INDUSTRY BRIEFS

REFINING

LAGOVEN SA'S $320 million delayed coker at its 571,000 b/cd Amuay refinery in Judibana, Venezuela, began operations, allowing the plant to increase deep conversion capacity to 98,000 b/d from an undisclosed volume. The new unit also is expected to produce 20,000 b/d of distillate, 4,000 b/d of naphtha, 1,400 b/d of propane, and 1,000 b/d of butane.

POLAND'S Petrochemia Plock SA let contract to Italy's Snamprogetti for detailed engineering, equipment and material procurement, construction supervision, and assistance to commission a 54,500 b/sd hydrocracking unit. It will be built in a 33 month project at the 200,000 b/cd Plock, Poland, refinery.

EXPLORATION

1995 BID DEADLINES for Russia's second Komi republic competitive round are: registration to participate in the tender Mar. 1, submission of sealed bids Mar. 17, bid opening Mar. 21, and announcement of winning bidders Mar. 24. This schedule applies to all five bidding blocks, reports Wavetech Geophysical Inc., Denver, which is helping supply information.

INTERNATIONAL PETROLEUM CORP.'S 1 Bunga Kekwa wildcat on Block PM3 off Malaysia flowed a combined 10,212 b/d of oil and 179.4 MMcfd of gas during six drillstem tests of eight intervals with combined 410 ft thickness in J, 1, and H zones. The well is 12 km from the 1 Bunga Baya, which flowed 5,409 b/d and 3 Mmcfd from one zone in the J formation.

NORWAY'S Den norske stats oljeselskap AS and PGS Nopec AS, Naersnes, Norway, plan a jointly funded seismic survey in the South China Sea. Starting in spring 1995, Statoil and PGS will acquire 6,000 line km of 2D seismic data off Viet Nam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Survey results will be sold, with revenue split 50-50 between Statoil and PGS.

PIPELINES

COASTAL CORP. unit ANR Pipeline Co. restructured its proposed $15 million, 150 MMcfd ANR link gas pipeline and related items at the Canadian border near St. Clair, Mich. The 12 mile, 24 in. link will run from ANR's existing Muttonville lateral in St. Clair to the Canadian border on the St. Clair River. The line will hook up in Canada with the Tecumseh storage site of Consumers Gas Co. Ltd., Scarborough, Ont., and in the U.S. with Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. near MichCon's Columbus storage field.

TRANSGAS LTD., Regina, Sask., plans a $114 million (Canadian) expansion of its natural gas pipeline system. It will add 217 miles of high pressure line between Goodsoil and Rosetown in Southwest Saskatchewan. The expansion is based on $200 million in E&D spending by gas producers in the area.

GPM GAS CORP., Houston, agreed to buy two gas gathering affiliates of Enron Corp., Houston. The systems gather 365 MMcfd via 4,000 miles of pipeline and 34 compressor stations in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Required regulatory approvals will push completion of the transaction to late 1995.

TENNECO GAS GATHERING CO. installed a 120 MMcfd gas gathering line off Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico from a Shell Offshore Inc. structure on Vermilion Block 200 to the west leg of Blue Water pipeline. Blue Water is a 36 in. transmission line owned by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (TGP) and Columbia Gas Transmission that delivers gas produced off Louisiana to TGP's onshore pipeline system.

SANTA FE PACIFIC PIPELINE PARTNERS LP, Los Angeles, started engineering design, route selection, and permitting for a proposed $85 million, 50,000 b/d capacity products pipeline to Colton, Calif., from the San Francisco Bay area. The project calls for expanding the partnership's northern California system and laying an 180 mile pipeline to Colton from Bakersfield, Calif.

SUN PIPE LINE CO.'S terminal on the Neches River between Beaumont, Tex., and Port Arthur, Tex., will be the marine terminal and origin of a Mobil Oil Co. project. Mobil intends to reverse the flow of its 20 in. crude line between Beaumont and Corsicana, Tex. The line is to move Gulf Coast crude to Patoka, III., Ring-gold, Tex., and potentially to Cushing, Okla. Work is scheduled for completion by May 1, 1995.

