Companies in the news

BP Amoco signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) with Angolan state oil company Sonangol for deepwater Block 31 in the Lower Congo basin. As operator, the company plans to initiate exploration activities shortly. One of the partners is Exxon Corp.’s Angolan affiliate Esso, which has also signed for Blocks 32 and 33. Each block covers more than 1.2 million acres. Water depths range between 5,000 and 8,000 ft.

Paramount Resources Ltd., and partner Berkley Petroleum Corp., tested sweet natural gas at rates up to 45 MMcfd from three separate intervals in the Liard F-36. The Liard basin, British Columbia, well encountered about 300 ft of net pay in the Mississippian Mattson formation. Initial well tests and mapping indicate that the trap could contain marketable gas reserves of at least 250 Bcf.

Ocean Energy, Inc. sold its Canadian subsidiary to Quintana Minerals Canada for $63 million and will use the proceeds to reduce debt. Ocean Energy plans further asset rationalizations that should bring the total for 1999 to $200 million.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) began construction of the marine terminal for the 900-mi crude oil pipeline between Western Kazakhstan and the Russian port of Novorossiysk. Chevron Corp., the largest company shareholder in CPC, expects the line to be completed in mid-2001, with an initial export capacity of 560,000 bopd. With upgrades, the line should reach 1.5 million bopd. The line will serve Tengiz field, among others, which currently produces 215,000 bopd.

Bouygues Offshore agreed to purchase Kvaerner (France) and all its subsidiaries, except for Kvaerner Heurtey (France), Kvaerner Heurtey Italiana, PT Kvaerner Indonesia and Sofresid Thailand. The $48-million purchase is aimed at strengthening Bouygues’ worldwide turnkey services.

Eni’s Agip Algeria Exploration and Sonatrach signed two production sharing agreements. The first covers Block 403d, part of a larger block where the companies already operate several fields producing some 43,000 bopd. The second block, 222b, is adjacent to discoveries made earlier by Sonatrach and equipped with production facilities. Both blocks are south of Algiers in the Sahara Desert.

A strategic alliance has been formed by Deutag UK Ltd. and Northland Energy Corp. to provide a single source for fully integrated underbalanced drilling services. Combined experience of the two partners include more than 2,000 underbalanced drilling projects around the world.

Petris Technology, a Houston-based data access and management company, has opened an office in Irving, Texas. The office will service Dallas, Fort Worth, parts of East Texas and West Texas and Oklahoma.

The UK Department of Trade and Industry has approved the development plan submitted by Enterprise Oil covering Cook field in the central North Sea. Located in UK Block 21/20a, Cook field is in 310 ft of water about 110 mi east of Aberdeen. First oil is expected during second-half 2000 at about 10,000 bopd, peaking at 20,000 bopd in 2001. The plan calls for two subsea production wells.

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Copyright © 1999 Gulf Publishing Company