INDUSTRY BRIEFS

PETROCHEMICALS

IRAN'S Tabriz Petrochemical Co. agreed to purchase $300 million of equipment and technology from France's Technip. Technip will set up production lines at the Tabriz complex for a variety of products, including feedstocks to produce plastics and chemical solvents.

GAS PROCESSING

A UNIT of Parker & Parsley Petroleum Co. (P&P), Midland, Tex., agreed with Western Gas Resources Inc., Denver, to buy an undivided 20% interest in Western's Midkiff and Benedum gas processing plants in the Spraberry Trend Area of the Texas Permian basin for $22 million. P&P's ownership interest also will increase based on future throughput. Western will extend its gas purchase contract with P&P for 20 years, and P&P will dedicate to Western all gas reserves from about 600 development wells it expects to drill the next 3 years, bringing dedicated gas reserves to about 255 bcf.

EXPLORATION

NORTH VALLEY OIL & GAS CO., Woodland, Calif., 15-1 Bloomfield wildcat reentry in Contra Costa County near Bixler, Calif., flowed 15-629 MMcfd of gas through a 33/64 in. choke with flowing casing pressure of 2,196 psi from Upper Cretaceous Fourth Massive sands at 7,792-7,900 ft. Total depth is 8,370 ft. North Valley plans several offsets.

STONEHAM OIL CO. OF COLOMBIA, Houston, and Colombia's Tripetrol SA agreed to acquire a 50% working interest in the 188,000 acre Viani association contract area from American International Petroleum Corp. (AIPC), New York. AIPC will remain operator, and Stoneham will participate in certain seismic operations and two wildcats. The first wildcat, 1 Quina, is projected to 10,000 ft. Parker Drilling Co., Tulsa, was to spud it Oct. 30. The second wildcat, 1 Pitaya, will be drilled to about 6,000 ft and is to spud Nov. 12.

BRITISH GAS PLC signed a memorandum of understanding with Yemen's Petroleum Exploration & Production Board to develop the Socotra block off Yemen, giving BG exclusive rights to negotiate a production sharing agreement covering a 17,500 sq km area southwest of Socotra Island in the Gulf of Aden. The company has exploration rights to the onshore Hood and Al-Hajar blocks.

NORSK HYDRO AS'S JB27-2 wildcat on its Ras Kanayes concession in Egypt flowed 19 MMcfd of gas and 1,300 b/d of condensate from a 40 ft zone in Jurassic at 14,000 ft, Middle East Economic Survey reported.

COMPANIES

JAPAN'S PETROLEUM COUNCIL approved the proposed merger of Nippon Mining Co. and Kyodo Oil Co. scheduled for Dec. 1 (OGJ, Mar. 23, p. 32). Mergers of Japanese refining companies are subject to approval by the council and the Ministry of Trade & Industry. The new company, tentatively called Nikko-Kyoseki Co., will be capitalized at about 86.58 billion yen with 5,477 employees and is expected to have sales of about 1.6 trillion yen in fiscal 1993.

ENRON CORP., Houston, plans to spin off its Enron Oil Trading & Transportation Co. unit to Enron Corp. shareholders. Enron plans to file an information statement with the Securities & Exchange Commission that will outline assets. It expects the spinoff to occur in first quarter 1993.

ENRON EUROPE LTD. formed a gas operations group to develop activities in Europe, the Middle East, and Commonwealth of Independent States. Besides involvement in the 795 million ($1.3 billion) cogeneration plant at Teesside, U.K., the group is pursuing electrical power, natural gas liquids, and pipeline projects.

METHANEX CORP., Vancouver, B.C., plans to raise about $56 million (Canadian) by selling 7 million common shares at $8/share. The offering will be made mainly in Canada, and proceeds will be added to working capital, expected to be used in part to help finance capital projects. The company last summer disclosed plans for several projects for methanol production (OGJ, Aug. 31, p. 30).

