Power
The Dominican Republic is to build a power station consisting of two 135-MW electricity generating units designed for dual combustion of coal and oil. The project will cost about $270 million and will be built by a group led by Mecanica de la Peña, a unit of Oslo's Kvaerner AS, and Babcock & Wilcox Española SA. The first unit will begin operation in November 1999, and the second will follow 6 months later.Alternate fuels
Enron Wind Corp., Tehachapi, Calif., will build a 39-MW wind farm on two sites in Southern California. A farm at a Riverside County site will generate 16 MW starting in third quarter 1998, and a second farm at an undetermined site will generate 23 MW beginning in 1999. The project will feature Zond Z-750 kW series wind turbines. Construction will begin early next year.Exploration
Bolivia awarded the Naranjillos field in Santa Cruz province to Vintage Petroleum Inc., Tulsa. Naranjillos contains exploratory prospects and proved reserves of 115.8 bcf of gas equivalent. Vintage bid a 3-year work commitment and a $1 million cash bonus. The company will begin a 39 sq mile 3D seismic program immediately and will drill at least three wells in 1998. Vintage estimates its capital expenditures for exploration and development at $17 million during the first phase.Petroleum Authority of Mongolia
awarded Mantaur Petroleum Corp., Toronto, production-sharing contracts for Ergel Block XII and Buyantumen Block XVII. Each is about 3 million acres. Block XII is in the East Gobi basin of southeastern Mongolia, directly south of the Zuunbayan and Tsagaan Els oil fields. Block XVII is in the northern section of Tamtsag sedimentary basin in northeastern Mongolia.
Companies
Noranda Inc., Toronto, is selling its 49% interest in Norcen Energy Resources Ltd., Calgary, and its wholly-owned unit Canadian Hunter Exploration Ltd., Calgary. Norcen is worth about $4.5 billion (Canadian), including $1 billion in debt; Canadian Hunter is valued at $700-800 million. Noranda may issue a secondary public share offering or sell the interests to a corporate buyer. Norcen has production in western Canada, the Gulf of Mexico, Venezuela, and Guatemala and holds a 10% interest in Superior Propane Ltd. Canadian Hunter has extensive acreage in northeastern British Columbia and Alberta.Comstock Resources Inc.,
Dallas, agreed to acquire Bois d'Arc Resources' interests in 37 wells and 8 producing complexes in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana. Purchase price is $203.4 million cash. The deal includes interests in Main Pass Blocks 21 and 25; Ship Shoal Blocks 66, 67, 68, and 69; and South Pelto Block 1. Comstock estimates the properties contain proved reserves of about 14.7 million bbl of oil and 30.4 bcf of gas.
NOVA Corp.,
Calgary, will reorganize into two independent, publicly traded companies: one a chemical company and the other an energy services company. The chemical company will include NOVA's 26% interests in both Methanex Corp., Vancouver, B.C., and NGC Corp., Houston. The service company will include all businesses that are now part of NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. and NOVA Gas International Ltd. The reorganization is expected to be complete in mid-1998.
Amoco (U.K.) Exploration Co.
exchanged its interest in Clair discovery in U.K.'s West of Shetland area for a supply of gas from Conoco (U.K.) Ltd. Conoco will take over Amoco's 33.3% interest in Block 206/9a, which includes a 4.34% interest in Clair, in return for an undisclosed amount of gas, deliveries of which will begin soon. Amoco says its Clair interest is not critical, but that gas from Conoco would increase its U.K. gas business.
BG plc
sold its German assets to Verbundnetz Gas AG (VNG), Leipzig. These include a 5% interest in VNG and interests in two regional transmission and distribution companies: 24% in Gasversorgung Sachsen-Anhalt and 25.5% in Erdgas West-Sachsen. BG said its German assets were worth 180 million deutschemarks ($105 million). The sale is part of a BG portfolio clear-out (OGJ, June 23, 1997, p. 26).
