The Daily Advertiser from Lafayette, Louisiana • 30

30 Advertiser, Lafayette, June 10, 19(2 Oft AND CAS JOURNAL REPORTS U.S. Product Stocks Low, Refiner Outlook Up oil and gas news from the university of southwestern louisiana -7 jet fuel. firm. 'That means modest improvements in For now, "We will see improved prices," refiners margins, but it's not going to take says a refining analyst at an engineering them back to the good old eBBBBMOoeooogoBBBBOCJuuHOBBrjuuoonnfaooo expecting further product price improvements relative to crude costs, have boosted their operating rates recently to almost 70 percent of total capacity. According to the U.S.

Energy Information Administration, crude runs averaged 12 million barrels a day during the week ending May 21, the highest rate so far this year. If the trend cntinues, U.S. refiners could recover some of the financial ground they have lost since the late 1970s as a result of declining demand and increasing crude oil costs, the Journal says. Increasing capacity utilization rates will lower unit operating costs. Netbacks to refiners already have improved.

Continuation of the improvement depends on how much product prices increase, on demand for products the rest of the year, and on the degree to which refiners rebuild inventories. Some of that hinges on economic recovery, but a more critical factor-and a key to economic recovery itself-will be interest rates, which remain stubbornly high. And in the longer term, demand will be governed by trends already in effect: declines for gasoline, the traditional growth product, and increases only for diesel and TULSA U.S. refiners are at a crossroads as they enter the driving season of the fourth consecutive year of declining petroleum products demand, 07 A Gas Journal reports in its June 7 issue. Since the second quarter of 1981 they have trimmed products inventories to 371.1 million barrels, a level so low that spot gasoline shortages are considered possible this summer, the weekly business magazine savs.

But crude stocks of 367.1 million barrels are at comfortable levels, and refiners have plenty of spare distillation capacity. Crude runs since the beginning of the year have languished at less than 70 percent of the nation's 18.3 million barrels a day of refining capacity. The question confronting refiners is whether it will be profitable to increase refinery operations to meet demand and rebuild products stocks. Recent signs point toward improvement in refining economics. Products prices have strengthened, largely in response to a surprising demand spurt that began late in the first quarter.

To meet that demand, refiners further drained inventories. And crude prices appear to be stabilizing at $33-34 a barrel. Refiners, apparently vS yf I iff 1 -t SUN CONTRIBUTES TO itsi. Paul Kessinger, USL geology de-oartment head. With them are Dr Rav GEOLOGY The USL geology de Authement, USL president, and Grace Nunez, Sun human resources representative.

Dallas area Sun operatng units participating in the faculty improvement program are Sun Exploration, Sun Gas and Sun Production-Divisions of Sun Exploration and Production Company. partment nas received tne second of two grants of $4,250 from the Sun Exploration and Production Company. The money will aid USL improving its geology faculty, or in training graduate students whose aim is teaching geology. Ken King, right, Sun district geologist, presents the grant to Dr. FROM COLORADO TO WEST TEXAS T7T MiCi Vitii tion Awards program director Ed Zern, a nationally-known outdoors writer.

Gulf Oil gives the awards annually to 10 professional and 10 citizen conservationists for their contributions to preserving renewable OPELOUSAS MAN AWARDED James E. Lee, Gulf Oil Chairman, left), presents a 1982 Gulf Oil Conservation Award to Richard M. Hollier, of Opelousas, at a recent dinner honoring the awardees in Washington, D.C. Looking on is Conserva Continental, Shell, Mobil To Join In Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Project OQOOflOQOOOQQOQflQCOQQQOOeOOBQeQQOQBQOCC the field's prodctive life by an estimated 25 to 30 years. The Cortez Pipeline will cost approximately $700 million.

Construction is expected to start in mid-1982, and the pipeline is scheduled to be in operation by mid-1984. The line has capacity to carry enough carbon dioxide for sale to other oil recovery projects in the West Texas Continental Resources, which recently moved its headquarters to Houston, Texas, from Winter Park, Florida, is a diversified energy company engaged in natural gas transmission, oil and gas exploration, and hydrocarbons extraction. Continental Group is an international packaging, forest products, insurance and energy company. Domestic Oil, Gas Reserves Of U.S. Majors Declined GRANTED James A.

Watt, general manager, southeast division of Union Texas Oil, presents USL President Ray Authement and Dr. Rexford C. Hauser, dean of the College of Business Administration, with a $3,000 grant to the College of Business Administration. The grant will be used for faculty development and other educational purposes. STAMFORD, Connecticut Continental Group announced today that its energy unit, Continental Resources Company, will participate with Shell Oil Company and Mobil Oil Corp.

in the construction and ownership of a 500-mile pipeline that will transport carbon dioxide from Colorado to West Texas. The carbon dioxide will be injected into the undergrond formations of an old oil field to revive the field's declining oil production. Continental Resources will have a 13 percent ownership interest in the project, to be known as the Cortez Pipeline. Shell, the major partner, will own 50 percent and Mobil will have the remaining 37 percent. The 30-inch-diameter pipeline will connect two carbon dioxide production fields in the McElmo Dome and Doe Canyon areas near Cortez, in southwestern Colorado, with the Denver Unit of the Wasson Field, near Denver City, Texas.

Injection of carbon dioxide into the 46-year-old field in a tertiary-recovery process is expected to produce about 280 million barrels of oil at the Denver Unit that would not otherwise be recovered, and to extend operating in the U.S. who drilled the majority of domestic exploration and development wells, the weekly oil and gas industry magazine reported. U.S. gross additions of oil and gas reserves from exploratory drilling from 1978 to 1980 were 11.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent; the 26 firms Pirinc polled accounted for 5.1 billion bbl, or 43 percent of the total. NEW YORK The major oil companies drilled only 11 percent of all domestic exploratory wells in 1979 and 1980, but accounted for 45 percent of crude oil and 42 percent of natural gas reserve additions from exploratory drilling, according to a study of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, Inc.

reported on in a recent issue of Petroleum Information Internationalmagazine. Pirinc compared the drilling results of the 26 largest integrated oil companies ranging from Exxon and Texaco to Murphy Oil and Champlin Petroleum with those of the hundreds of independent producers $69,900 2 BR, 2 BA geologist and Rodney Schwertner, a Brick Cedar PENNZOIL CHECK Walter P. Kessinger, head of the University of Southwestern Louisiana geology department, accepts a $1,000 check from Wing-on Chu, district exploration 1981 graduate and a geologist. Both represent Pennzoil. The donation will fund a scholarship for a USL geology student in the 1982-83 school year.

X-U A i'ONBA 12.95 Int. Call 988-4690 LAFAYETTE'S NEWEST FINE RESTAURANT HWY. 89, SOUTH OF PINH00K ROAD Luncheon 11 to 2 Dinner 6 to 10 Daily Saturday Dinner 6 to 10 Closed Sunday It your day goes wrong, your night will go right at La Fonda. head of the USL petroleum engineering department; and Dr. Kay Autnement, center, USL president.

Petroleum Technology is a two-year associate degree program within the petroleum engineering department. French said that he foresees considerable job openings for students with this PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY SCHOLARSHIP Danny French, human resources manager for the Lafayette office of Sun Gas Company, presents a $300 check which will fund a scholarship in petroleum technology at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Accepting the contribution are Dr. Asadollah Hayatdavoudi, left, ETMANOL HELPING SOLVE AMERICA'S DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL? E. F.

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