U.S. BRIEFS

TANKERS

CITGO PETROLEUM CORP. signed a long term charter for six 86,000 dwt, 600,000 bbl capacity double hulled tankers ordered by Venfleet, a unit of Citgo parent Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The tankers, to be built in South Korea, are to be complete by 1993. They will be used to transport crude to Citgo refineries at Lake Charles, La., Corpus Christi, Tex., and Paulsboro, N.J.

PETROCHEMICALS

PHILLIPS 66 CO. brought the second of three 600 million lb/year polyethylene units on line at its Pasadena, Tex., complex and is producing at 85% of capacity (OGJ, Oct. 30, 1989, p. 20). Construction of the third plant has begun and is to be complete by yearend 1992.

TRANSAMERICAN REFINING CORP., Norco, La., signed an option to acquire a shutdown Catofin unit in Brazil from Louisiana Chemical Equipment Co., Baton Rouge. ABB Lummus Crest's Catofin process dehydrogenates isobutane to isobutylene, a methyl tertiary butyl ether feedstock. TransAmerican plans to move the unit to its Norco, La., refinery, where it is building a Catofin unit as part of an MTBE project. The purchased unit will boost the MTBE plant's projected capacity by 8,500 b/d to 22,500 b/d. The project is to be complete in first half 1992.

WESTLAKE PVC CORP., Houston, purchased polyvinyl chloride plants at Calvert City, Ky., and Pace, Fla., from Pacific Western Resins, Eugene, Ore. The two plants can produce 500 million lb/year of PVC resin.

COMPANIES

OCCIDENTAL OIL & GAS CORP. implemented its U.S. oil and gas business restructuring, eliminating about 180 jobs Oct. 28. Of those terminated, 1 16 are in Tulsa, 31 in Oklahoma City, 24 in Houston, and nine in Midland, Tex. A total of 800 positions has been eliminated to date, about 670 related to gas processing operations sold to Trident NGL Inc. (OGJ, May 13, p. 26) and 130 associated with U.S. oil and gas operations.

GAS PROCESSING

NATURAL GAS CLEARINGHOUSE unit NGC Energy Inc., Houston, agreed in principle to acquire the R.M. Stephens gas processing plant at Claiborne Parish, La., from Tenneco Inc.'s natural gas liquids unit. The 35 MMcfd plant produces more than 50,000 gal/day of NGL and will boost NGC's gas processing capacity to 800 MMcfd from eight plants.

EXPLORATION

ARCO ALASKA INC.'S 1 Sunfish wildcat in Alaska's Cook Inlet, 32 miles west of Anchorage, flowed 1,100 b/d of oil and 1 MMcfd of gas through a 24/64 in. choke with 1,100 psi flowing tubing pressure from a sand of undisclosed age at 12,160 ft. It is the first oil discovery in the inlet since 1965. ARCO 64% and Phillips Petroleum Co. 36% plan to test other intervals in the well and drill two or three step-outs in 1992.

CHUSKA ENERGY CO., San Antonio, 35-C North Heron wildcat in Utah's Paradox basin flowed 960 b/d of oil and 300 Mcfd of gas through a 112 in. choke from a 22 ft pay zone below 5,584 ft. The well marks Chuska's 11th discovery in its Pennsylvanian Desert Creek algal reef mound play.

PIPELINES

NOARK PIPELINE SYSTEM, Fayetteville, Ark., broke ground Oct. 25 for its $73 million, 258 mile gas pipeline across Arkansas (OGJ, July 8, p. 16). Noark will receive $63 million in construction and permanent financing for the line from Prudential Capital Corp. Prudential also committed as much as $3.2 million for a limited partnership interest in the project,

KOCH INDUSTRIES INC., Wichita, agreed to buy the Corpus Christi marine terminal and related pipelines and oil gathering systems of Ashland Oil Inc. unit Scurlock Permian Corp. The deal is part of Ashland's program to divest $100 million in assets this year.

ANR PIPELINE CO. signed a letter of intent with United Gas Pipe Line Co. to purchase an undivided interest in pipeline facilities and capacity owned by United's Gateway Pipeline Co. unit. ANR will have 150 MMcfd of transportation capacity from Gateway to United's 30 in. north-south line in Louisiana. Gateway plans a 25 mile, 30 in., 600 MMcfd pipeline from Mobile Bay to United's line near Mobile (OGJ, Aug. 5, p. 26).

CNG

AMOCO OIL CO. will install a retail compressed natural gas fueling unit at one of its service stations in Topeka, Kan., in conjunction with KPL Gas Service. Amoco will spend about $200,000 for equipment at the station. KPL will transport the natural gas, and Amoco will market the CNG. KPL will convert about 20 of its vehicles to CNG, and Kansas state agencies will convert about 30 vehicles.

GEOTHERMAL

O'BRIEN FUELS INC., Philadelphia, and a Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. unit acquired option and lease agreements to lease 50,000 acres of geothermal acreage in Nevada. O'Brien said as much as 100,000 kw of energy could be generated from the site. The company is negotiating with equipment manufacturers, construction, and geothermal development companies to form a group to build and operate projects.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

ARCO OIL & GAS CO. plans to sell about 1,100 oil and gas productive leases, mainly in California, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Wyoming, Arkansas, and the Gulf of Mexico. Production averages about 6,300 b/d of liquids and 100 MMcfd of gas, or about 2% of ARCO's total 1990 production.

EBCO U.S.A. INC., Oklahoma City, will conduct a 2 day no minimum bid oil and gas lease auction for Adobe Resources Corp., Arkla Exploration Inc., Koch Exploration Co., Hondo Oil & Gas Co., Mustang Fuel Co., and others Nov. 5-6 in Dallas. About 700 leases from 16 states will be offered. EBCO also will conduct a similar auction for ARCO Oil & Gas Nov. 20 in Dallas. About 35 operated and 146 nonoperated leases in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Kansas, and Arkansas are included in the ARCO sale.

ENVIRONMENT

PENNSYLVANIA'S Department of Environmental Resources resubmitted to the general assembly a proposed regulation requiring vapor recovery nozzles on most gasoline pumps by 1996. In July the Independent Regulatory Review Commission disapproved Stage II controls. The Clean Air Act requires Stage II controls by Nov. 15, 1992, in five Pennsylvania counties.

MARKETING

MOBIL CORP. agreed to acquire 16 Shell Oil Co. service stations in Milwaukee and will receive an undisclosed amount of cash from Shell for its 90 stations in Houston. Mobil said the agreement will not affect lubricants marketing in Texas.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.