GAS STORAGE
U.S. FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION granted approval to J. Makowski Co., Boston, to build and operate the 5 bcf Avoca natural gas storage project planned for Avoca, N.Y. FERC's Sept. 20 order also grants Avoca a blanket open access certificate, authorizing firm and interruptible service.
LNG
ABU DHABI GAS LIQUEFACTION CO.,S Al Khaznah tanker, said to be one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas carriers, delivered its first shipment to Japan. Cargo in the 137,600 cu m capacity LNG tanker was delivered to Tokyo's Futsu terminal for use by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
SNYDER OIL CORP.'S Russian joint venture company Permtex began production on its 300,000 acre joint venture block north of Perm in the Volga-Urals region. Production is 500 b/d of oil shipped by trucks until pipeline hookups are complete by yearend, at which time production is expected to increase to 2,000 b/d.
WESTERN CO. OF NORTH AMERICA, Houston, directors advised shareholders it would not be in their best interest to accept an offer from BJ Services Go., also of Houston, to purchase Western (OGJ, Sept. 19, p. 34).
MOBIL CORP.'S first well in OCS Block 869 field in the Gulf of Mexico off Alabama flowed 59.8 MMcfd of gas, confirming the field's commercial potential. Its Block 869-2 well, in 44 ft of water 7 miles south of Dauphin Island, was drilled to 22,083 ft. Production is expected to begin in December 1995.
HIBERNIA MANAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT CO. let contract to Smit Maritime Contractors, Rotterdam, to perform heavy lift work during construction of a concrete gravity base platform for Hibernia field. The platform is being built at the Bull Arm yard in Trinity Cove, Newt.
CANADIAN 88 ENERGY CORP., Calgary, plans to drill at least eight wells at Three Hills, Alta., before spring 1995 thaw as part of a 30 well exploration/development drilling program. It has acquired a 10 MMcfd gas processing plant and plans to move it to Three Hills for start-up next month.
PLAINS PETROLEUM OPERATING CO., a unit of Plains Petroleum Co., Lakewood, Colo., agreed to pay $26 million to Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for oil and gas leases in a total of 21 fields in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. Closing is expected by Nov. 1.
NOBLE DRILLING CORP., Houston, completed the merger of its Noble Offshore Corp. unit and Chiles Offshore Corp. The addition of Chiles' 13 jack up drilling rigs expands Noble's offshore fleet to 44 mobile units, which includes 32 jack UPS.
HUGOTON ENERGY CORP., Wichita, cut August-September gas production as much as 7.5 MMcfd, or 15% of present capacity, because of depressed wellhead prices. It plans to restore production in October if prices rebound.
NORTH AMERICAN NIPPON TECHNOLOGIES CORP. (Nantco), Vancouver, B.C., and Indonesia's PT Ustraindo Petrogas formed a joint venture that enables Nantco to acquire a 49% interest in an Indonesian company that holds four technical assistance contracts with state owned Pertamina for enhanced recovery from four fields in Indonesia. Combined production from the fields is 20,000 b/d of oil.
STATE PETROLEUM CORP., a unit of Arakis Energy Corp., Vancouver, B.C., made the final $1 million preproduction bonus payment to the government of Sudan under terms of a production sharing agreement (PSA). The PSA covers a 12.2 million acre block. Funding is being arranged for pipeline and equipment construction needed to reach a Phase 1 production goal of 65,000 b/d of oil.
ANGOLA'S state owned Sonangol let a 1 year contract extension to Oceaneering Production Systems, a unit of Oceaneering International Inc., Houston, to provide support services for the Ocean Producer floating production, storage, and offloading system off Angola. The extension covers early January 1995-January 1996.
COGENERATION
CENTRAL & SOUTH WEST ENERGY INC., Dallas, and Phillips 66 Go. propose to develop a cogeneration plant at Old Ocean, adjacent to Phillips' 175,000 b/cd Sweeny, Tex., refinery. Work on the plant is expected to start next year and be completed in 1997.
