INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

PIPELINES

AN EXPLOSION along the Gryazovets-Moscow Circle gas pipeline 125 miles north of Moscow caused a fire that damaged 6 m of the pipeline and about 2 1/2 acres of nearby forest. It is not clear when the blast occurred, and the cause was being investigated at presstime.

TRANSCANADA PIPELINES LTD. ordered four Coberra gas turbine compressor sets from Cooper Rolls for use at its Grenfell, Burstall, Moosomin, and Portage La Prairie compressor stations. One of the units is to be delivered by yearend, the others in second and third quarters 1992.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

WEGA-D GEOPHYSICAL LTD., Calgary, signed a joint venture oil production agreement with the Soviet state of Kazakhstan covering a $36 million, 2 year drilling and development program in the Kizyl Kiya oil region, scheduled to start in late 1991 or early 1992. Rights granted by Kazakhstan include the right to export production for hard currency, along with tax free status for as long as 8 years and a limit on taxes after that.

APACHE INTERNATIONAL INC., Denver, acquired acreage off western Australia from Muswellbrook Petroleum Ltd. and OGE Ltd., units of Australia's Consolidated Press Holdings, for about $5.7 million. The deal includes an 11.8% working interest in 98,570 acres of production licenses on five blocks containing South Pepper, North Herald, and Chervil fields with nine wells producing at a combined rate of 10,000 b/d of oil. Also included are interests of 11.8% and 14.8% in 470,870 acres of exploration licenses about 50 miles off the coast.

VIETSOVPETRO joint venture surpassed its production target for first half 1991 by 10%, producing more than 31,000 b/d of oil from White Tiger field in the South China Sea off Viet Nam (OGJ, July 15, p. 23). Viet Nam plans to produce more than 71,000 b/d of crude this year vs. 55,000 b/d in 1990.

LASMO NOVA SCOTIA LTD. and 50-50 partner Nova Scotia Resources (Ventures) Ltd. let a $30 million, 4 year contract to Nordic American Shipping AS to provide floating storage and offloading capacity with the Nordic Apollo tanker for the Cohasset/Panuke oil field development project off Nova Scotia. The 128,000 dwt tanker has storage capacity of 930,000 bbl, equal to 3-4 weeks of production. The development project is scheduled for start-up next spring.

TEXACO CANADA PETROLEUM INC. and Mission Energy Canada Corp. completed a $100 million purchase of gas producing leases in British Columbia from Esso Resources Canada Ltd. Texcan and Mission formed a joint venture partnership, B.C. Star Partners, with Texcan as operator for the leases. Texcan also completed a $6 million purchase from Esso covering 21 other British Columbia leases.

REFINING

PETROLEOS MEXICANOS let contract to Morrison Knudsen Corp. for decommissioning the 35 year old, 105,000 b/d Azcapotzalco refinery in Mexico City. MK will be partners with Corp. de Construcciones de Campeche SA de CV, a Mexico City petroleum industry construction services specialist. MK also will provide project management, planning, scheduling, and environmental restoration assistance. The team will remove equipment to be used at other Pemex refineries and restore the site for development of a park.

DEA MINERALOEL AG will build a selective hydrogenation unit and a 65,600 metric ton/year methyl tertiary butyl ether unit at its Wesseling, Germany, refinery. The hydrogenation unit is licensed by Institute Francais du Petrole. MTBE technology is licensed by RWE-DEA AG fur Mineraloel und Chemie. Edeleanu GmbH will provide engineering for authority approval, detail engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning for both units. Construction will begin early in 1992 for commissioning at yearend 1992.

EXPLORATION

BP EXPLORATION CHINA signed a joint venture agreement with China National Offshore Oil Co. and Norway's state owned Den norske stats oljeselskap AS covering Block 41/01 in 650 ft of water about 250 miles south of Guangzhou and Block 50/20 about 75 miles off Hainan Island. A 1990 airborne laser fluoresensor survey disclosed a structure near Block 41/01 in the South China Sea. Large scale exploration off Hainan awaits collection and analysis of seismic data.

ESSO PRODUCTION MALAYSIA INC. and Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. 1 Lawang discovery 177 miles off eastern Malaysia (see map, OGJ, July 15, p. 44) flowed at a combined rate of more than 4,000 b/d from three intervals at 1,025-1,650 ft. The well marks the third discovery on Block PM-8 this year. More drilling is planned.

DU PONT EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION BV plans a seismic survey across four blocks in the Niger Delta, covering 400,000 acres onshore and 585,000 acres offshore. Du Pont signed farmout agreements for a 40% interest in the blocks. Partners in the licenses are Cavendish Petroleum Nigeria Ltd., Express Petroleum & Gas Ltd., Paclantic Oil Co. Nigeria Ltd., and Camac International (Nigeria) Ltd.

NOPEC (U.K.) LTD. began shooting a speculative seismic survey off the west and northwest coasts of Ireland with the SV Akademik Nemchinov vessel. Nopec will acquire data covering the Erris and Slyne troughs in preparation for the 1993 frontier licensing round.

PETROCHEMICALS

DAVY MCKEE signed an agreement with Venezuela's Pequiven SA and Italy's Ecofuel SpA to license ICI's low pressure methanol technology for use at a 2,000 metric ton/day methanol plant to be built at Jose, Venezuela. McKee completed the basic engineering package for the plant, Venezuela's second world scale methanol plant. Methanol will be used partly by the Superoctanos methyl tertiary butyl ether plant at Jose and part exported. Venezuela is considering further methanol capacity, and McKee is in discussions with Pequiven about a third plant.

MOBIL CORP. broke methanol production records at the world's first natural gas to gasoline plant in Taranaki, N.Z., following a recent turnaround. The plant produced 2,550 metric tons/day from a single process unit, 13% more than design capacity and 5% more than the preturnaround rate.

THAILAND'S National Petrochemical Corp. let contract to ABB Lummus Crest Inc. for design of a debottlenecking project at its Rayong olefins plant to boost production of ethylene and propylene by 20% to 504,000 tons/year. Plans call for adding two steam crackers to hike ethylene yield to 378,000 tons/year and propylene yield to 126,000 tons/year. Design is to be complete by yearend.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.