The Oil and Gas Journal articles from September 2000

The Oil and Gas Journal archives from September 2000

China.
September 25, 2000... Guangzhou Oceanic Geological Surveying Bureau of south China's Guangdong Province launched seismic surveys in the Yellow Sea, which lies between Bohai Bay and the East China Sea. China hopes to be able to promote commercial prospecting in...

Greenland.
September 25, 2000... The Statoil/Phillips group plugged the Qulleq- 1 wildcat on the Fylla license west of Greenland without finding oil or gas. The companies will evaluate results "and decide on their consequences for further activity by Mar. 15, 2001,"...

Egypt.
September 25, 2000... The Eshpetco group that includes Vanguard Oil Corp., Calgary, successor company to Cabre Exploration Ltd. and Kappa Energy Co., set casing at a discovery on the West Esh El Mallaha concession west of the Gulf of Suez. Tanan-1, 4.7 km...

Newfoundland.
September 25, 2000... Deer Lake Oil & Gas inc., St. John's, Newf., plans to deepen an indicated gascondensate discovery in the Deer Lake basin. The Western Adventure- 1 on Permit 93-103 near Corner Brook encountered gas and condensate on two drilistem tests...

OPEC hike unlikely to correct oil prices buoyed by hype.
September 25, 2000... Despite few changes in market fundamentals since early August lows, oil prices have increased $7-8/bbl, and OPEC's recently proposed output hike has not eased market jitters, says Purvin & Gertz. "Market psychology is a more prominent...

PDVSA to offer heating oil storage.
September 25, 2000... Venezuela's state oil company is offering some respite in the US heating oil supply crunch. PDVSA is offering to let the US use its Freeport, Bahamas, terminal to store heating oil against possible supply shortfalls this winter. The firm...

Gas faces price crisis, not shortage.
September 25, 2000... High US natural gas prices this winter could spawn a renewed call from federal regulators or Congress for price controls or even a windfall profits tax--measures that would only exacerbate a bad situation, some participants warned last week...

Gas supply outlook troubling.
September 25, 2000... Whether it's called a crisis or not, there is too little new North American gas supply coming on stream to meet rapidly growing demand, Dain Rauscher Wessels analysts said last week at their annual energy conference in Houston. Despite a...

THE ANTICIPATED REBOUND IN THE BAKER HUGHES INTERNATIONAL RIG COUNT.
September 25, 2000... THE ANTICIPATED REBOUND IN THE BAKER HUGHES INTERNATIONAL RIG COUNT (the world excluding the US and Canada) materialized last month as the total reached 705, up 6% from the 662 counted in July 2000, and a rise of 27% vs. the 556 counted a...

WILL DEMAND FOR MTBE IN THE US EVAPORATE BECAUSE OF GROWING POLITICAL OPPOSITIION?
September 25, 2000... MTBE continues to come under political fire, Already, a number of states have opted to either restrict or eliminate use of MTBE, thus adding to the uncertainty over its use in US gasoline. Purvin & Gertz and Chemical Market Associates...

MMS HAS PROPOSED NEW REGULATIONS TO ENSURE CONTINUATION OF ROYALTY RELIEF.
September 25, 2000... MMS announced a proposed rule to continue, but limit, deepwater Gulf of Mexico royalty relief. The Deepwater Royalty Relief Act's mandatory requirement for royalty suspensions expires Nov. 28, but the law allows MMS to continue the...

PHILIPPINE REFINERS SEEK TO POSTPONE SECOND PHASE OF CLEAN AIR RULES.
September 25, 2000... Refiners in the Philippines have asked the government to defer the second phase of that country's Clean Air Act, slated to take effect in 2003. The firms, many of which have suffered losses due to higher crude prices and a resulting...

SHELL IS AGAIN EMBROILED IN A HUMAN RIGHTS CONTROVERSY IN NIGERIA.
September 25, 2000... A Second Circuit US Court of Appeals ruling will allow to be heard a lawsuit claiming Shell aided and abetted the 1995 torture and murder of Nigerian activists who opposed industry operations in their region, said a report by Mark Hamblett in...

