LNG
Ras Laffan Liquefied
Natural Gas Co. Ltd.
let contract to a venture of McDermott-ETPM Inc. and Chiyoda Corp. for engineering, procurement, fabrication, and installation of offshore platforms in support of its liquefied natural gas export project at Ras Laffan, Qatar. Ras Laffan LNG also let contract to Saipem SpA for engineering, procurement, fabrication, and installation of offshore pipelines related to the project. Work under both contracts is to begin this month. Last month, Ras Laffan LNG, a venture of Qatar General Petroleum Corp. 70% and Mobil Corp. 30%, let a $1 billion contract for work on onshore LNG facilities (OGJ, Mar. 25 , p. 36).
Refining
BP Oilallied with Amec and Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. to undertake a $76.5 million upgrade of the hydrocracker and associated offsites and blending units at its Grangemouth, U.K. refinery. Foster Wheeler is involved in a similar alliance with BP and other contractors for a $36.7 million revamp of the fluid cat cracking unit at Grangemouth.
Petron Corp.plans to expand capacity by 15,000 b/d to 180,000 b/d at its Limay, Bataan, Philippines, refinery. Project involves adding a naphtha hydrofiner and debottlenecking at a cost of $30.8 million, with completion slated for 1997.
Pipelines
TransCanada Pipelines Ltd.,Calgary, asked Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) for a permit to add 126.3 MMcfd of capacity at a cost of $263.6 million-including construction of 61.8 km of pipeline, 87,100 kw of new and expanded compression, and two new aftercoolers-to meet requests for firm transportation of 82.2 MMcfd of domestic supplies and 44.1 MMcfd of exports. If approved, construction would begin in winter 1996-97, with all facilities to begin service by Nov. 1, 1997.
NEBapproved a negotiated settlement on an incentive toll method for Trans Mountain Pipe Line Ltd., Vancouver, B.C. The agreement between Trans Mountain, its shippers, and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers will share benefits of operating cost savings among the parties. NEB earlier approved incentive toll agreements for TransCanada and Interprovincial Pipelines Ltd., Edmonton.
Drilling-production
Amerada Hess Ltd.received U.K. Department of Trade & Industry approval to develop Durward oil field on North Sea Blocks 21/6 and 21/11. Durward will be developed with five producers and four water injectors tied back to a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) system via two subsea manifolds. Amerada last month chartered an FPSO for development of Durward and, concurrently, nearby Dauntless oil field, for which it expects to submit a development plan soon (OGJ, Apr. 8, p. 33).
Norsk Hydro ASlet a $68 million contract to Kvaerner AS, Oslo, for subsea production equipment to be used in development of its Visund discovery in the Norwegian North Sea. The order includes christmas trees and control and connection systems. Deliveries are to begin in November. Hydro is developing Visund with 21 subsea wells tied back to a production semisubmersible.
Amoco Orient Petroleum Co.and partners are boosting production in Liuhua 11-1 oil field in the Pearl River Mouth basin off China to design capacity of 65,000 b/d from 25,000 b/d at start-up Mar. 29. Operator Amoco Orient and Kerr-McGee China Petroleum Ltd. each holds a 24.5% interest in the $620 million development in partnership with state owned China Offshore Oil Nanhai East Corp. 51%.
KCS Energy Inc.,Houston, could drill as many as 35 development wells on 160 acre spacing in Manderson field in North Central Wyoming's Big Horn basin. Its 34-12 Manderson development well flowed 1,200 b/d of oil and 2.5 MMcfd of gas through a 19/64 in. choke with 1,650 psi flowing tubing pressure from Permian Phosphoria dolomite above 7,500 ft. KCS holds a 100% interest in more than 90% of Manderson field, a 9 mile by 2 mile anticlinal nose that also produces from upper Cretaceous Frontier, Muddy, Octh Louie, and Dakota and lower Cretaceous Morrison.
Texaco Exploration
& Production Inc.
acquired from Shell Western E&P Inc. 33 oil and gas leases in the East Texas field of Gregg County, Tex., producing 2,473 b/d of oil and 2.64 MMcfd of gas. That boosts Texaco's net field production to 7,961 b/d and 7.6 MMcfd. Texaco also acquired Shell's 14.95% interest in the Central Vacuum Unit of Lea County, N.M., increasing its total oil and gas take at the field plant by 600 b/d to 2,403 b/d and by 275 Mcfd to 1.1 MMcfd.
