INDUSTRY BRIEFS

PETROCHEMICALS

AN EXPLOSION AND FIRE May 27 at a Shell Chemical Co. plant near Belpre, Ohio, forced 1,700 persons living within a 1 mile radius of the plant to be evacuated temporarily. Three plant employees were missing following the explosion. Cause of the blast was undetermined as of presstime last week, Two of the burning chemicals were cyclohexane and styrene monomer.

LUBRICANTS

MOBIL CORP. intends to buy land use rights for a site on which to build a lube oil plant in northern China's port city of Tianjin. Mobil expects to sign a contract for the 100,000 sq m site soon, its first investment in China, Xinhua News Service reported.

REFINING

COASTAL CORP. unit Coastal Aruba Refining Co. NV is adding a $100 million delayed coker at its 157,000 b/cd San Nicolas, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, refinery. Work, which started last month, is scheduled for completion in 18 months.

SUN CO.INC. agreed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at its 130,000 b/cd Philadelphia refinery by 300 tons/year. It also will pay a $1.4 million penalty and implement other emission reduction programs there to settle a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lawsuit stemming from allegedly exceeding air emission limits in 1989.

UNITED STATES EXPLORATION INC. agreed to pay $1.77 million for Tipperary Corp.'s idle 10,400 b/d Ingleside, Tex., refinery and move it to Kyrgyzstan. The plant was closed early in the 1980s. United States Exploration, a Kansas company, also agreed to form a joint venture with Aztec Talas to install and operate a 10,000 b/d refinery in Kyrgyzstan.

RUSSIA'S 116,140 b/cd Komsomolsk refinery curtailed first quarter production 22% vs. the same period in 1993. It cited increased railway tariffs for the reduction.

GAS STORAGE

J. MAKOWSKI CO.'S open season nominations for storage services in Phase 11 of the Avoca natural gas storage project at Avoca in Steuben County, N.Y., will end June 30. The program offers customers 2 bcf of storage beginning as early as Oct. 1, 1997.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

COASTAL agreed to sell one of its unit's 23.33% interest in five producing oil and gas fields and related items in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, for $68 million plus contingent consideration. The sale is to other, undisclosed joint interest owners in the acreage. Closing is expected this month.

TEXACO CANADA PETROLEUM INC. proposes to develop a $35 million (Canadian), 1 billion bbl heavy oil project at Frog Lake, Alta., if production results from a planned six test wells are encouraging and present crude prices hold. Texaco holds a 100% interest in the 34,442 acre site 70 km north of Lloydminster.

JOHN BROWN ENGINEERS & CONSTRUCTORS, London, and Inchcape & Testing Services (UK) Ltd., Aberdeen, Scotland, signed a cooperation agreement with Azerbaijan design institute Gipromorneftegaz to bid together on Caspian Sea work. They will aim mainly for platform construction in Chirag and Azeri fields.

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY issued an administrative complaint against Alamco Co., Clarksburg, W.Va., stemming from a Dec. 20, 1993, oil spill at Alamco's Days Chapel field in Claiborne County, Tenn. Vandals caused the spill, but EPA assessed Alamco a $124,000 administrative penalty for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

SHENGLI OILFIELD INTERNATIONAL LTD. Vancouver, B.C., was formed to give Canadian companies access to business opportunities in Shengli oil field of northern China's Shandong province. The joint venture group consists of International Trade Co. of Shengli Oilfield, Crystalmount Investment Co. Ltd., and Magusta Development (BC) Ltd.'s Canadian United Merchants (China) Ltd. unit.

U.S. MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE proposes to revise safety rules for offshore production platforms and pipelines to prevent unintentional release of oil during emergencies. Rules are detailed in the May 16 Federal Register.

LASMO PLC, London, let contract to Kvaerner FSSL Ltd., London, for a subsea control system for its North Sea Block 16/12a Birch field development project. Work will include electrohydraulic actuators on wellheads, with links to topsides equipment to be installed on a Marathon Oil U.K. Ltd. Brae field platform.