COGENERATION

PANDA ENERGY CORP./BRANDYWINE, a unit of Panda Energy Corp., Dallas, agreed in a 15 year contract with Equitable Resources Inc., Pittsburgh, to purchase as much as 8.8 bcf/year of gas and fuel management services beginning June 1, 1996, for a 230,000 kw cogeneration plant to be built at Brandywine, Md. Equitable's marketing unit is to manage transportation, balancing, capacity release, and fuel oil purchases, as well as provide risk management advisory services for the project.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

BHP PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. completed the current phase of appraisal drilling in Macedon and Pyrenees fields on Permit WA-155-P (Part 1) in the Carnarvon basin off Western Australia. The 2 and 3 Macedon wells flowed 18.2 MMcfd and 33.9 MMcfd of dry gas, respectively. The 4 Macedon was suspended. Data from these wells and three others will be assessed before more work is decided upon in 1995.

ANADARKO PETROLEUM CORP., Houston, generated combined proceeds of $107 million with sales of producing leases in the Arkoma basin, Rocky Mountains, Canada, and other nonstrategic areas with combined reserves of 16.1 million bbl of oil equivalent and production of 2,740 b/d of oil and 25 MMcfd of gas. The company plans to reinvest the money in higher yield properties and exploration plays in core operating areas of the Permian basin, Gulf of Mexico, and Hugoton field of Southwest Kansas.

SAGA PETROLEUM AS let a 3 year, $10.6 million contract with an optional 2 year extension to a group that includes Halliburton Energy Services and M-1 Drilling Fluids Co., both of Houston, and OSCA Inc., Lafayette, La., to supply drilling mud, cement, and completion fluids on the planned Snorre tension leg platform on Blocks 34/4 and 34/7 in the North Sea about 150 miles northwest of Bergen.

CAIRN ENERGY PLC, Edinburgh, 1 Na Sanun wildcat on the SW1 concession in Thailand is an oil discovery. Drilled to 5,121 ft, it flowed 1,375 b/d of oil through a 40/64 in. choke. Cairn shut in the well pending application for a production license. The company plans long term production tests on this and the nearby 1 Wichian Buri discovery, with the aim of starting commercial production early in 1995.

CHAUVCO RESOURCES LTD., Calgary, paid $29 million (U.S.) for two producing blocks totaling more than 124,000 acres with combined production of 1,840 b/d of crude oil and natural gas liquids and 6 MMcfd of gas in Neuquen province,

Argentina. Assets were acquired from an undisclosed Argentinian independent. Chauvco, with rights to five blocks with production, is drilling nine development wells and plans to build a 35 MMcfd gas processing plant.

HOME OIL LTD., Calgary, signed an agreement with Tecpetrol SA, Buenos Aires, to acquire interests in 240,000 acres in Neuquen province, Argentina. Home plans to spend $10 million (Canadian) to earn a 50% interest in the Atuel Norte block and a 30% interest in the Bajo Baguales block. The company hopes to drill three wells on the acreage in 1995. It also plans an enhanced recovery program and seismic surveys.

APACHE CORP., Houston, agreed to pay Texaco Inc. $600 million for interests in more than 300 noncore U.S. fields in Rocky Mountain and Mid-Continent regions, the Permian basin of West Texas, in East and South Texas, onshore Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico. Acreage in the deal generates no net profits for Texaco and accounts for less than 10% of its U.S. cash flow.

ARCO QATAR INC. acquired a 6.3461% interest from Gulfstream Resources Ltd., the Cypriot unit of Gulfstream Resources Canada Ltd., and a 21.1539% interest from Wintershall AG in an exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) covering one third of Qatar's huge North Dome offshore gas field and will become operator of the block. With the transactions, ARCO Qatar and Gulfstream Cyprus each hold a 27.5% interest in the EPSA, British Gas Exploration & Production Ltd. 25%, Wintershall 15%, and Deilman Erdol Erdgas GmbH 5%.

A JOINT VENTURE of Totisa Del Ecuador SA, Quito, and Noyabrskneftegas, Noyabrsk, Russia, let an $1 8 million contract to Cooper Manufacturing Corp., a unit of Stanford International Corp., Dallas, for 20 new well servicing rigs and related spare parts. Items covered by the agreement are to be fabricated at Cooper's Brady, Tex., plant and delivered during 1995.

