INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

PETROCHEMICALS

AISCONDEL SA, a Spanish plastics producer, completed a $50 million program to expand and streamline its plants at Vilaseca, Tarragona, and Monzon, Huesca. It hiked polyvinyl chloride capacity to 145,000 tons/year from 100,000 tons/year and acrylonitrile styrene butadiene/styrene acrylonitrile resins capacity to 28,000 tons/year from 12,000 tons/year. Aiscondel also started up a 4,300 kw cogeneration unit at Vilaseca.

GOVERNMENT

CANADA'S Senate energy committee recommended against a planned government sale of state owned Petro-Canada. The committee's chairman said no steps should be taken until the government clarifies its energy policy. The government had planned to sell an initial 15% share of Petro-Canada this spring.

EXPLORATION

INDIA extended by 8 months a concession held by International Petroleum Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., for offshore Block KG-OS-IV, and approved assignment of a 50% interest in the block to Hardy Oil & Gas (U.K.) Ltd. IPL said the extension will allow it to drill a wildcat in the Krishna-Godavari basin about 10 km off India in 16 m of water. The well will test a Paleocene carbonate structure at a depth of 2,000 m.

INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM LTD. expects to spud by early April a 12,000 ft wildcat on 6,719 sq km Block 115 off Viet Nam. IPL hired the Dan Duchess drillship to drill the well on a carbonate structure on a ridge between the Gulf of Tonkin and Viogge Sea basins.

CONOCO U.K. LTD. plans more drilling to evaluate a separate fault block discovery on Block 48/10b in the U.K. North Sea. The discovery well, 48/1 Ob-10, flowed 26.8 MMcfd of gas and 72 b/d of condensate through a 1 in. choke from Permian Rotliegendes Leman sandstone at 11,834 ft. Interests in the block, about 75 miles off Lincolnshire, England, are Conoco 55% and BP Exploration 45%.

NORTH AFRICAN PETROLEUM LTD. (NAP) of England signed a production sharing contract with National Oil Co. of Libya covering two blocks in the western Sirte basin west of Mabruk and Facha fields. NAP committed to shoot 1,000 line km of seismic survey and drill three wells in 5 years.

INDIA agreed to conduct a feasibility study of joint exploration with Sri Lanka in the Palk Straits separating the two nations. Targeted for possible joint exploration by state owned Oil & Natural Gas Commission and Ceylon Petroleum Corp. is the Block 11 basin in the straits.

REFINING

NATIONAL IRANIAN OIL CO. and Pakistan began studies for a joint project to build an 80,000 b/d refinery at Port Gasin, near Karachi, OPEC News Agency reported. Visiting NIOC officials discussed the project with Pakistan's minister of production, saying construction would take 1 year.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

ARGENTINA will allow oil from Entre Lomas field to be sold at free market prices, a move likely to spur further development of the field. The government converted the Entre Lomas contract area to a concession and extended its term by 13 years to 2016 with a 10 year extension option. The agreement involves state owned Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales, government ministries, and a joint venture of operator Petrolera Perez Compac and 47.6% interest owner Apco Argentina Inc., Tulsa. YPF will receive 8% of produced oil in kind, the joint venture 92%.

INDONESIA'S state owned Pertamina extended until 2018 an East Kalimantan production sharing contract that includes the Unocal Indonesia Ltd. operated Attaka offshore oil field. Terms call for Unocal to spend $57.1 million on exploratory drilling and seismic surveys through 1995. Unocal, which operates three other fields with 100% working interests in the contract area, is delineating its recent Serang field discovery 10 miles north of Attaka.

BENSON PETROLEUM LTD., Calgary, completed its purchase of Occidental de Colombia Inc.'s 12.5% interest in Las Monas concession in Santander district, Colombia. Petrolera Santander Inc., a private concern in which Benson owns 49%, was recently named operator of Las Monas field. Petrolera Santander also increased to 14.29% its interest in the concession after it and all other Las Monas owners exercised their right of first refusal on Cia. Shell de Colombia Inc.'s offer to sell its 12.5% interest to an undisclosed Texas company.

INVERNESS PETROLEUM LTD., Calgary, completed its purchase from Esso Resources Canada of oil and gas interests in the Boundary Lake area of Alberta for $13 million (Canadian) (OGJ, Dec. 31, 1990, p. 36).

LAGOVEN 3X Boqueron set a Venezuelan depth record at 19,524 ft. The well, 11 km west of Maturin, is a development well in the El Furrial area. The previous record was 19,504 ft.

BLACKLAND OIL PLC bought all five licenses in the East Midlands area of Great Britain from independent Clyde Petroleum plc, Herefordshire, U.K. Also, Petrole St. Honore bought all of Clyde's 15 onshore licenses in France. Terms of both deals were not disclosed.

PIPELINES

CHINA placed on stream its first long subsea gas pipeline, linking Jinzhou 20-2 oil and gas/condensate field in the Bohai Sea with Xingchen, Northeast China, People's Daily reported. The pipeline can move 137 MMcfd of gas to the Jinxi chemical plant. Jinzhou 20-2 is to begin full production in 1992.

MARKETING

ARCO will acquire for an undisclosed sum a 25% interest in Kyodo Oil Co., which operates 6,400 service stations in Japan, as part of a plan to expand its am/pm minimart concept there. Kyodo is majority owner of am/pm Japan, which operates 26 am/pm stores in Japan. ARCO said its investment will enable the venture to open 75 more outlets by yearend. The deal also calls for an investor group headed by World Trade Bancorp, Beverly Hills, Calif., to buy a minority interest in am/pm Japan.

COMPANIES

NORTH CANADIAN OILS LTD., Calgary, plans capital spending of $93 million (Canadian) in 1991, including a 64% increase in drilling outlays to $42 million. The company, which recently acquired Coseka Resources Ltd., also of Calgary, plans to participate in more than 340 wells in western Canada.

ELF AQUITAINE NORGE, a unit of Soc. Nationale Elf Aquitaine, agreed to buy Norwegian Oil Consortium for 1.9 billion kroner ($328 million) subject to Norwegian government approval. NOG owns 15.72% of Valhall, 25% of Hod, and 3.9% of Tor fields. All three are in the southern Norwegian North Sea and have combined reserves of 60 million bbl of oil equivalent.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.