COGENERATION

ISAB ENERGY, a joint venture of U.S. utility holding company SCE Corp.'s Mission Energy unit and Italy's Erg Group, will spend $1 billion to build a resid fired combined cycle gasification cogeneration plant next to ISAB SPA's 240,000 b/d Priolo refinery at Siracusa, Sicily. It will gasify and desulfurize 1 million metric tons/year of resid from the refinery to generate 4 billion kw-hr/year of power under a 20 year contract with Italy's electric utility ENEL.

COMPANIES

BHP PETROLEUM PTY. LTD. and General Electric Co. tentatively plan to build an $810 million natural gas fired power plant and related 600,000 metric ton/year urea fertilizer plant along Thi Vai River near Ho Chi Minh City. The gas presumably would come from Vietnamese fields in the South China Sea. Once BHP and GE have finished setting up an investment group, feasibility studies could get under way. Start-up could occur by 1999.

GERMANY'S privatization agency Treuhandanstalt tentatively awarded Gaz de France (GDF) rights to acquire Erdol-Erdgas Gommern GmbH, a natural gas producer in eastern Germany. If approved, it will be GDF's first upstream acquisition.

FRENCH LNG engineering companies Gaz Transport (GT) and SN Technigaz (SNT) will merge to form Gaztransport & Technigaz to pool know-how in design and construction services for LNG carriers with integrated membrane tanks with an eye to cost cutting and safety improvements, plus membrane R&D for underground storage facilities. GDF, Total, and Worms own GT, and Bouygues Offshore owns SNT.

TRANSCANADA PIPELINES LTD., Calgary, agreed with Corp. Gutsa, one of Mexico's largest construction firms, to develop energy projects in Mexico. TransCanada plans to work with Gutsa in power generation and supply, distribution, and commercialization of natural gas in Mexico.

AUSTRIA and Abu Dhabi state oil companies teamed up to cooperate on crude oil supplies, technical development, and international exploration. The move stems from the purchase of a 20% interest in OMV AG by International Petroleum Investment Co. of Abu Dhabi.

PAKISTAN is offering a 20% interest in state owned Mari Gas Co. Ltd. The offer is called for under an agreement with World Bank's Investment Finance Corp. that requires IFC to provide $19.5 million to drill 14 wells to boost Mari's natural gas productive capacity to more than 400 Mmcfd. Of the 14, three more wells remain to be drilled by December.

TANKERS

VENEZUELA'S Petroleos de Venezuela SA units PDV Marina and Bitor are considering whether to build special tankers to ship Orimulsion boiler fuel. The 40,000 dwt tankers will cost $40 million to build, Venezuelan state news agency Venpres reported.

PIPELINES

TRANSCANADA PIPELINES started this year's Ontario pipeline and compression construction program. It will lay 51 km of pipeline, replace 14 km more, build a compressor station, and add compression at six sites. The work will cost $200 million (Canadian).

CENTANA ENERGY CORP. closed the first part of its purchase of certain assets from MND Energy Corp. The trade includes MND pipeline assets in Southeast Texas, including the Spindletop gas storage facility. Centana is a unit of Panhandle Eastern Corp., Houston, while MND is a unit of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., The Woodlands, Tex.

U.S. FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION action cleared the way for NorAm Energy Corp. (formerly Arkla Inc.), Shreveport, La., to set up an unregulated natural gas gathering business. FERC affirmed that upon spindown of NorAm Gas Transmission Co.'s gathering facilities into a NorAm unit, these facilities will be exempt from FERC jurisdiction after certain conditions are met.

FERC approved settlements that resolve Order 636 transition cost issues for Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America and Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. Texas Eastern can collect all costs up to a designated spot price and $330 million of costs over that. Natural Gas Pipeline's settlement provides for a $408 million cap on recovery of gas supply realignment costs, amortized over 4 years.