MITCHELL ENERGY & DEVELOPMENT COMPLETED TWO PIPELINE SYSTEM EXPANSION PROJECTS IN NORTH TEXAS.
September 25, 2000... The company added looping to 13.5 miles of a main gathering line serving the Bridgeport processing plant, plus 3,000 hp of compression. The additions raised gathering capacity along this line to more than 40 MMcfd. Gross gas production in...

Texas Railroad Commissioner.
September 25, 2000... In other pipeline action, Texas Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza proposed legislative and administrative changes to an earlier proposal aimed at strengthening the state's pipeline disruption notification program. Garza also urged the US House...

Atlantic LNG.
September 25, 2000... In other gas processing news, partners in an LNG plant in Trinidad and Tobago have again turned to Phillips Petroleum's LNG technology for use on two trains to be added to the plant, said Phillips. Atlantic LNG operates the facility, in which...

PEMEX PLANS TO DRILL FIVE DEEPWATER WILDCATS.
September 25, 2000... PEMEX PLANS TO DRILL FIVE DEEPWATER WILDCATS during the next 7-10 years in the Gulf of Mexico in 600-1,400 m of water, a company official indicated at a Houston conference. Pemex also designated a Gulf of Mexico "B" project to explore an...

Talisman Energy UK.
September 25, 2000... Elsewhere in the exploration world, Talisman Energy UK made a new oil discovery not far from its Clyde field. The North Leven prospect, spudded from the Clyde platform via the 30/17b-A32 extended-reach well, flowed 12,080 b/d of 39[degrees]...

Fletcher Challenge Energy.
September 25, 2000... Fletcher Challenge Energy (FCE), a unit of Fletcher Challenge Group, said that it will farm out to Australia's Origin Energy a 20% share in the PEP 38718 license area containing the Tuihu prospect in New Zealand's onshore Taranaki basin. The...

SINGAPORE WILL TEST PETROLEOS DE VENEZUELA'S TRADEMARK ORIMULSION BOILER FUEL.
September 25, 2000... SINGAPORE WILL TEST PETROLEOS DE VENEZUELA'S TRADEMARK ORIMULSION BOILER FUEL at a power station starting next month. The test is part of the island city-state's search for alternative energy resources and fuels. About 40,000 tonnes of...

SHELL IS ON THE VERGE OF DEVELOPING TWO DEEPWATER DISCOVERIES IN THE GULF OF MEXICO.
September 25, 2000... Shell Exploration & Production plans to develop its deepwater Gulf of Mexico discoveries Oregano and Serrano via a subsea production system tied back to the Auger TLP. Total development costs for two projects are $250 million, excluding...

China National Offshore Oil Corp.
September 25, 2000... Elsewhere on the development front, China National Offshore Oil Corp. has nailed down a plan for developing a major natural gas find in the South China Sea. The company plans to start commercial production at the Dongfang 1-1 gas field Sept....

Agip Energy & Natural Resource.
September 25, 2000... Agip Energy & Natural Resources agreed to develop fields in a license area owned by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Co. (NPDC), a unit of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., according to an NNPC official. Last December, NNPC invited...

Kerr-McGee.
September 25, 2000... Kerr-McGee approved a development plan that involves a FPSO for Leadon field and satellites Birse and Glassel in the UK North Sea. The three fields will be developed with subsea horizontal wells tied back to the FPSO. Operator Kerr-McGee said...

US DOE WILL HELP FUND THREE PROJECTS TO CAPTURE COAL MINE METHANE GAS EMISSIONS.
September 25, 2000... The National Energy Technology Laboratory, DOE's chief field site for its fossil energy research program, cites Mine Safety and Health Administration data estimating that 400 US mines emit nearly 250 MMcfd of methane when coal is mined. ...

Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association.
September 25, 2000... In other news on environmental issues, the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA) last month urged US EPA to refine the proposed database that will be used to select chemicals for EPA's Endocrine Disruptor Screening...

GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION TO UNOCAL'S GASOLINE PATENT GROWS.
September 25, 2000... California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer told the US Supreme Court that Unocal should not be allowed to "hijack and distort" the state regulatory process by claiming a patent on reformulated gasoline (RFG) formulas developed in cooperation with the...

CHINA'S PETROCHEMICAL BOOM CONTINUES APACE.
September 25, 2000... Uni-President Enterprises said it will enter into a JV with Hsianglu Chemical & Fiber to build a purified terephthalic acid plant at Xiamen, Fujian, China. Uni-President, through its affiliate, President International Development, will...

Crosstex Energy Service.
September 25, 2000... Crosstex Energy Services acquired Western Gas Resources' natural gas gathering and compression units in the Arkoma basin in Oklahoma. The 74-mile system gathers gas from more than 110 wells and provides compression services into a mainline...

A CLOUD HAS APPEARED OVER A PROPOSED GTL-BASED METHANOL PLANT IN DARWIN.
September 25, 2000... A CLOUD HAS APPEARED OVER A PROPOSED GTL-BASED METHANOL PLANT IN DARWIN, Australia, following the federal government's assurances that LNG would not be subject to national greenhouse gas abatement measures. Methanex--the company behind...

Low-tech exploration.
September 25, 2000... Finding oil and getting its products to market have intrigued us for about 150 years. The search, however, was not always as high-tech as it is now. Our industry began, of course, with Col. Drake and his famous well in 1859. The first...

Attention revives oil myths.
September 25, 2000... The world now glowers at oil. Prices of crude oil and petroleum products have reached unprecedented levels. Heavily taxed European consumers are protesting in various ways. Newspaper headline writers have rediscovered the phrase "oil crisis."...

E&P strategy prepares producers for 21st century.
September 25, 2000... The exploration and production industry has bred a set of established rules for success over the past several decades. Although many of the same challenges remain, the rules for addressing them may be changing. In fact, today's challenges...

Megamajors open door to China expansion plans.
September 25, 2000... Megamajors BP, ExxonMobil Corp., and Royal Dutch/Shell Group have signed separate strategic joint-venture agreements with China's state oil and petrochemical company, Sinopec Corp., to pave the way for their respective expansion plans in the...

A2D Technologies.
September 25, 2000... Humble, Tex., has named Butch Belcher business manager of the southwest region based in Midland, Tex. Belcher has been an A2D national account manager for the past 2 years in the Houston office. Previously, he was with Baker Hughes for 17...

US INDUSTRY SCOREBOARD -- 9/25.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

API IMPORTS OF CRUDE AND PRODUCTS.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

API CRUDE AND PRODUCT STOCKS.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

API REFINERY REPORT--SEPTEMBER 15, 2000.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

OGJ CRACK SPREAD.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

OGJ GASOLINE PRICES.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

REFINED PRODUCT PRICES.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

BAKER HUGHES RIG COUNT.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

SMITH RIG COUNT.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

New mechanical lip seal.
September 25, 2000... This new mechanical lip seal (MLS), designed for pumps in high viscosity applications, combines mechanical packing and a mechanical seal. Three interchangeable PTFE sealing elements can be replaced or repaired on-site, extending the longevity...

New casing cutters.
September 25, 2000... New clamshell casing cutters mount directly onto the OD of well casing, requiring minimal radial and axial clearance. Having a split-frame design, the NB casing cutters are compact and ultralight weight. The light weight allows fast and...

Product helps remove oil spills.
September 25, 2000... Petrotech, a nontoxic substance, encapsulates petroleum spills on contact. It is a natural, intensified, and accelerated hydrocarbon biodegradation process that mimics nature by encapsulating petroleum pollutants on contact. At the same...