ABACAN RESOURCE CORP., Calgary, 4 NGO delineation well off Nigeria flowed crude oil and condensate at a combined rate of 13,700 b/d. The well off Port Harcourt was drilled to 11,450 ft. The company said there are three intervals in the target zone with the most productive tested at 6,160 b/d of 42.5 gravity oil. The 3 NGO discovery in July was tested at 8,000 b/d.

ELF PETROLAND BY started production at an undisclosed rate from K5A and K5D gas fields in North Sea Blocks K4b and K5a, 120 km northwest of Den Helder, Netherlands. Elf estimates field productive capacity will be 223 MMcfd.

PAKISTAN'S Dhodak gas/condensate field and a related gas and liquids processing complex started up late in October. The field produces 45-47 MMcfd of gas. The processing complex includes a topping plant that produces from the condensate 1,700-1,800 b/d of gasoline, 450-470 b/d of kerosine, 170-190 b/d of motor diesel, 90-100 b/d of fuel oil, and 170-190 tons/day of LPG.

MARATHON OIL U.K. LTD. agreed to charter the Transocean 9 jack up rig from Transocean AS, Tananger, Norway, under 90 day contract for $2.25 million. The rig is scheduled to drill one well on North Sea Block 41/10. Maersk Oil & Gas AS, Copenhagen, agreed to extend its charter of Transocean's Shelf Explorer jack up for one more well at an undisclosed North Sea site. Terms of the $1.9 million extension keep the rig under contract to the end of February 1995.

KCS ENERGY INC. unit KCS Energy Marketing Inc., Houston, closed a deal to supply as much as $26.8 million to Hall-Houston Oil Co., also of Houston, to continue development and production on six tracts in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana and Texas. The agreement has been expanded to include more leases and gas production.

SAMSON RESOURCES CO. and other units of Samson Investment Co., Tulsa, completed their $40 million acquisition of 315 working interest and 60 royalty interest producing oil and gas leases from Oryx Energy Co. Samson will assume operations on 150 of the working interest leases. The acquisitions are in Alabama, California, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming.

PETROCHEMICALS

CHINA'S Nanjing Yangtze Petrochemical Corp. and Germany's BASF AG started work last month on a $185.6 million styrene complex construction project in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province in eastern China. The complex is to begin operation early in 1 997 with production capacity of 130,000 metric tons/year of ethylbenzene, 1 20,000 tons/year of styrene, and 1 00,000 tons/year of polystyrene.

CHEVRON CHEMICAL CO. let contract to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Pasadena, Calif., for engineering, design, and procurement for a paraxylene separation and purification demonstration unit to be built at Chevron's 295,000 b/cd Pascagoula, Miss., refinery, the site of an existing Chevron paraxylene plant. Start-up is scheduled in fourth quarter.

COMPANIES

QUESTAR CORP., Salt Lake City, Utah, budgeted 1995 capital spending of $232 million, following outlays expected to reach $297 million for 1994. The 1995 spending program emphasizes E&P with projected outlays of $92 million, which includes $52 million for E&D drilling and other exploration costs, $29 million for reserve acquisitions, and $11 million for production and other items.

TORCH ENERGY ADVISORS INC., Houston, and an investor group led by Torch agreed to buy stock consisting of 55 million shares and 13.75 million share purchase warrants issued by Gulf Canada Resources Ltd., Calgary, for, $300 million (Canadian). The purchase will make Torch and its investors Gulf's second largest shareholder with at least a 25% ownership interest. Closing is expected by mid-January 1995. Torch plans to raise as much as $169 million before Dec. 9 to increase its interest in Gulf to 39% by purchases from other shareholders.

ANADARKO PETROLEUM CORP., Houston, sold the remaining assets of a Canadian subsidiary to Inverness Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, for $24 million (Canadian). Inverness will obtain 41,000 acres, also with reserves of 45 bcf of gas and 2 million bbl of crude oil and natural gas liquids. Total production from the assets is 10 MMcfd and 500 b/d. Anadarko sold $43 million in noncore assets to Renaissance Energy Ltd. in June.

GEOTHERMAL POWER

INDONESIA'S Pertamina let contracts to California Energy Co. Inc. unit Himpurna California Energy Ltd. to build, own, and operate a geothermal power plant of undisclosed capacity in Dieng geothermal field of Central Java. Construction is expected to start early in 1995, with plant operation scheduled in mid-1997. A series of plants is expected to be built in the Dieng project, with combined capacity to reach as much as 400,000 kw.