Louis Dreyfus
Natural Gas Corp.,
Oklahoma City, closed its purchase of producing acreage and associated leasehold, mainly in Oklahoma, from Coastal Oil & Gas Co. for $30 million. Involved are more than 800 wells producing 12 MMcfd of gas and 375 b/d of oil net to acquired interests. Separately, Louis Dreyfus signed a 10 year swap contract hedging about 2 bcf/year of production at an average price of $2.23/MMBTU beginning in June 1997. This fixed price sale was made to Duke/Louis Dreyfus LLC, a venture of Duke Power Co. and Louis Dreyfus Electric Power.
Elan Energy Inc.,Calgary, agreed to buy the heavy oil leases of Amerada Hess Corp.'s Canadian unit for $31 million (Canadian). Those leases include about 38,000 acres of 100% working interest undeveloped acreage in the Lindbergh-Cold Lake heavy oil corridor of Alberta. Elan plans to drill vertical and horizontal wells on the acreage and begin enhanced recovery projects, including single well steam assisted gravity drainage. Separately, an undisclosed buyer bought Amerada Hess Canada Ltd.'s oilsands leases. The heavy oil/oilsands assets were not included in Amerada's recently disclosed sale of its Canadian unit to Petro-Canada (OGJ, Apr. 8, p. 26).
Nuevo Energy Co.,Houston, closed its acquisition of about 183.8 million bbl of oil equivalent under California leases through two deals with Unocal Corp. and Torch Energy Advisors Inc. for a combined $516.2 million (OGJ, Feb. 26, p. 32).
Phoenix Resource Cos. Inc.,Oklahoma City, and partners cut 356 ft of Cretaceous Bahariya and Kharita pay at about 9,000 ft in their A-8X development well on the 1.9 million acre Qarun concession southwest of Cairo in Egypt's Western Desert. It is the thickest oil section drilled in Qarun A field. The well also found oil in Cretaceous Abu Roash. the first time this zone has contained oil in the field. Interests are operator Phoenix 50% and Houston firms Apache Corp. and Global Natural Resources Inc. 25% each. Apache and Phoenix have disclosed plans to merge by midyear (OGJ, Apr. 1, p. 36).
Courts
The U.S. Supreme Courtagreed to review an Ohio law that exempts intrastate gas sellers from paying natural gas sales taxes that are levied on out of state gas sources. General Motors Corp. had challenged the tax exemption as a violation of the Constitution's interstate commerce clause, but the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the tax.
Companies
Ocelot Energy Inc.,Calgary, will spin off its core operations into three public companies. One will operate oil and gas production in Alberta, a second British Columbia gas properties, and a third non-Canadian projects. The reorganization aims to afford a sharper focus on individual sectors and give investors specific choices for investment. The change is subject to shareholder approval and an advance tax ruling from Ottawa. Shareholders would receive a share in each new company for each Ocelot share they hold in mid-July.
BJ Services Co.,Houston, offered $580 million (Canadian) to acquire Nowsco Well Service Ltd., Calgary. BJ Services offered $27/share cash, about a one third premium on Nowsco's recent trading value. Nowsco will oppose the takeover bid.
Richland Petroleum Corp.offered $9.5 million (Canadian) to acquire Signal Energy Ltd., both of Calgary. Richland is offering 73/share. About 50% of Signal shareholders have accepted. Acquisition of Signal would increase Richland production by about 600 b/d of oil equivalent (boed) to 4,000 boed and add 52,000 acres of exploration lands to its portfolio. Richland requires that 80% of Signal shareholders accept the offer, which expires May 3.
Exploration
Affiliates of Hunt Oil Co.,Dallas, agreed with Ghana National Petroleum Corp. to conduct exploration and production in Ghana's western offshore Cape Three Points basin, which lies between Tano and Saltpond basins. Seismic work is to get under way at once.
Elf Exploration Angolagauged 2,800 b/d of oil from one of five pay zones in its Girassol wildcat in 1,363 m of water on Block 17, about 200 km northwest of Luanda, Angola. Appraisal drilling is planned. Operator Elf's partners are Esso Exploration Angola, BP Exploration, Den norske stats oljeselskap AS, Norsk Hydro, and Fina Exploration. Girassol is the second wildcat on Block 17 and Elf's third deepwater strike in the Gulf of Guinea, the other two found off Congo (see related story, p. 26).