HOME OIL LTD., Calgary, will cut its payroll of 850 by 85 this month in a continuing effort to reduce costs. The company earlier cut 145 jobs and reduced assets by selling smaller, higher cost leases. Home is uncertain whether further job cuts will be needed.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

HYUNDAI HEAVY INDUSTRIES (HHI) named an HHI-John Brown E&C joint venture lead engineer on three contracts from Oil & Natural Gas Commission of India (ONGC) to build jackets and topsides for production facilities off India (OGJ, Feb. 24, p. 32). Work is to include review and approval of engineering drawings and project design documents for a production platform to be installed in Neelam oil field and a production platform and five satellite wells for a field development project in Bombay High area (OGJ, July 13, p. 28).

SIERRA ENERGY CO., Reno, Nev., will receive a $1.15 million U.S. government grant to fund a demonstration project under an agreement with the Department of Energy. DOE will fund half the project, which will use horizontal drilling in Sierra's Badger Basin oil and gas field in Wyoming. The project could extend the field's life by as much as 40 years and increase reserves to 2 million bbl of oil equivalent (BOE) from 500,000 BOE. Field operations are to begin this month and be complete by late summer 1993.

BARRETT RESOURCES CORP., Denver, plans to drill 11 wells in four fields under a farmout from Oryx Energy Co., Dallas. The first, spudded Sept. 25, is one of two wells projected to Devonian Interlake at 11,800 ft in North Dakota's Stoneview field. Plans include six 11,600 ft Interlake wells in North Dakota's Capa field, two 13,500 ft Pennsylvanian Red Fork wells in Oklahoma's Strong City field, and one 8,500 ft Silurian Hunton well in Arkansas' Bonanza field. Barrett will earn 65-75% of Oryx's working interest in about 4,905 net leasehold acres after completing the wells.

AMERADA HESS LTD. and Premier Consolidated Oilfields plc won the first U.K. out of round production licenses for North Sea Blocks 39/1 and 39/2, awarded to allow rapid development of a discovery. The blocks are directly south of Amerada's Block 31/26a, where its 31/26a-9 wildcat flowed 11,540 b/d of 34 gravity oil through a 42/64 in. choke. The reservoir has been named Fife. Appraisal drilling is planned the next 3-6 months.

TOTAL OIL MARINE PLC let a 30 million ($50 million) contract to RGC Offshore plc, Fife, U.K., for fabrication of a jacket for Dunbar field in the U.K. North Sea (OGJ, Oct. 26, p. 37). The 9,500 metric ton jacket will have 28 slots. Fabrication will start immediately, with completion scheduled for early 1994.

LASMO CANADA INC., Calgary, and NAL Resources Ltd. agreed to acquire Alberta oil and gas leases from Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. for $63.7 million (Canadian), split Lasmo $20.6 million and NAL $43.1 million. NAL is a unit of North American Life Assurance Co.

OXY U.S.A. INC., Houston, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia against the Buchanan County Virginia Board of Supervisors and certain individual board members to block an emergency ordinance the board passed Sept. 21 banning operation of injection wells. Oxy has permits from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy to operate its injection well, which it said is vital to its coalbed methane project in Virginia.

BOW VALLEY INDUSTRIES LTD., Calgary, will buy a 25% interest in a producing block in South Sumatra from Canada Northwest Energy Ltd. The deal will give Bow Valley a 50% interest in the Ogan Komering block producing 8,300 b/d. The sale was to close Oct. 31.

REFINING

CHINA'S Council of State Affairs approved a refining/ marketing project presented by Ste. National Elf Aquitaine and China Petrochemical Corp. that calls for construction of a 160,000 b/d refinery in the Pudong-Shanghai area that will supply gasoline to eastern China and western Asia. A feasibility study is to be complete in mid-1993. Elf said the agreement marks the first time the government of China has officially assigned a share of its national refined products market to a western oil company in a joint venture.

EL PASO REFINERY LP plans to shut down in phases its 52,250 b/d El Paso refinery through November and expects to resume refining operations in December. The company filed for protection under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy laws in Austin. It cited several factors, including difficulties in securing crude supplies for November, for the filing. The bankruptcy court refused the company's request for use of cash collateral after it became evident the deadline for buying crude for November had passed.

