INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

COURTS

WESTERN GAS MARKETING LTD., Calgary, plans to sue Consolidated Natural Gas Ltd. and Consolidated's former parent Northern Natural Gas Co. to enforce a sales contract that had a 15 year term to 1994. A Canadian export license expired in 1989, and Western alleges Consolidated was obliged to seek an extension but did not. Deliveries of as much as 167 MMcfd under the contract ended last Nov. 1, and Northern Natural switched to other suppliers.

GAS PROCESSING

CONOCO (U.K.) LTD. let contract to John Brown Engineers & Constructors Ltd., London, to design a terminal at Theddlethorpe, U.K., to process gas from ARCO's North Sea Pickerill field (OGJ, May 21, p. 19). Already under way, detail design and procurement work is to be complete in 1 year, with construction complete in summer 1992.

EXPLORATION

VENEZUELA'S LAGOVEN SA claims a Monagas state light oil discovery is the deepest well drilled in Latin America at 19,501 ft total depth. Its 1 Amarilis flowed 1,500 b/d of 40 gravity oil from Oligocene Carapita at 15,902 ft. Site is 20 km southeast of Maturin.

SOC. NATIONALE ELF AQUITAINE plans to spud its first wildcat on Block 6 off Qatar in September. Under terms of its exploration and production sharing contract, Elf is committed to 5,000 line km of seismic and seven wells (OGJ, Jan. 16, 1989, p. 22).

AGIP SPA tested two exploratory oil wells in Libya. An 11,000 b/d well extended Bu Attifel oil field. A wildcat flowed 5,000 b/d from a separate structure between Bu Attifel and Rimal oil fields. Preliminary estimate of the latter's reserves is 60-70 million bbl.

CIE. GENERALE DE GEOPHYSIQUE opened a seismic data processing center in Naernes, Norway, west of Oslo. The center uses a high speed satellite link to access Cray computers running Geovecteur software in CGG's Paris headquarters.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM CO. U. K. LTD. is studying development of Ann gas field in U.K. North Sea southern basin Block 49/6a after appraising the 1966 discovery last month. The 49/6a-4 well, drilled to 12,113 ft, flowed 31.5 MMcfd and 8 MMcfd through 1 in. chokes on separate tests. Phillips then sidetracked the well as the 49/6a-4z to a bottomhole location about 1 mile northwest.

ENIM OIL CO., a unit of Pan Pacific Petroleum Inc., San Francisco, was to spud last week a second appraisal after confirming its Harimau discovery on the Lematang block in South Sumatra. Its 2 Harimau flowed 888 b/d of oil and 14.5 MMcfd of gas. Design work is under way on production facilities and a pipeline connection for the Harimau and nearby Tupai discoveries (OGJ, Apr. 30, p. 42). Pan Pacific aims for a flow of 5,000 b/d of oil by October from the block.

BP EXPLORATION'S Seillean oil production vessel has loaded its first cargo of 265,000 bbl of crude from Cyrus field in the U.K. North Sea (OGJ, May 7, p. 44). After offloading in Rotterdam, the vessel will enter dry dock for inspection of dynamic positioning thrusters.

REFINING

ONE MAN WAS KILLED and two others severely burned in an explosion and fire May 24 in Petro-Canada Products Inc.'s 115,500 b/d Edmonton, Alta., refinery. The fire was brought under control in 45 min. Petro-Canada said it was too early to determine cause of the accident.

PETROCHEMICALS

HOECHST AG, Frankfurt, will spend about $400 million in 1990-93 to expand its chemical operations in Spain. Most outlays will go to hike capacity for polyolefins, synthetic resins, and paints. Hoechst also plans to merge some of its Spanish affiliates to cut costs and increase efficiency.

REPSOL QUIMICA SA is negotiating purchase of the styrene division of Aiscondel SA, a Spanish plastics producer in which it currently holds a 20.5% interest. Repsol is trying to strengthen its plastics operations.

TOSOH CORP. plans to acquire the rest of the 54% of Shin-Daikyowa Petrochemical Co. Ltd. stock it does not own. In addition to integrating manufacturing facilities, their merger would speed construction of an olefins plant at Tosoh's Yokkaichi complex, 300 miles southwest of Tokyo.

PIPELINES

TANZANIA-ZAMBIA PIPELINE CO. repaired 128 km of its crude pipeline system, finishing the second phase of a program started in 1987 with funding from Italy's government and European Investment Bank. With 90% of capacity restored, pipeline throughput is up one third to 20,000 b/d. Work on the third phase is to begin soon in Zambia.

SOC. CHERIFIENNE DES PETROLES of Morocco let contract to Sofresid's OTP Engineering unit for engineering work on a 14 in. crude pipeline from the Atlantic port of Mohammedia to the Sidi Kacem refinery, 185 km northeast. OTP began a feasibility study for the project in 1988.

ALTERNATE FUELS

RHEINBRAUN AG, Cologne, is cooperating with Uhde GmbH, Dortmund, and Lurgi GmbH, Frankfurt, to speed development of its high temperature Winkler gasification process using lignite, coal, peat, biomasss, or wood. If the companies can increase efficiency 25-30%, they believe the process will be commercial for low emission, combined cycle power plants.

ACQUISITIONS

REPSOL SA received Spanish government approval to begin a takeover bid for 69.1% of Gas Madrid SA it does not already own for $300 million (OGJ, Apr. 30, p. 42).

EMPRESA NACIONAL DEL GAS SA, Spain's state owned gas import, transmission, and marketing company, is negotiating to buy a minority interest in Catalana de Gas SA, the leading private Spanish gas distribution company. The move is part of Spain's push to restructure and consolidate its gas industry.

PETROLEOS MEXICANOS SA completed acquisition of a 2.88% shareholding in Repsol SA in exchange for the 34.29% stake it held in Spanish refiner Petroleos del Norte SA. Pemex has a 2 year option to raise its interest in Repsol to 5%. The deal boosts Repsol's stake in Petronor to 89.04%.

TOTAL MARINE NORSK AS completed acquisition of Unocal Norge AS from Unocal International Corp. for $322 million (OGJ, Apr. 2, p. 40).

STE. NATIONALE ELF AQUITAINE agreed in principle to acquire the exploration and production interests of Coparex and its Eurafrep unit in Norway and Coparex's 4.64% in Elf's Cameroon subsidiary, Elf Serepca.