Positioner compatible with many valves.
September 25, 2000... This firm has extended it's ND800 digital positioner technology so that it can be used in conjunction with other manufacturers' rotary or linear valves. The digital positioner provides monitoring for diagnostics and is capable of improving a...

CenterLine Geophysical.
September 25, 2000... has named George Dallas marketing/explorationist. Dallas was previously with GeoCenter. He has over 35 years' experience in geophysics and over 25 years in marketing seismic spec surveys and processing. He was owner and founder of Seismic...

RJM Corp.
September 25, 2000... Norwalk, Conn., has announced the formation of a new division, the Advanced Technologies Group, located in Norwalk, Conn. The newly formed group will be responsible for introducing new energy products and engineering solutions. RJM Corp....

Cammell Lairds Holdings PLC and Aker McNulty.
September 25, 2000... have announced a teaming agreement for offshore floating production conversion work. The two companies will work together on a joint marketing strategy focused on the resurgent FPSO, FUS, and FPU conversion market. Cammell Laird is a...

Parker Drilling Co.
September 25, 2000... Tulsa, Okla., has named Patrick Seals general manager of e-business, with responsibility to lead the online business initiative. Recently, Seals served as a US division marketing manager in Houston. Since joining Parker as an internal auditor...

Flowserve Corp.
September 25, 2000... Dallas, has named Howard D. Wynn president of Flowserve Corp. Pump Division. Wynn was formerly president of Flowserve's Rotating Equipment Division. Jim Quain was named vice-president and general manager of contractor sales and frontline...

Marathon consolidates US upstream sector, appoints new senior team.
September 25, 2000... Marathon Oil Co., a unit of USX Corp. unit USX-Marathon Group, Pittsburgh, plans to consolidate parts of its US upstream organization in an effort to cut costs by $75 million/year and provide the company the footing to expand its business...

Sunoco Inc.
September 25, 2000... * Sunoco Inc., Philadelphia, said Sept. 13 that high crude costs and oversupplied lubricant markets contributed to plans to sell a significant portion of its lubricant assets. The branded marketing assets offered for sale include the Kendall...

Baker Hughes Inc.
September 25, 2000... * Baker Hughes Inc. has signed a definitive agreement with Schlumberger Ltd. to create a seismic venture to be called Western GECO. The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed in May (OGJ Online, May 31, 2000). The transaction...

Novus Petroleum Ltd.
September 25, 2000... * Novus Petroleum Ltd., Sydney, issued an unsolicited detailed merger proposal to Petroz NL, Brisbane, Sept. 12. The Novus offer would allow Petroz shareholders to exchange 4.5 Petroz shares for one Novus share. Initially, on Sept. 14, Petroz...

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd.
September 25, 2000... * TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. closed the sale of its 17.5% interest in Oleoducto Central SA (OCENSA). TransCanada sold a 7.2% interest in OCENSA to Enbridge Inc. and a 10.3% interest to Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos (OGJ Online, May 4,...

Tosco Corp.
September 25, 2000... * Tosco Corp. has completed the purchase of the 250,000 b/d Alliance refinery in Louisiana from BP (OGJ Online, July 14, 2000). The purchase price was $660 million, plus hydrocarbon inventories.

Production at what cost?
September 25, 2000... Through the latter half of the 1990s, the UK North Sea offshore industry was eager to hold itself up as a shining example of a forward-looking business that had been streamlined by rigorous, if sometimes painful, cost-reduction practices. The...

Energy strategy.
September 25, 2000... American Petroleum Institute Pres. Red Cavaney says the US needs to open a discussion on drafting a national energy strategy. He told a National Association of State Energy Officials meeting in California that there is a widening gap...

San Joaquin basin is scene of new effort to evaluate EOR in Monterey.
September 25, 2000... An important new effort is under way to evaluate enhanced oil recovery through carbon dioxide flooding in the prolific Monterey formation of the San Joaquin basin, southern California. The combined reservoir characterization/pilot EOR...

