CAPITAL: AMSTERDAM
MONETARY UNIT: GUILDER
REFINING CAPACITY: 1,203,842 B/CD
OIL PRODUCTION: 51,300 B/D
OIL RESERVES: 107 MILLION BBL
GAS RESERVES: 62 tcf

Gulf Canada Resources Ltd.'s subsidiary Clyde Petroleum Exploratie BV brought Dutch North Sea Q4-A gas field on stream via a renovated platform.

Gulf said it was the first time in the region's history that a field had been produced through a "completely refurbished" installation.

Well Q4-9, which opened the field in July 1999, was flowing 48.5 MMcfd, with production exported via the Clyde-operated P6-A processing facilities.

Two development wells were planned. Gulf said Q4-B field, a 1998 discovery 7 km southeast of Q4-A, would be developed via the platform, with first gas expected in the second half of 2002.

Gulf Canada had a gas discovery on Block P9. The P9-9 flowed 11 MMcfd of gas from a 10-m perforated interval. The find was 10 km from Gulf-operated pipeline and processing facilities.

Gulf Canada had a 56.4% interest, Erdol-Erdgas Gommern Netherlands BV 19.9%, Dyas BV 19%, and Holland Sea Search BV 4.7%.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Calgary, sold its Netherlands assets to GDF International SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gaz de France, for $332.9 million.

The sale, part of TransCanada's business refocusing program, included interests in seven offshore gas producing licenses, an offshore gas pipeline system, and a gas treatment plant.

Shell Nederland Chemie BV began construction of a 100,000-tonne/year propylene oxide glycol ether plant at Pernis. The plant would make propylene glycol monomethyl ether, dipropylene glycol monomethyl ether, and propylene glycol monoethyl ether, some of which would be esterified to form acetates. The plant was due on stream at the end of 2001.

The plant was next to a facility producing 55,000 tonnes/year of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide glycol ethers. Existing styrene monomer-propylene oxide plants in Moerdijk would supply feedstock to the Pernis plant. Those plants were operated by Basell (a 50-50 joint venture of Shell and BASF AG that produced 250,000 tonnes/year of propylene oxide and 565,000 tonnes/year of styrene monomer) and a wholly owned Shell unit producing 200,000 tonnes/year of PO and 440,000 tonnes/year of styrene monomer.

Norsk Hydro and Dutch energy service firm NV Delta Nutsbedrijven formed a joint venture to build a gas-fired power plant in Zeeland. The combined-cycle Zepower Project would cost $203.7 million. It would supply 70 Mw to a fertilizer plant.

Endesa agreed to pay $377 million for Dutch electricity distributor NV Nutsbedrijf Regio Eindhoven and gas distributor NV Gasbedrijf Regio Eindhoven. The city of Eindhoven owned the companies.

Duke Energy International, a unit of Duke Energy Corp., planned to buy Mobil Europe Gas Inc., a gas marketer operating in the Netherlands, from ExxonMobil Corp. The subsidiary would be known as Duke Energy International Netherlands Trading & Marketing BV.