ALTERNATE FUELS
SGI INTERNATIONAL INC., La Jolla, Calif., and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Tokyo, are proceeding with an engineering and economic feasibility program for the 6,000 metric ton/day China One clean coal refinery to be constructed at Longkou Harbor in Shandong province, China. Plant production capacity will be 1 million tons/year of low sulfur coal and 1.5 million bbl/year of oil.
PIPELINES
FLORIDA'S Department of Environmental Protection ordered Florida Gas Transmission Co. to stop laying its 815 mile, 530 MMcfd Phase III Florida gas pipeline. The department cited flagrant environmental violations. FGT will not be allowed to resume pipelaying until it hires independent environmental inspectors to monitor its work.
VALERO ENERGY CORP. unit Valero Transmission LP will reduce gas flow on its North Texas pipeline by 400 MMcfd Oct. 1-16 for scheduled maintenance. The line links Howard in East Texas with Waha in West Texas. Valero notes that some interruptible business will be curtailed.
SUNSHINE PIPELINE CO., Tampa, asked the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for permission to make 46 minor route changes for its proposed 545 mile intrastate gas pipeline in Florida. SunShine said it will continue to evaluate alternative corridors in its effort to identify an appropriate route.
CANADA'S National Energy Board approved a $189.3 million (Canadian) construction program for TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Calgary, to begin this year. The program, designed to meet export and domestic gas requirements for the contract year beginning Nov. 1, 1995, involves 34 miles of pipeline in Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. The company also will add 70,600 kw of compression and move two portable compressor units with a combined 13,600 kw.
TERMINALS
LITHUANIA will build a $140 million import-export crude oil terminal on the Baltic Sea coast at Butinge, Lithuania, near the Latvian border. Fluor Daniel Williams Bros. designed the terminal, which will be able to handle 8 million metric tons/year of crude and 2.5 million tons/year of products.
SHELL CHINA HOLDINGS LTD., Tianjin Harbor Nanjiang Development Co., and China Aviation Oil Supply Corp. plan to build a 225.5 million Ren Min Bi ($26.4 million) oil storage and transportation depot at the Chinese port of Tianjin. The partners formed a joint venture company, Tianjin International Petroleum Storage & Transportation Co. Ltd., to build the depot, which will have total storage capacity of 160,000 cu m and throughput capacity of 2-3 million metric tons/year of products.
PETROCHEMICALS
TAIWAN'S Chinese Petroleum Corp. will build a 660,000 metric ton/year methanol plant and 500,000 ton/year methyl tertiary butyl ether plant in Qatar. Combined cost of the projects is $700 million. Other details aren't disclosed.
SHELL CHEMICAL CO. plans to expand ethylene capacity at its 215,000 b/cd Deer Park, Tex., refinery and 215,000 b/cd Norco, La., refinery by as much as a combined 800 million lb/year. The expansion will occur in phases, with some of the added capacity scheduled to go on stream during 1995-96.
TOSCO CORP. unit Bayway Refining Co. asked Huntsman Chemical Corp. to build a 475 million lb/year ethylbenzene plant at Bayway's 260,000 b/d Linden, N.J., refinery.
METHANOL ONE OF ALABAMA INC., a unit of Methanol One Corp., Slidell, La., plans to build a 2,000 short ton/day methanol plant at Theodore, Ala., on a site owned by Degussa Corp. Degussa agreed to operate the plant. Work on the plant is expected to take 20-24 months.
COMPANIES
PARKER & PARSLEY PETROLEUM CO., Midland, Tex., proposed to merge with Tide West Oil Co., Tulsa, and make it a Parker & Parsley unit. Tide West reserves are an estimated 30 million bbl of oil equivalent, 90% natural gas.
WAINOCO OIL CORP., Houston, intends to halt U.S. exploration and sell all of its U.S. oil and gas assets and focus its North American E&D work in Canada. Wainoco reports its U.S. exploration has not been competitive or consistently profitable.
