Saunders Complex gathering systems and plants.

Copyright 1998 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.