LUBRICANTS
THAI LUBE BASE CO. LTD. named Foster Wheeler Corp., Clinton, N.J., project manager for the first lube base oil plant to be built in Thailand. The project, near Thai Oil CL's 177,000 b/cd Sriracha, Thailand, refinery, will be designed to produce 1.9 million bbl/year of lube base oil, along with 150,000 metric tons/year of asphalt and 800,000 tons/year of fuel oil as byproducts. Work is expected to take 34 months.
TANKERS
MT SEAL ISLAND, a 1 00,000 dwt tanker, exploded Oct. 8 while tied up at a pier at the 545,000 b/cd Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. St. Croix, Virgin Islands, refinery. Four persons were injured. The tanker was not loaded at the time of the explosion, which may have been caused by a fire in the vessel's engine room, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.
NEPTUNE ARIES, a 30,000 dwt tanker owned by Singapore's Neptune Orient shipping lines, struck a pier Oct. 5 at Cat Lai port near Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, and spilled at least 600 metric tons of gas oil. Farmers complained about the spill's effects, and Nhan Dan newspaper said at least 48 acres of rice paddy in two nearby villages may be heavily damaged by oil pollution.
TANKER Cercal's 80,000 metric tons of crude cargo last week were scheduled to be pumped out of the vessel. which ran aground and spilled oil Oct. 2 off Oporto, Portugal (OGJ, Oct. 1 0, P. 36). The crude is to be transferred to another vessel. Cleanup of northern Portugal beaches is expected to take 3 months.
REFINING
THE GROUP Mercu Buana, led by Indonesian President Suharto's half-brother Probosutejo, plans to build a $3 billion refinery on a 2,500 acre site at Probolinggo, East Java. Construction is expected to be completed in 1998, with capacity of the first of three phases to be 300,000 b/d. Total plant capacity is not disclosed.
COMPANIES
SARATOGA RESOURCES INC., Houston, teamed up with Grupo Protexa, Monterrey, Mexico, to pursue Latin American exploration and development. Saratoga will provide the venture geological and geophysical know-how and generation of potential reserve analysis.
SHELL OIL CO. on Jan. 1, 1995, plans to start up new business unit Shell Gas Products & Services, Houston, to pursue growth in gas and gas liquids markets. The unit will consolidate the company's natural gas and NGL processing and marketing businesses.
CAIRN ENERGY USA INC., Dallas, acquired most of the assets of Smith Offshore Exploration Co. 11 for 4.5 million shares of Cairn stock. Smith assets consist of oil and gas leases mainly in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as an interest in 20,000 acres in the Texas Gulf Coast region. Cairn expects at least two development wells to be drilled on the offshore acreage by yearend.
ENSERCH CORP., Dallas, agreed to sell its Enserch Environmental Corp. unit to Foster Wheeler for $97 million. Enserch also will receive $13 million to reimburse an intercompany advance. The sale will complete Enserch's divestiture of its engineering/construction unit.
NORTH CANADIAN OILS LTD., Calgary, recommended shareholder acceptance of an increased takeover offer from Norcen Energy Resources Ltd., also of Calgary. Norcen increased an offer of $13.25 (Canadian)/share to $14 for a total value of $246 million for outstanding North Canadian shares.
AEC ARGENTINA SA, a unit of Alberta Energy Co. Ltd., Calgary, bought a 90% interest in the Estancia Vieja and Puesto Flores concessions in the Rio Negro Norte area of Central Argentina. AEC paid $15.6 million (U.S.) for the interests in the area, 620 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. The concessions cover 96,000 acres, including Estancia Vieja oil field with 13 producing wells, production and gathering facilities, and a 27 mile crude pipeline to the main pipeline terminal,
TRANSTEXAS GAS CORP., Houston, amended its lawsuit against Tenneco Inc. unit Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. to include combined damages of $1.5 billion for Tennessee's alleged failure to pay TransTexas under terms of a take or pay gas purchase contract that runs through January 1999. Tennessee presently is required to pay $9.90/MMBTU for gas produced from acreage covered by the contract.