BTB GROUP MEMBERS BHP, Tenneco Gas, and British Gas agreed to assess viability of two proposed gas projects in Brazil's Sao Paulo state. One pact calls for BTB to study converting the 470,000 kw, oil fired Piratininga power plant to burn gas and expanding the facility by building two 350,000 kw gas fired, combined cycle power generating units. In the other, BTB agreed to work with state gas distribution company Comgas to study feasibility of building a gas distribution system for the city of Campinas.
GEOTHERMAL
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY chose the Kalina cycle from Exergy Inc., Hayward, Calif., in competition to find a geothermal power plant design for the future. The process increases plant performance 40-50% for geothermal heat sources that are liquid dominated. A $7.189 million grant, awarded as part of the competition, will help construct a 12,400 kw geothermal power plant at Steamboat, Nev., 1 0 miles south of Reno.
PUNA GEOTHERMAL VENTURE agreed to pay a $79,625 penalty to EPA stemming from 1991 and 1993 violations of emergency notification and chemical inventory requirements at Puna's geothermal electric power plant in Hawaii. Puna will pay the penalty and certify that the plant complies with federal rules.
EXPLORATION
UNION TEXAS PETROLEUM LTD., a unit of Union Texas Petroleum Holdings Inc., Houston, reported the Shell U.K. Exploration & Production PD-04 wildcat on Block 49/25a in the southern U.K. North Sea flowed 46 MMcfd of gas through a 56/64 in. choke at 2,889 psi from zones in Rotliegendes sands at 14,383-533 ft. Union holds a 25% interest in the block.
HARKEN ENERGY CORP., Dallas, will be joined by Huffco Group Inc., Houston, to drill the 1 Alcaravan wildcat in Colombia's Llanos basin on Harken's 350,000 acre association contract. It's Harken's first wildcat in Colombia. Operator Harken is scheduled to start drilling in December.
RANGER OIL LTD., Calgary, gauged a flow of 5.4 MMcfd of gas through a % in. choke at 900 psi from an undisclosed interval in tests of D-94-H/94-G-3 Pink Mountain wildcat in Northeast British Columbia. The company plans to lay a pipeline to tie the discovery into Sikanni transportation and processing facilities, with production start-up targeted for early in November.
REFINING
INDONESIA'S Pertamina will build a 10,000 b/d refinery at Sorong, Irian Jaya. Construction, to start next month, is scheduled for completion early in 1997.
TOSCO CORP., Stamford, Conn., starting in 1996 will receive 30,000 b/d of California clean gasoline for its 235,000 b/cd Richmond, Calif., refinery from Chevron U.S.A. Products Co. in exchange for 30,000 b/d of conventional grade gasoline Tosco will deliver to Chevron. The exchange agreement extends into 2003.
ARCO, Shell Oil Co., Texaco Inc., and Unocal Corp. agreed to pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a combined $13.25 million and California a combined $4.75 million for cleanup at the McColl Superfund site in Fullerton, Calif. The payments are reimbursement for site cleanup during 1980-90.
UOP, Des Plaines, III., proposes to buy Unocal Corp.'s process technology licensing (PTL) business (OGJ, Sept. 19, p. 34). PTL business headquarters are at Unocal's Brea, Calif., research facility.
WILLIAMS COS. INC., Tulsa, directors gave approval to unit Williams Energy Ventures to conduct detailed engineering and marketing analyses and acquire a 392 acre site for a $450 million, 50,000 b/d refinery it proposes to build near Phoenix. The plant will process heavy California crude and produce gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel.
ENVIRONMENT
TEXAS issued an amended license to Newpark Resources Inc., Metairie, La., to process and dispose of naturally occurring radioactive material at a processing site under construction in Port Arthur, Tex. Operations at the site are expected to begin in the fourth quarter.
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