FERC granted preliminary approval to SunShine Interstate Transmission Co. to lay a 145 mile gas pipeline to Florida from Mississippi. The line will tie into SunShine Pipeline Co.'s 545 mile intrastate system in Florida (OGJ, Mar. 14, p. 38).

PREMIER TRANSCO LTD., a unit of British Gas, and planned operator of the Scotland to Northern Ireland gas pipeline currently under design, awarded engineering of the offshore section to Snamprogetti Ltd. through European Marine Contractors. Snamprogetti will provide detailed engineering of the 24 in. subsea portion, which extends to landfall in Northern Ireland near Skemaghan Point on Islandmagee from near Portnaughan Bay, Scotland.

PIPELAYING is to begin this month on a $27.5 million (Australian), 300 km Northern Territory natural gas pipeline linking the main Amadeus-Darwin trunk line with MIM Holdings' McArthur River lead and zinc mine near Borroloola on the western coast of the Gulf of Carpinteria. The work is to take 30 weeks. Gas will be used as fuel to generate power for the mine under a 20 year contract from Northern Territory Power & Water Authority.

FRANCE'S COFLEXIP plans a $55 million (Australian) flexible pipe manufacturing plant at Perth to support future work in Southeast Asia. Western Australia's government and Coflexip signed an $8.5 million government aid pact for the plant, under which Coflexip will receive $5 million for construction, $2 million for erecting a heavy crane at Fremantle wharf, and free 10 year use of 3 hectares of adjacent land. Start-up is slated for July 1995.

INDONESIA started up a $97.67 million, 221 km products pipeline to a Jakarta depot from its Cirebon, West Java, refinery. The line moves fuel oil, kerosine, and diesel oil.

EXPLORATION

VIET NAM will allow the venture of APN Petroleum Ltd. 55% and operator Occidental Petroleum Corp. 45% to drill a wildcat to test the Ung Trang structure on the 815,000 acre Block 04-3 in the South China Sea. Drilling is to start in July.

LASMO is developing an early production system to start output from its 1 Revancha and 1 Venganza oil discoveries in Colombia's Espinal block. Production is planned via Lasmo's nearby Purificacion field, where a 35,000 b/d capacity pipeline is under construction.

BRITISH GAS PLC'S Savi Ragha Well Block 34 wildcat near Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, flowed 16 Mmcfd of gas and 700 b/d of condensate from an 82 m thick pay zone. The well, BG's first in Pakistan, will be deepened to projected depth of 3,000 m. The wildcat is about 35 km from Dhodak gas/condensate field, slated for start-up in September.

ANADARKO PETROLEUM CORP. unit Anadarko Algeria Corp. and partners' 1 East Berkine oil discovery on Block 404 in the Sahara Desert of Algeria cut 165 ft of net Triassic pay (OGJ, May 23, p. 89). It's the sixth wildcat and the fourth discovery in Anadarko's Algerian program. The well is to be drilled to 15,900 ft during the next 2 weeks.

RESEARCH

ENERGY RESEARCH CLEARING HOUSE, The Woodlands, Tex., seeks proposals for cooperative funding in 1995 for research projects on exploration and production technologies deemed most needed by its members. Topics to be considered are reservoir and production engineering, enhanced oil recovery, geology, and geophysics.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY and Gas Research Institute, Chicago, agreed to synchronize their natural gas R&D and demonstration (RD&D) efforts. DOE and GRI, the two largest gas RD&D funding organizations in the U.S., long have collaborated on projects.

ELF PETROLEUM NORGE AS opened a marine research center beside a fjord at Randaberg near Stavanger, Norway. The 40 million kroner ($5.5 million) Elf Akvamiljo center will study biodegradation of hydrocarbons, effects of oil pollution on marine life, and ways to clean drill cuttings. Elf believes it is the first foreign oil company to open a research lab in Norway.