Pressure-variable control system simplifies well testing in China.
September 25, 2000... A new low-cost measuring unit simplifies well testing in Chinese oil fields. Shengli Engineering & Research Institute (SERI) developed the new unit that is easy to operate and provides a large measurement range not influenced by pressure,...

Propellant perforating improves hydraulic frac treatment.
September 25, 2000... A combination of propellant and underbalanced tubing-conveyed perforating enhanced the hydraulic fracturing treatment of a well in the foothills of western Alberta. Petromet Resources Ltd., Calgary, Wild River No. 6-20 well had...

Tight schedule prompts staged start up for Viet Nam's first gas plant.
September 25, 2000... A very tight project schedule for which all equipment could not be supplied by the targeted start-up date led to a novel stepwise completion of the first natural gas-processing plant in Vietnam. The plan allowed for three successive modes...

Control-system improvements expand refinery processes.
September 25, 2000... Despite their often secondary consideration, process-control improvements can generate substantial benefits with little or no investment. Four examples from Koch Petroleum Group refineries show how poor process control significant...

Statoil completes hot tap, sends out first ethane from Karsto.
September 25, 2000... Norway's Statoil AS reported earlier this month that a hot-tap operation completed at the end of August has prepared the Statpipe gas trunkline for tie-in of an export line from its Gullfaks field in the Norwegian North Sea. In addition,...

Drilling crews receive pay raises, dayrates higher.
September 25, 2000... US drilling utilization has effectively approached full capacity because of increased natural gas demand, higher oil prices, and elevated spending levels by operators. As a result, contractors have begun to receive higher dayrates and...

Governments, operators eyeing effects of synthetic-based drilling fluids.
September 25, 2000... By yearend, rig operators in the UK Continental Shelf will have reduced to zero the discharge of their synthetic-based drilling fluid contaminated cuttings. To comply with government requirements, operators have had to reduce discharges...

Thermal system handles cuttings at Colombian site.
September 25, 2000... A thermal desorption process used by BP in Colombia has proven efficient and cost effective in treating oil-based-mud (OBM) drilled cuttings. Tuboscope subsidiary Brandt, Houston, specifically designed and customized its THOR (thermal...

OGJ PRODUCTION REPORT.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

U.S. CRUDE PRICES.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

WORLD CRUDE PRICES.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

AGA NATURAL GAS STORAGE [*].
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

WORLD OIL BALANCE.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

US PETROLEUM IMPORTS FROM SOURCE COUNTRY.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

OECD [*] NET OIL IMPORTS.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

OECD [*] IMPORTS FROM OPEC.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

OIL STOCKS IN OECD [*] COUNTRIES.
September 25, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

Correction.
September 25, 2000... Gulf of Mexico lease sale coverage wrongly referred to Occidental Petroleum Corp. as being the parent of Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd's unit CXY Energy Offshore Ltd. (OGJ, Sept. 4, 2000, p. 38). Occidental was never CXY's parent. It...

Australia.
September 25, 2000... Australian Geological Survey Organisation, Canberra, launched a 2-year project to inventory and document all depositional centers under Australian marine jurisdiction. AGSO's Petroleum and Marine Division will begin targeting particular...

Azerbaijan.
September 25, 2000... SOCAR and private Moncrief Oil Co., Fort Worth, reached an agreement on joint development of Kalameddin and Mishovdag oil fields. The fields, on the Shirvan steppe 120 km west of Baku, are believed to hold reserves of 20-30 million...

OPEC production boost: enough to quell prices?
September 18, 2000... For the third time this year, OPEC has agreed to boost production, but there is near-unanimity that the volumes offered won't suffice in the near term (see Editorial, related story on p. 28, and Watching the World, p. 29). After...

API: US crude production slump continues.
September 18, 2000... The US posted increases in almost all petroleum-related production, delivery, and inventory categories in August, said API, with the exception of US crude production and stocks, which fell for the month. US production of distillate, used...