BUSINESS BRIEFS

Marshall DeLuca
Houston

Kitina deck, quarters delivered

Smit Transport & Heavy Lift have delivered the integrated deck and accommodation module for Agip's new Kitina installation, offshore Congo. Smit mobilized the Giant 2 submersible transport vessel for the voyage from Ravenna, Italy to West Africa. The 6,000 ton deck was skidded onto the vessel along with a 365 ton, 26 meter by 21 meter accommodation module. The deck and accommodation were positioned on the Kitina jacket using the Saipem 7000 heavy crane vessel.

Shell uses Hydra-Lok for Gulf platforms

Oil States MCS has completed the manufacturing and testing of two 84-in. Hydra-Lok tools to be used in Shell's Salsa (Garden Banks 172 "B"), Spirit (Viosca Knoll 780), and Cinnamon (Green Canyon 89) platform installations in the Gulf of Mexico. The Hydra-Lok uses hydraulic pressure to form the permanent pile-to-jacket connection instead of grouting for platform jacket installation. The tool was manufactured and tested at the OSMCS Barrow-in-Furness facility.

Contracts

Alluvial Mining was recently subcontracted by Azeri Fugro (a joint venture between Fugro and SOCAR - the state oil company of Azerbaijan), to perform a coring program in the Caspian Sea on behalf of BP/Statoil and Exxon using their "Abrams-Exxon" coring system on-board the Svetlomor 2 vessel.

Leica GPS has been awarded a contract from the Australian Maritime Society Authority for four differential GPS beacon stations which will augment the existing DGPS beacon network previously installed by Leica.

Shell UK Exploration has awarded ClampOn a contract to supply sand measurement equipment to the Shell Brent field.

China Offshore Geophysical has commissioned Sonardyne for a seismic integrated positioning system for use on the Nan Hai 502 survey vessel.

Signet, a maritime shipping group, has been awarded an affreightment contract with Strachan Shipping for the transport of flat steel fabrication plate from Europe for use in manufacture of rigs and equipment for J. Ray McDermott.

PGS Exploration has selected DigiCOURSE to supply acoustic positioning systems on the Ramform Viking and Ramform Valiant vessels.

Boots & Coots International Well Control has signed a Framework Agreement with Shell International Exploration and Production to provide well control services for the Dutch/Shell Group.

Advanced Recyclable Media Systems, a developer of soft media blasting technologies for surface treatment, has entered into a distribution agreement with Bob Schmidt Inc. of Houston.

TransCoastal Marine Services has signed a long-term lease for an 18-acre manufacturing facility where it will perform fabrication work, primarily for deepwater oil and gas developments, located on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal in eastern New Orleans, Louisiana.

People

Tuskar Resources has announced that Arve Johnson has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the company.

Global Industries has appointed Michael J. McCann as the company's Chief Financial Officer.

MODEC has announced that Bob Machen has joined the company's Board of Directors and will be active in other capacities in the company including strategy formulation and implementation.

Randy Stilley has been appointed Senior Vice President of Weatherford Enterra's Oilfield Services Group.

Mustang Engineering has announced that Dr. Farrel Zwerneman has joined the company as Manager of the newly organized Technology Development Group.

Alliance Engineering has announced the appointments of Don Moore as Procurement Manager, James Moore as Project Manager, and Hokan Linden as Database Manager.

Mark Hope of Enterprise Oil (London) has been named Chairman of the Association of British Independent Oil Exploration Companies (BRINDEX).

Norwegian offshore contractor Umoe is backing a new company in the UK called Offshore Production Management (Guildford) announces the following appointments: Dick Smith as Chief officer and Managing Director, Mike Johnson as Commercial Director, and Dick West as Technical and Operations Director.

The 73rd International School of Hydrocarbon Measurement has named Dr. Wesley G. Poynter as the recipient of the 1998 Laurence S. Reid Award for his contributions to the measurement and control of hydrocarbon fluids.