A EUROPEAN REFINERS' GROUP let contract to Comprimo BY, Amsterdam, for project management, engineering, procurement, construction supervision, and start-up services for the 100 million deutschemark ($66 million) expansion of the 240 ton/day sulfur recovery plant in the PCK AG refinery at Schwedt, Germany (OGJ, Aug. 5, 1991, p. 30). The project is to be complete by yearend 1994. The refinery is owned by Veba Oel AG, DEA Mineraloel AG, Agip SpA, Total, and Elf.

NIPPON PETROLEUM REFINING CO. (NPRC) started up a 30,000 b/d gas oil and resid catalytic cracking unit at its Negishi refinery in Yokohama. The unit processes atmospheric resids and vacuum gas oils to produce high octane gasoline, light oil, and liquefied petroleum gas. The Stone & Webster designed unit includes a flue gas cleanup system and gas recovery plant.

SHELL OIL CO. let contract to Foster Wheeler USA Corp. for design and procurement of two methyl tertiary butyl ether units at its Deer Park, Tex., and Norco, La., refineries (OGJ, Mar. 30, p. 31). The two units, with combined capacity of 11,000 b/d, are to start up in late 1993 or early 1994. Foster Wheeler will complete work by mid-1993. Shell tabled plans for MTBE capacity at its Wood River, Ill., refinery.

TRANSPORTATION

RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT approved plans for a $120 million, 104,000 b/d refined products export terminal at St. Petersburg. A new joint stock company, Zolotye Vorota, was registered in September and will construct the terminal at the site of the Neftenalivnoi Raion oil storage terminal, which became independent of the Leningrad port authority in January 1989.

U.S. BANKRUPTCY COURT in Wilmington, Del., agreed to a settlement between Columbia Gas System Inc., Wilmington, and Shell Oil Co. whereby a Columbia Gas senior vice president was elected to the board of Columbia LNG and four Shell officers were removed from the board. The settlement followed collapse of plans for Columbia to sell an added interest in its liquefied natural gas unit to Shell LNG Co. for $128.5 million (OGJ, July 27, p. 52).

TENNECO GAS unit of Tenneco Inc., in a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filing related to Order 636, proposed reorganizing its merchant functions into a new marketing affiliate. Tenneco Gas Marketing Co. is to be the umbrella organization for Tenneco intrastate and interstate gas pipelines, gas trading, and risk management units after implementation of Order 636. The order requires U.S. interstate gas pipelines to unbundle services and separate merchant and transmission activities.

ALGERIA'S Sonatrach signed a 20 year agreement to supply Italy's Ente Nazionale per d'Energia Elettrica 140 bcf/year of gas, beginning in fourth quarter 1994. Delivery will be via the Transmed pipeline, which is being expanded to about 2.3 bcfd capacity (OGJ, Oct. 26, p. 19). This will also enable Sonatrach to boost supply to Italy's Snam SpA to 680 bcf/year from 420 bcf/year by yearend 1994.

SPILLS

INDONESIA is demanding $2.4 billion in compensation for oil spill damage from Canada's T.K. Shipping, reported to be the owner of the Nagasaki Spirit tanker that collided with a container ship in Malacca Strait Sept. 20 (OGJ, Oct. 12, p. 33).

MARINE SPILL RESPONSE CORP. (MSRC) launched the Caribbean Responder oil spill response vessel at the Beaumont, Tex., shipyard of Trinity Marine Group, a subsidiary of Trinity Industries. It is the eighth of 12 MSRC vessels to be built by Trinity Industries and second by Trinity Marine. When fully operational in August 1993, 16 MSRC vessels will provide best effort responses to major oil spills off the U.S. to a distance of 200 miles.

MARKETING

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY issued a rule requiring labeling of oxygenated gasoline sold at service stations. The rule, published in the Oct. 20 Federal Register, sets standards for the size of labels and their wording.

COURTS

THIRTY-THREE SURVIVORS of the 1988 Ocean Odyssey explosion in the North Sea reached an out of court settlement with rig owner Odeco Drilling Inc. and operator ARCO that could total as much as $10 million. The rig's radio operator was killed in the Sept. 1988 explosion (OGJ, Oct. 3, 1988, p. 38).