Occidental Planning a New Power Unit Addition in California

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Occidental of Elk Hills, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) (Los Angels California), is studying the feasibility of installing a new 22-megawatt power unit at its Elk Hills gas production field located in the San Joaquin Basin in California. The present scope of the new addition will include a single LM2500 and a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) in a simple cycle configuration.

The waste heat produced by the turbine and cycled through the HRSG will be utilized for both plant uses and field Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) testing. Occidental of Elk Hills is currently testing numerous technologies for EOR at the field as a forerunner for a ten year plan to implement a field wide EOR plan. KBR Engineering & Construction (Houston Texas) a unit of Halliburton presently operates the Elk Hills Field and is proposing to begin construction on the new unit in the second quarter of 2004. No equipment or services for the project have been purchased at press time.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation purchased the government's 78 percent interest in the field in 1998 for $3.5 billion, which at that time was one of the largest government privatizations. In 2001, the proven reserves of the field were estimated at over 438 million BOE and natural gas sales flowed at 325 mmscfd. The Elk Hills facility comprises over 1,000 wells, two oil-water separation plants and three large gas processing trains. Occidental is one of the world's largest independent oil & gas exploration and production companies with major North American chemical assets.