Offshore

A Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System 24-inch line leak at theMustang Island 758 delivery point was confirmed Wednesday morning,causing the shut-in of 17 of the 24 producing blocks connected toMOPS. Shippers and operators were being notified around noonWednesday that the outage, affecting a total of 129,743 MMbtu/d,will last about seven days.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson last week announced the Clintonadministration will allow producers with offshore federal leases topay part of their royalties with oil for a limited time rather thanwith cash. With this action, DOE would draw down the oil oversupplythat has been depressing prices and provide some relief, if onlytemporarily, to small oil and gas producers. Richardson indicatedthe department will announce further initiatives this week to boostlagging oil and gas production in the United States.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson last week announced the Clintonadministration will allow producers with offshore federal leases topay part of their royalties with oil for a limited time rather thanwith cash. This action would help to draw down the oil oversupplythat has been depressing prices and provide some relief, if onlytemporarily, to small oil and gas producers. Richardson indicatedthe department will disclose further initiatives this week to boostlagging oil and gas production in the United States.

Well depletion rates in the Gulf of Mexico have reached astartling 38% this year and within the next three years could reach49%, according to a report by Houston-based Simmons & Co.International.

Leviathan Gas Pipeline Partners subsidiary Flextrend DevelopmentCo. bought a 100% working interest in the Sunday Silence field fromTatham Offshore Development, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DeepTechInternational, which was recently acquired by El Paso Energy. Thefield is contained within four blocks in the Ewing Bank area of theGulf of Mexico in about 1,500 feet of water. Flextrend has begundrilling of a new delineation well, the third to be drilled in thefield. Sunday Silence was discovered in July 1994, and its firstdelineation well was flow tested in September 1994 at a sustainedproduction rate of 8,700 barrels/d of oil and 5.4 MMcf/d of gas.Sunday Silence has received a royalty abatement from the MineralsManagement Service for its first 52.5 million Boe. ElÿPaso Energy,general partner of Leviathan, said the company plans to sell aportion of the field to a development partner as it is not thecompany’s custom to hold a large shares in single E&ampP ventures.

Crews were already starting to leave platforms Thursday in theMobile Bay area, but it was hard to tell from cash priceperformances, which ranged from flat to down about a nickel.Perhaps that was because virtually no shut-ins are occurring yet, aTexas trader suggested.

Just like a hurricane sends offshore rig crews to shore, atempest on the stock market can drive investors to the relativesafety of utility stocks. While many energy company stock pricesare buckling under the weight of the declining market, some utilitystocks are faring rather well, thank you. Duke Energy is anexample.

Westcoast Energy is leading an international consortium awardeda $250 million contract by Pemex Exploracion y Produccion (PEP) toconstruct and operate a 250 MMcf/d offshore gas compression andliquids recovery facility. The facility is to be located near theexisting Akal-GR platform in the Cantarell oil field in the Bay ofCampeche, Gulf of Mexico. The project will help to recover gas fordelivery into the Mexican national pipeline system, which is beingexpanded to meet the needs of new gas distribution concessions andpower generation plants.

Amoco plans to develop one of its largest gas discoveriesoffshore Trinidad and Tobago to serve future demand on the islandsand supply the Atlantic LNG export project in Trinidad.