U.S. BRIEFS

GOVERNMENT

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY rejected bids for the mothballed Tennol Energy Co. ethanol plant in Jasper, Tenn., which it acquired when owners defaulted on a federally guaranteed $64 million loan in 1988. It received two bids, $8.3 million and $2.7 million (OGJ, July 16, p. 34).

ALTERNATE FUELS

ENCOAL CORP., signed a $72.6 million cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy to share costs of building and operating a coal liquefaction demonstration plant at Triton Coal Co.'s Buckskin mine near Gillette, Wyo. Groundbreaking is scheduled for late October.

ACQUISITIONS

ICF RESOURCES INC., Fairfax Va., acquired HouTex Seismic Inc. and its wholly owned unit Professional Geophysics Inc. (PGI), Houston, for an undisclosed price. PGI will operate as a subsidiary of ICF.

PIPELINES

TRIUMPH NATURAL GAS INC., Dallas, received a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit for its 191 mile, 24 in. Delta Pipeline Co. project in the Arkoma basin of Oklahoma and Arkansas. The $2.1 million Delta line is scheduled to be on stream by fall 1991 with initial capacity of 200 MMcfd.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS CO. will buy 454-550 MMcfd of spot gas at $1.62/MMBTU in October, compared with 489 MMcfd bought at $1.48/MMBTU in September.

MEGA NATURAL GAS CO., Tulsa, acquired Arkoma Gas Gathering Inc.'s 52 mile gathering system in southern Pittsburg and northern Atoka counties, Okla., for an undisclosed price.

KN ENERGY INC., Lakewood, Colo., agreed to install a 30 MMcfd interconnect on its 64 mile, 20 in. Buffalo Wallow pipeline system in Oklahoma and Texas for Maple Gas Corp. Dallas. It will connect wells owned by Maple and UMC Petroleum, Houston.

EXPLORATION

SANTA FE ENERGY PARTNERS LP, Houston, and Questar Corp. affiliate Celsius Energy Co., Salt Lake City, agreed to jointly drill a series of wildcats on about 37,600 acres of leases in the Powder River basin of Campbell, Crook, and Weston counties, Wyo. The venture is effective for an initial term through Dec. 31, 1991, with year to year extension options. The companies, with Santa Fe as operator, plan to drill six wells by yearend to Pennsylvanian Minnelusa and 10/year after that.

MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE entered a finding of "no significant impact" in its environmental assessment of Mobil Corp.'s final exploration plan for drilling off North Carolina. Provisions of the Outer Banks Protection Act of 1990, however, bar MMS from approving an exploration plan or granting a permit to drill before October 1991.

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT will auction federal leases on 13,600 acres in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida Nov. 6 in Pittsburgh.

GAS PROCESSING

FERC approved the purchase by Western Gas Processors Ltd., Denver, of the Midkiff gas processing plant in Midland County, Tex., and related gathering system from El Paso Natural Gas Co., subject to a 30 day filing period for rehearing requests. The system consists of a 100 MMcfd gas processing plant, a 1,100 mile Spraberry Trend gathering system, and an Odessa underground natural gas liquids storage site.

AMOCO PRODUCTION CO. let a contract worth about $10 million to Davy McKee Corp., Houston, to design a 5,000 b/d depropanizer at its Superior, Wis., NGL storage site. The project is scheduled for August 1991 start-up.

REFINING

CLARK OIL & REFINING CORP. let contract to M.W. Kellogg Co., Houston, to design a 24,000 b/sd hydrotreater and a 7 MMcfd hydrogen plant for its 60,000 b/sd Wood River refinery in Hartford, Ill., at an installed cost of about $40 million. The units are to be on stream by mid-1993.

COMPANIES

ENGY INC. and Columbia Gas Development Corp., both of Houston, and Columbia Gas Transmission Corp., Charleston, W.Va., agreed to dissolve their Coleve joint venture and settle all litigation and claims between the firms. Columbia Gas Development will receive interests in federal oil and gas leases held by ENGY through its share of Coleve, and ENGY is to be paid about $50 million.

RESEARCH

FERC approved Gas Research Institute's 5 year research and development plan and 1991 funding tariff of 1.460/Mcf on sales and services by its interstate pipeline company members, FERC also approved GRI's 1991 obligations budget of $201 .8 million and its cash outlay budget of $195 million.

COURTS

ATTORNEYS GENERAL of Kansas and Missouri settled a $3 billion gas price fixing lawsuit against Oxy USA Inc., Amoco Production Co., and Williams Natural Gas Co., Tulsa, in a Kansas City, Kan., federal court. Terms of the accord with Oxy and Amoco had not been released by presstime. Williams agreed to pay $36.5 million during 3 years in its settlement, which also covers all related FERC claims.

TEXAS COUNTY, OKLA., district court entered judgment of $4,715,326 in favor of Dorchester Hugoton Ltd., Dallas, in a suit between that firm, Dorchester Hugoton Master LP, and Damson Oil Corp., New York. At issue was the 1986 purchase by Dorchester Hugoton Ltd. of a 20% interest in Dorchester leases in Guymon-Hugoton field, Okla., held by Dorchester Master LP and Damson.

ONEOK INC., Tulsa, and Amoco Production Co. settled a take or pay lawsuit involving Amoco gas wells in Oklahoma. Terms were not disclosed. Amoco filed the suit in October 1989 in Blaine County, Okla., district court seeking more than $10.3 million.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

UNION PACIFIC RESOURCES CO. agreed to buy producing leases in East Texas and southern Wyoming from Oryx Energy Co., Dallas, for about $109 million. Union Pacific will acquire leases on about 31,500 acres with about 160 wells in Carthage field, mostly in Panola County, Tex., and interests in 4,500 acres in Echo Springs field, Wyo.

DEKALB ENERGY CO., Denver, sold 212 leases in the U.S. and three in Canada with 1.3 million bbl of oil equivalent reserves to an undisclosed buyer for $12.2 million.