Tesoro Petroleum Corp.,San Antonio, is conducting an extended production test and plans more seismic work on a 1.3 million acre concession in Bolivia after its X-2 Ibibobo wildcat flowed 511 b/d of 44.6 gravity oil and 200 Mcfd of gas with 400 psi flowing tubing pressure from Chorro pay at 5,624-40 ft. The well also flowed 2.2 MMcfd of gas and 6 b/d of condensate with 1,000 psi flowing tubing pressure from San Telmo pay at 2,891-2,927 ft. Tests of both Pennsylvanian formations were through 20/64 in. chokes. Operator Tesoro holds a 73% interest in the well and Zapata Exploration Co., Houston, 27%.
Amoco Trinidad Oil Co.plans to continue drilling 3D seismic prospects off Trinidad after notching its fifth gas discovery with as many wells in about 350 ft of water, 50 miles east of Galeota Point. Its 1 Lantana strike cut 388 ft of pay in five zones above 15,688 ft. Amoco decided against testing 1 Lantana because each of the four earlier wells on the tract-4 NEQB, 1 El Diablo, 1 Corallita, and 5 East Mayaro-flowed 27-33 MMcfd of gas on tests of similar sands. Amoco holds a 100% interest in the acreage.
Gas processing
Westcoast Energy Inc.,Vancouver, B.C., shelved plans to build a $395 million (Canadian) grassroots gas processing plant at Aitken Creek, north of Fort St. John, B.C., claiming low gas prices and permitting delays killed producer interest (OGJ, Mar. 18, p. 38). Westcoast will proceed with a 70 MMcfd expansion at its Jedney plant, north of Aitken Creek. A 20 MMcfd expansion of the existing Aitken Creek plant and expansion of the McMahon gas plant southeast of Fort St. John, will add as much as 50 MMcfd capacity to Westcoast's system.
Alberta Natural Gas Co. Ltd.bought two field gathering and processing plants from Petrostar Petroleums Inc., both of Calgary. The sale involves a 90% interest in the new Talbot Lake gas plant and a 100% interest in a gas gathering line connected to the ANG Gordondale complex in Alberta.
Conoco Inc.bought the Wingate gas processing assets in Northwest New Mexico, about 70 miles south of its San Juan gas processing plant, from Meridian Oil Inc. The assets include 30,000 b/d of fractionation capacity, a 200 mile natural gas liquids pipeline, and 5 million gal of product storage capacity. The deal boosted Conoco's total U.S. fractionation capacity to 75,000 b/d.
Exports-imports
Canada's NEBrejected a natural gas export application for the first time in 7 years. NEB turned down an export request by Morgan Hydrocarbons Inc. and Coastal Gas Marketing Co., citing lack of information on gas supply source. The firms applied to export 10 MMcfd from Iroquois, Ont., for 101/2 years. Morgan claimed to supply NEB documents showing adequate reserves and deliverability for the requested term. It has been exporting 10 MMcfd from Iroquois under short term approvals and will continue to do so until it can meet NEB requirements for a long term export license.
Petrochemicals
Exxon Chemicals Singapore Pte. Ltd.is conducting a feasibility study of an ethylene plant in Singapore. Capacity won't be known until yearend, when the study is well under way. It would join an olefins complex operated by Petroleum Corp. of Singapore that produces 450,000 metric tons/year of ethylene and 225,000 tons/year of propylene. In addition, Mobil Oil Singapore Pte. Ltd. disclosed a 12-15 month feasibility study for a $1.5 billion cracker to produce 800,000 tons/year of ethylene and 300,000 tons/year of propylene.
Eastman Chemical Netherlands BVlet contract to Fluor Daniel's Haarlem, Netherlands, branch for engineering, procurement, and construction of a 290,000 metric ton/year purified terephthalic acid plant (PTA) at Kop van de Beer, Rotterdam. When complete in first quarter 1998, the PTA plant will provide feedstock for an adjacent polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant and PET plants at Workington and Hartlepool, U.K.
Marketing
Conoco Inc.acquired a majority interest in Mock Resources Inc., Irvine, Calif., and with affiliate DuPont Power Marketing Inc., Houston, formed Mock Energy Services partnership to market gas and electrical power in the western U.S. DuPont Power Marketing in late March made the first trade of an electric power futures contract (OGJ, Apr.8, Newsletter).
Copyright 1996 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.