Kværner Masa-Yards (Helsinki) has appointed Pekka Laitto President and COO, Kaj Liljestrand as Executive Vice-President, marketing and sales, and Seppo Kuosa as Senior Vice-President and yard manager of the Helsinki New Shipyard.

Howard Walker is Baker Hughes Process Systems' new Aberdeen-based Sales Manager.

Wood Group Engineering (Aberdeen) has named Gordon Stirling as its new Managing Director for engineering projects.

Terrance Bruggeman has been elected to the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Diversa. The board of the company has also elected Jay M. Short to Executive Vice President and Kathleen Van Sleen to Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Aase-Britt Borsheim of Statoil has become head of The Norwegian Underwater Technology Centre (Stavanger), replacing John Oen, now Platform Manager on Statoil's Veslefrikk Field.

Ziff Energy has appointed Verne Johnson to President, and promoted founder Paul Ziff to Chief Executive Officer.

The University of Aberdeen has appointed Paul Davidson as Senior Lecturer in Engineering, specializing in structural design.

Jon Moreau has been promoted to marketing manager at Joskoot Autocontrol (Tunbridge Wells, UK).

Terry J. Filthaut has been appointed as Vice President of Technology for Bell Geospace and will be responsible for field operations and geoscience.

Ingersoll-Rand has named David W. Devonshire Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Marathon Ashland Petroleum, a joint venture of Marathon Oil and Ashland, has appointed Gary Heminger Vice President of Business Development, and Clifford Cook to Vice President Operations Planning and Product Supply.

Jack Chance was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NEHI Petroleum.

Dennis A. Kunetka was named Chief Financial Officer of Tatham Offshore.

Richard D. Kinder was elected a director of KN Energy.

Offshore Energy Center has elected Lester Mallory, Jr., President and CEO of Serengeti International to Chairman of the Board; and James Payne, President, Chairman, and CEO of Santa Fe Energy Resources, to Vice Chairman.

Robert Olsen succeeded Charles Fields as Managing Director of Esso Australia.

Hans Ryckborst was named General Director, Gabon Operations, of Vanco Energy.

Bill St. John was named Manager, Exploration Research, of Vanco Energy.

T. Scott O'Keefe was named Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Marine Drilling.

Electrical submersible pump specialist Centrilift (Aberdeen) has recruited Tim Eley as Regional Manager for the North Sea and mainland Europe.

Dynamic Graphics has announced a South American expansion with the appointment of Franck Lemaire as Business Development Manager for that region.

James Buccigross, General Counsel for the National Registry of Capacity Rights, has been elected to the Gas Industry Standards Board's Executive Committee.

David Archer has been appointed as President and CEO of the Petrochemical Open Software Corporation.

Paul Koszela was named Manager, Project Engineers, of Paragon Engineering Services.

Dimitri Houliarakis has been appointed Vice President - Eastern Region for ABS Europe.

Lee Winchell has joined Cougar Directional Services as Operations Manager.

Carl Sikes was named Manager, Engineering, of Paragon Engineering Services.

Bill Oliver has been named Managing Director of pressure relief bursting discs manufacturer Elfab (North Shields, UK).

Barry D. Lasker was named Chief Executive Officer of GHP Exploration.

Jack Bryant was named Vice President, Exploration and Development, of American Resources Offshore.

Jonathan Garrett was named Vice President, Engineering, of American Resources Offshore.

GeoGraphix has named Richard Slack as Vice President of Marketing.

Pearpoint, a provider of video inspection systems, has appointed Maurice Lubbock to the position of President of Operations.

Regal International has named David Hanson as the Sales Manager for its Marine Products Division.

Consler Filtration Products has announced the Leonard Orsini has joined the company as Director of Sales and Marketing.

Syntron has appointed Richard F. Miles to President of GeoScience and Syntron, Guy Malden to Vice President of Marine/OBC, Jim Spackman to Vice President of Technology, and Sam Bull to Vice President of Business Development.

The "Downhole Service Specialist" division of Twachtman Snyder & Byrd will be under the management of Max Martin.