Petrochemicals
Qatar and Methanex Corp. plan to invest $1 billion to build a methanol plant at Ras Laffan, Qatar. The partners will complete a feasibility study and then sign a final agreement. Qatar would hold a 51% interest in the plant, which will have a capacity of 1 million metric tons/year by 2002 and 3 million tons/year by 2007. Methanex produces 7 million tons/year of methanol and has about 40% of the world market.Equate Petrochemical Co.
started up its world-scale petrochemical complex at Shuaiba, Kuwait (OGJ, July 24, 1995, p. 22). The $2 billion plant will produce and market polyethylene and ethylene glycol to the Far East, Middle East, and Europe. Equate is a joint venture of Union Carbide Corp. and Kuwait's state-owned Petrochemical Industries Co. Capacities are 650,000 metric tons/year of ethylene, used to make 450,000 tons/year of polyethylene and 350,000 tons/year of ethylene glycol.
ARCO Chemical Nederland Ltd.
let contract to a joint venture of JGC Corp. and ABB Lummus Global for engineering, procurement, and construction of a propylene oxide/styrene monomer (PO/SM) plant at Rotterdam. ARCO says the complex, with capacity to produce 225,000 metric tons/year of PO and 635,000 tons/year of SM, will be the world's largest PO/SM plant. Mechanical completion is targeted for third quarter 2000. The plant will boost ARCO's global PO capacity to 2 million tons/year.
Dow Chemical Co.
will close a 45-year-old styrene plant at Sarnia, Ont., because it cannot compete with newer plants. The company said no jobs will be lost because it is looking at new business ventures and locations for a new styrene plant. Dow has negotiated an interim agreement with Shell Canada Ltd. to buy replacement volumes of styrene from Shell's Alberta plant.
Eastern Petrochemical Co.
(Sharq) plans a ?150 billion expansion of its Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, petrochemical complex. The complex includes a 450,000 ton/year linear low-density polyethylene (Lldpe) plant and, under a joint venture with Saudi Basic Industries Co. (Sabic) unit Arabian Petrochemical Co., a 1.45 million metric ton/year ethylene unit and a 900,000 ton/year ethylene glycol (EG) unit. Sharq is a 50-50 joint venture of Japan's Saudi Petrochemical Development Co. (SPDC) and Sabic. Ethylene capacity will increase by 800,000 tons/year, Lldpe capacity by 300,000 tons/year, and EG capacity by 400,000 tons/year.
Montell Polyolefins BV's
Polibrasil joint venture with Brazilian firm Suzano SA plans to build a world-scale polypropylene plant at Capuava, near Sao Paulo. The $150 million, 240,000 metric ton/year plant will begin operation late in 1999. The unit will bring Polibrasil's total polypropylene capacity to 540,000 tons/year from three plants. Polibrasil also will build a $45 million, 140,000 ton/year propylene separation unit at Petrobras' 38,000 b/d Capuava refinery to provide some of the new polypropylene unit's feedstock.
Pipelines
IPL Energy Inc., Calgary, is increasing planned capacity of a proposed 36-in., $800 million (Canadian) crude oil pipeline from Kerrobert, Sask., to Clearbrook, Minn., to 270,000 b/d from 120,000 b/d. The 994-mile Terrace line is scheduled for completion in late 1999. If approved, the line will handle production from Alberta's oilsands and heavy oil operations. IPL will soon file an application with Canada's National Energy Board. The company may spend $400 million on a further 370,000 b/d export line expansion by 2002, if demand warrants.U.S. Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission approved construction of the $308 million Destin natural gas pipeline. A project of Shell Oil Co., Amoco Corp., and Sonat Inc., the 210-mile pipeline will transport up to 1 bcfd of gas from the Gulf of Mexico to interstate pipelines in Mississippi (see map, OGJ, Feb. 3, 1997, p. 26). Construction of the 76-mile offshore leg will begin in mid-December; onshore pipelaying will begin in March 1998, with an in-service target of July 1998.Petronet India
permitted three pipeline projects: a 3.27 billion rupee, 110-km Vadinar-to-Kandla line, to be owned by Petronet and Indian Oil Co. Ltd. 26% each, Essar Oil Ltd. and Reliance Petroleum Ltd. 13% each, and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (ILFS) 5%; a 3.65 billion rupee, 308-km Kochi-to-Karur line, to be owned by Petronet and Bharat Petroleum Co. Ltd. 26% each and ILFS 5%; and a 4.75 billion rupee, 365-km Mangalore-to-Bangalore line, to be owned by Petronet and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. 26% each and ILFS 5%. Start-up of the first line is scheduled for third quarter 1999; the second two are slated for third quarter 2000 start-up.