TENNECO INC. unit Tenneco Gas, Houston, agreed to buy power generation company ARK Energy Inc., Laguna Hills, Calif., for $60 million. The companies expect to complete the deal by yearend.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY reached a $10.7 million settlement with Murphy Oil Corp., Murphy Oil USA Inc., and Murphy Exploration & Production Co. resolving allegations the companies failed to comply with petroleum price and allocation rules Jan. 1, 1973-Jan. 18, 1981. In agreeing to the settlement, which supplements a 1 987 consent order covering other issues, Murphy did not admit any violation of regulations.
PIPELINES
PIPE LAYING on a 71 km section of marine gas pipeline to Hong Kong from the Pearl River mouth is expected to be finished this week. The section is part of a 778 km line, Asia's longest subsea pipeline, linking ARCO China Inc.'s Yacheng 13-1 offshore gas field with Hong Kong and Hainan Island. Work on 707 km of the line was finished May 7, 1 month ahead of schedule.
PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO., San Francisco, said it will not sell its Pacific Gas Transmission Co. unit to TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Calgary. TransCanada negotiated a limited right of refusal 3 years ago to buy the PGT line that delivers Canadian gas from a border point at Kingsgate, B.C., to the California-Oregon border. An original price of $350 million (U.S.) for the line increased to an estimated $1+ billion in 1993.
PANHANDLE EASTERN CORP., Houston, and Associated Natural Gas Corp., Denver, agreed to a merger of Associated with a Panhandle unit in a deal valued at $830 million. The merger is expected to be completed by mid-December.
CANADA'S National Energy Board began hearings on a proposed link for the Altamont gas pipeline project aimed at California markets. Foothills Pipe Lines (Alta.) Ltd., Calgary, is seeking approval for a 133 mile, $128 million (Canadian) line from Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. facilities near Princess, Alta., to Wildhorse on the Alberta-Montana border. The line would be the Canadian link for the proposed 621 mile Alberta Gas Transmission Co. line to Wyoming, with pipeline connections to California.
ECUADOR extended to Nov. 14 its deadline for bids under an international tender to expand the trans-Ecuador crude oil pipeline capacity to 450,000 b/d from 325,000 b/d.
DRILLING-PRODUCTION
MOBIL CORP. unit Mobil North Sea Ltd. started gas production from Excalibur field in the U.K. North Sea. The unmanned Excalibur platform has 85 MMcfd capacity. The field lies in 75 ft of water 40 miles off the U.K.
CAIRN ENERGY PLC, Edinburgh, bought interests in four U.K. onshore production licenses from Ambrit Resources Ltd. for 1.4 million ($2.1 million). The deal gives Cairn a 12.5% stake in Humbly Grove and Herriard oil fields and Holybourne export terminal.
PRIDE PETROLEUM SERVICES INC., Houston, expects to have two new drilling/workover barge rigs at work by yearend for Lagoven SA, a unit of Venezuela's Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The rigs are under 1 0 year contract to work for Lagoven. Pride this month reported it concluded a $42 million financing agreement with two Japanese trading companies for the rigs.
NORWAY'S Den norske stats oljeselskap AS began production from East Statfjord field as a subsea satellite of giant Statfjord field in the Norwegian North Sea. Development involves six wells tied back to the Statfjord C platform via two subsea templates, along with four water injection wells operating through a separate template. East Statfjord reserves are estimated at 155 million bbl of oil and 130 bcf of gas.
DEEPTECH INTERNATIONAL INC., Houston, agreed to acquire the Treasure Driller semisubmersible drilling rig from Wilrig AS, Lysaker, Norway, for a combined $11 million in promissory notes DeepTech and a subsidiary will issue to Wilrig. DeepTech also will hold an option to acquire the Treasure Searcher drilling rig from Wilrig.
ENSERCH CORP. unit Enserch Exploration Partners Ltd. and Los Alamos National Laboratory teamed up for a natural gas program that uses technology developed for energy and national defense. It marks the first time Los Alamos's capability will be applied exclusively to enhance gas production. Work is being conducted in Enserch's Opelika gas field, Henderson County, East Texas.