3DX Technologies has announced the appointment of Ronald P. Nowak as Vice President of Exploration.

Mergers, acquisitions, & new companies

Dailey International has completed the acquisition of Directional Wireline Services, DAMCO Tong Services, and DAMCO Services, all located in Houma, Louisiana.

Smith International and Wilson Industries, operating as Wilson Supply and Houston Engineers, have signed a definitive agreement providing for the combination of the two companies.

UK-based Tronic Limited have formed a new division called Tronic Inc. to serve the company's US-based customers.

Howco, a materials management group, has agreed to a $2.5 million takeover of Energy-Alloy PTE of Singapore to enter the Far East oil sector.

John E. Chance and EnSoCo have entered into an exclusive cooperating agreement to introduce an ocean bottom seismic and transition zone integrated navigation and processing system that is a combination of Chance's STARFIX.Nav system and EnSoCo's Source Receiver Location System.

Triconex, a supplier of safety and critical control solutions, and Shell Oil have signed an alliance agreement formalizing their partnership. Triconex is now a preferred supplier to Shell.

Transcoastal Marine Services has acquired a 29-acre deepwater shipyard in New Orleans at the NASA Michoud Complex in order to expand its capabilities to fabricate and refurbish rigs and production facilities.

Newpark Drilling Fluids has entered into an agreement with Anchor Drilling Fluids to acquire assets of Anchor's Gulf Coast operations.

Union Pacific Resources Group has agreed to acquire Norcen Energy Resources for $2.6 billion in cash.

Union Texas Petroleum Holdings will acquire all the stock of Compania Occidental de Hidrocarburos, an affiliate of Occidental Oil & Gas. Compania Occidental operates the Desarrollo Zulia Occidental unit located on the western edge of the Maracaibo Basin in Venezuela.

Cooper Cameron Corporation has reached an agreement to acquire the outstanding stock of privately held Orbit Valve International for approximately $100 million in cash.

Garber Industries and companies Offshore Casing Crews, Offshore Hammers, and Laydown Service, have combined services under the name Offshore Energy Services.

Information Handling Services Group has purchased Petroleum Information/Dwights, which owns a database on more than 2.9 million oil and gas wells.

ABB Lummus Global and Odebrecht-SLP Engineering announced a cooperation agreement for engineering, procurement, and construction projects in the UK Continental Shelf and Brazil.

Sands Petroleum's takeover bid for International Petroleum Corp. was completed with acquisition of 95.5% of IPC's outstanding common shares.

GulfMark Offshore will make a cash offer of $26.7 million ($3.07/share) to acquire the 8.7 million outstanding shares of Brovig Supply, a Norwegian support vessel firm.

NKK has announced that it has concluded a sales tie-up with Siderca of Argentina and Tamsa of Mexico for the licensing of NKK-developed premium joints for seamless drilling tubulars.

Ponder Industries completed the acquisition of Fishing Tools for $6.5 million in cash and 644,496 shares of Ponder common stock.

Fugro Global Environmental & Ocean Sciences acquired the Oceanographic Consultancy division of Paras; the division will operate as SEADATA.

Tyco International has announced the addition of Keystone International, a designer and manufacturer of industrial valves, actuators used to control the flow of liquids and gases, to its Flow Control Group.

Haegglunds Drives, a leader in hydraulic drive systems, has been acquired by Atle of Sweden for UK$25 million.

Company news

American Oilfield Divers has adopted Ceanic as its new trade name and plans, pending shareholder approval, to change its corporate name to Ceanic Corporation.

The Institution of Engineers Australia presented the Sir William Hudson award to the East Spar Gas Field Development Alliance.

Newpark Marine Fabricators has reopened the Todd Shipyard Facility on Pelican Island in Galveston, Texas.

Twachtman Snyder & Byrd has expanded its core business of platform decommissioning and well P&A to include the management of well completion, work over, and well servicing.

TMI Communications has announced plans to serve the entire US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and up to 250 miles offshore with wireless digital data, voice, fax and dispatch radio services using MSAT(R).