Columbia Gulf Transmission Co.,
Houston, is holding a 30-day open season for 214 MMcfd of additional capacity on its 2,400-mile Mainline '99, which extends from Louisiana to Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The additional capacity will be available by December 1999. Minimum contract terms will be 5 years, beginning no later than Nov. 1, 2000.
Canada's National Energy Board
began public hearings on an application by Trans Quebec & Maritimes Pipeline Inc. (TQM) to build a natural gas pipeline extension from Lachenaie, Que., to East Hereford, Que., on the U.S. border. The 132-mile, 24-in. line would connect with the Portland Natural Gas Transmission System to New England markets. The $270 million (Canadian) line would be in service by November 1998. TQM received approval for the project from a Quebec regulatory agency that protects agricultural interests.
Oilsands
Koch Exploration Canada Ltd., Calgary, is considering development options for oilsands leases in northern Alberta acquired from Solv-Ex Corp., Albuquerque. Koch, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., Wichita, acquired a 78% interest in 41,000 acres of leases with estimated potential reserves of 1.3 billion bbl of oil for $23 million. The deal was approved by courts in Calgary and Albuquerque. Koch also entered into a deal with Geopetrol Resources, Calgary, which earlier offered $15 million for Solv-Ex properties. Terms were not disclosed. Koch said it is considering Solv-Ex and Geopetrol bitumen extraction technologies in preparing a development plan.Drilling-production
Nigerian National Petroleum Co. (NNPC) and Elf Petroleum Nigeria expect to begin production from their Ofon joint venture project off Nigeria in January. Initial production rate will be about 60,000 b/d, say the partners. The companies have installed a production platform bridge-linked to two drilling platforms and a flare bridge. One of three planned wells has been completed, and the drilling rig has been moved to drill the second. Partners say all three will be completed by the end of December.Enron Oil & Gas India Ltd.
(EOG India) submitted a new development plan to partners in the Tapti gas field group. The plan calls for adding more drilling platforms, building a new gas processing platform, and constructing a 100-mile, 36-in. gas pipeline to Hazira. The Tapti group is composed of India's state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. 40%, EOG India 30%, and Reliance Industries Ltd. 30%. Tapti started production earlier this year and is now delivering 150 MMcfd of gas to Hazira through an ONGC-operated pipeline.
The Mereenie joint venture
(JV) signed a contract to supply an additional 62.8 bcf of gas to Gasgo Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of Northern Territory Power & Water Authority (PAWA). Partners Santos Group (operator) and Magellan Petroleum Group have already committed 84.7 bcf to Gasgo. The new contract is expected to be worth $200 million (Australian) during 1999-2009. It is the largest supply deal yet for gas from Mereenie field and will require the JV to increase gas plant capacity by 150%. PAWA will use the gas to generate power at several sites, including the Channel Island plant at Darwin, Australia. The JV is looking to further develop Mereenie's gas and oil potential.
Chevron Corp.
approved a plan to nearly double the capacity of its newly commissioned associated gas utilization project, Escravos, in Nigeria. Current production of 130 MMcfd of gas, 8,000 b/d of natural gas liquids, and 2,000 b/d of condensate will be increased by 110 MMcfd of gas and about 6,700 b/d of liquids. The project aims to end gas flaring. Chevron Nigeria Ltd. and Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. are joint operators of Escravos.
RefiningAmoco Corp.
will build the world's first solid-acid alkylation unit at its Yorktown, Va., refinery. The unit will use Haldor Tops e AS's fixed-bed alkylation process. The two companies have been performing pilot tests and process design studies (OGJ, Sept. 8, 1997, p. 41). Construction may begin as early as next fall.
Shell U.K. Ltd.
let a so-called alliance core contract to Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. (FWEL), Reading, U.K. Under the 3-year contract, FWEL will perform feasibility studies and provide front-end design, detailed design, engineering, procurement, and construction management for a variety of Shell projects. Under terms of the contract, FWEL will execute work in alliance or partnership with Shell and with suppliers or subcontractors. A FWEL team of about 50 is based at Shell's Stanlow, U.K., manufacturing complex.
Government
U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the Gas Research Institute's 1998 and 1998-2002 research and development plans and continued GRI's current funding mechanism through Dec. 31, 1998. It ordered an administrative judge to explore options for long-term GRI funding.Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.