MCDERMOTT INTERNATIONAL INC. unit McDermott Inc., Morgan City, La., believes its 1,300 ton drilling/production template is the largest one to be installed in water more than 2,000 ft deep. The template is part of Enserch's Garden Banks Block 388 field development project in the Gulf of Mexico.
APACHE CORP., Houston, completed its $19.2 million purchase from Southwestern Production Corp. of 48 operated and 26 nonoperated gas wells in Ignacio Blanco field in Colorado's San Juan basin. Apache will hold an average 76% working interest in the leases.
EXXON CORP. unit Esso Exploration & Production U.K. Ltd. reported that production from U.K. North Sea Galleon gas field started up at a rate of 190 MMcfd. The field is in 82 ft of water, 50 miles north of Bacton on England's Norfolk coast.
DOUBLE RIVER OIL & GAS CO., Houston, acquired from Perm Corp., Midland, Tex., exclusive rights to develop and operate Severne Buzachi oil field in Kazakhstan. The field, on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, is 95 miles southwest of Tengiz oil field.
SCEPTRE RESOURCES LTD., Calgary, agreed to pay $21.25 million (Canadian) for Petro-Canada's Murray River, B.C., natural gas acreage along the Monkman Pass-Murray River trend in the western Canadian sedimentary basin. The purchase includes shut-in gas reserves scheduled to start production Nov. 1 at a rate of 13.6 MMcfd.
A GROUP led by Texaco Inc. plans to spend $600 million during 5 years to increase production to 90,000 b/d from 60,000 b/d on its Block 2 Soyo concession off Angola. Most of the money will be used to install platforms. The block is 185 miles north of Luanda, Angola. Work is under way.
DRAGON OIL PLC, Dublin, claims its Maniguin-2 well on Maniguin Island recorded the highest flow rate for an onshore well in Philippines. The 5,150 ft well, suspended as a potential producer, flowed at a rate of 300 b/d of oil. An extended test is likely early in 1995.
NORTH AMERICAN NIPPON TECHNOLOGIES CORP. (Nantco), Vancouver, B.C., signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture with Indonesia's PT Ustraindo Petrogas. Nantco says the move will enable it to acquire a 49% interest in an Indonesian company that holds four technical assistance contracts with state owned Pertamina for enhanced oil recovery in four Indonesian fields. An incorrect report last month said the JV was formed (OGJ, Sept. 26, p. 46).
EXPLORATION
AN AGREEMENT between Forest Oil Corp., Denver, and Zilkha Energy Co., Houston, calls for Zilkha to conduct 3D seismic surveys and detailed evaluations to determine hydrocarbon potential on 10 Gulf of Mexico blocks leased by Forest. Evaluations on the blocks off Texas and Louisiana are to be complete within 18 months.
CANADIAN OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM LTD., Calgary, took a farmout from Abacan Resources Corp., also of Calgary, on four blocks in Nigeria, where CanOxy will fund a multiwell drilling program to earn as much as 60% interest in the acreage. The combined 1.5 million acres cover Blocks 302, 309, and 310 in the Benin basin and Block 469 in the Niger River Delta basin where Abacan's 3 NGO discovery is being followed up with appraisal work.
U.S. MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE identified 1,879 tracts off Alaska that may be included in a 1997 Beaufort Sea lease sale. The blocks lie 3-140 miles offshore in 7-10,000 ft of water, but most are in less than 300 ft of water.
UGANDA'S GOVERNMENT licensed Ugandan General Works & Engineering Co. Ltd. to conduct exploration, refining, and marketing in Uganda. The new company was formed by a group of U.S. investors who plan to spend $30 million on the venture.
LABOR
OIL WORKERS IN BRAZIL Oct. 6 ended a 9 day, nationwide strike that shut down the country's refining and drilling operations (OGJ, Oct. 3, Newsletter). State company Petrobras estimated it lost $100 million during the strike.
ASSOCIATIONS
INDEPENDENT PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA'S executive committee voted to end further consideration of a merger of IPAA with Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association, both of Washington, D.C.
