INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

COMPANIES

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO OIL CO. plans to spend $400 million to introduce secondary recovery projects in onshore and offshore fields and increase refining capacity in Trinidad. The first phase of production enhancement will boost recovery by 13.2 million bbl of heavy oil in onshore fields, followed by a second phase entailing an incremental 16.8 million bbl of lighter oils in offshore fields. Plans call for hiking capacity of the 116,000 b/d Pointe-a-Pierre refinery to 160,000 b/d.

JOHN BROWN ENGINEERS & CONSTRUCTORS LTD., Portsmouth, U.K., and six Soviet engineering and business organizations formed Asetco Developments, a joint venture to design and build environmentally benign chemical and petrochemical plants in the U.S.S.R. Asetco partners in the U.S.S.R. are Giproplast Institute, Stavropolpolymer production association, Orgsyntez production association, Novy Urengoi petrochemical complex management, Association of Business Cooperation with Foreign Countries, and the international arm of the Ministry of Specialized Construction.

EXPLORATION

ELF AQUITAINE NORGE tested 26.122 MMcfd of gas and 1,503 b/d of condensate from Lower Jurassic in its 25/5-4 wildcat in the Norwegian North Sea. The well was drilled to 10,391 ft. Elf has made a series of discoveries on the block, including the Froy gas/condensate reservoir that will form the centerpiece of a development program proposed for the mid-1990s. Elf has a 30% interest in the block in partnership with Den norske stats oljeselskap AS 50% and AS Norske Shell 20%.

MOBIL EXPLORATION AUSTRALIA PTY. LTD. acquired a farmout covering a 66% interest and operatorship of Block EP 325 in the Carnarvon basin on Australia's Northwest Shelf from a group of six undisclosed companies. Mobil is obliged to drill two wells and conduct at least 300 line km of seismic surveys.

SANTOS LTD. 1 Cooba on the Merrimelia-Innamincka block of PELs 5 and 6, South Australia, flowed 8.7 MMcfd of natural gas through a 1/2 in. choke from Permian Patchawarra at 9,196-9,370 ft. It is 4 km west of Pelican field and 50 km northwest of the Moomba gas processing plant. Interests are operator Santos 80%, Delhi 15%, and Sagasco Resources 5%.

ORYX ENERGY CO., Dallas, took a farmout covering 40% interests in two Indonesian production sharing contract areas operated by Huffco, pending approval of the Indonesian government. Terms aren't disclosed. The Brantas contract area covers 3.7 million acres onshore and offshore on the East Java basin's southern flank, the Kahayan area 4.6 million acres in South Kalimantan. Seismic surveys and other preliminary exploratory work have commenced.

INDIA'S Oil & Natural Gas Commission spudded a wildcat to test the Jabera prospect 60 km northwest of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. Projected to 11 483 ft, the well is to be complete by June-July. Other ONGC locations soon to spud are Shanganpur and Balysan in Mehsana and Gujarat, Bankia, and Lang in Rajasthan.

REFINING

U.K. KAIKOU (KO FUNG) REFINERY CO. started construction of a $630 million, 120,000 b/d refinery at Haikou on China's Hainan Island. It is to be the centerpiece of a refining/petrochemical complex planned on Hainan, which has been established as China's biggest special economic zone. It is to start up in 1993. The project includes crude and products marine loading terminals with combined capacity of 220,000 b/d.

CAMEROON'S Ste. Nationale de Raffinage let contract to Spie Batignolles and Foster Wheeler Francaise for a 60,000 ton/year bitumen plant at its 42,000 b/d Limbe refinery. The unit also will produce diesel fuel for local sale or use as a refinery feedstock.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

TOTAL CIE. FRANCAISE DES PETROLES and the French Atomic Energy Commission have developed a tool capable of dating sedimentary layers through direct measurement while drilling. The high sensitivity magnetic tool consists of two probes and a unit that registers and processes the data. The device was first tested with the logistical backup of Schlumberger. It is undergoing tests off Kalimantan, Indonesia, in the North Sea, and in Fiji as part of the Ocean Drilling Program.

PANCANADIAN PETROLEUM LTD., Calgary, plans to sell as many as 5,000 wells in Alberta and Saskatchewan, covering about 10% of its production, during the next 3 years under a consolidation program. PanCanadian will increase drilling participation to 400 wells in 1991 from 325 in 1990 under an exploration and development budget that is forecast at $385 million (Canadian) this year vs. $312.2 million last year.

SIXTEEN northern British Columbia producers signed contracts to sell gas valued at almost $2 billion to B.C. Gas Inc., Vancouver. Contracts for 340 MMcfd with average terms of 12 years will meet 75% of B.C.'s supply needs and replace contracts expiring Nov. 1, 1991. B.C. Gas is negotiating with the CanWest Gas Supply Inc. group for the remaining supplies it needs.

WEST AUSTRALIAN PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. started production from Yammaderry oil field south of Barrow Island off Western Australia. Production from the 1.7 million bbl extension of Saladin field is expected to peak at 5,000 b/d early in its 4 year life. Production is from an unmanned monopod platform in 30 ft of water. The single well is a horizontal completion in a thin Cretaceous Barrow reservoir. Yammaderry is being developed concurrently with Cowle field to the south, where another monopod platform is to start up this month.

DORSET EXPLORATION LTD. agreed to acquire four natural gas units, 32 producing oil wells, three producing gas wells, and four shutin gas wells in Alberta from Esso Resources Canada Ltd. for $5.87 million.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS

IRAN will sell Uganda 5 million bbl of crude, split 50-50 heavy and light, as part of a broader trade deal involving bartered goods and industrial cooperation. Uganda is not required to pay for 1 year, netting it a savings of $5 million.

TANKERS

ONASSIS SHIPPING GROUP was to take delivery Mar. 27 of its first double hulled oil tanker, a 95,205 dwt vessel built by Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd., and a double hulled tanker built by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. (IHI). Sumitomo also plans to build what Onassis says will be the first double hulled very large crude carrier. It is to be delivered to the Greek shipowner in 1993 (OGJ, Feb. 18, p. 40). IHI will deliver a second double hulled tanker to Onassis later in the ear.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.