People
Willbros Group has electedRobert R. Harl and Edward J. DiPaolo to its board of directors. DiPaolo fills the position of Gerald J. Maier, who has retired from his position as director. Harl was re-elected to the board.
Willbros Group has namedSteve W. Shores as VP of its upstream business segment.
Hess Corp. has appointedMichael R. Turner as VP for global production with responsibility for Europe and Asia. Turner will succeed George Sandison, who becomes Sr. VP for global E&P services, with responsibility for global drilling, supply chain, and environment, health and safety, and social responsibility.
Knight Oil Tools has namedDiana Gary as special projects manager for accounting and finance. Gary has more than 20 years of public accounting experience in various disciplines with a concentration in the oil and gas industry.
Enterprise Engineering Services has appointedAndrew Scott as MD.
Fred P. Hochberg has been sworn in as the 23rd president of the Export-Import Bank of the US, the nation’s official export credit agency.
GlobaLogix has appointedHoracio Tinoco as director of sales for Latin America. Tinoco was previously VP of business plans and controls at Implicit Solutions Group, where he designed and implemented a channel partner program for Latin America.
PPG protective and marine coatings has appointedMichael T. Hartings as GM for the US and Canada. Hartings was previously GM for PPG coatings Malaysia, where he led the automotive and industrial coatings businesses in Southeast Asia.
Trelleborg CRP has appointedBrian McSharry president. McSharry was previously with Ammeraal Beltech. He has engineering and manufacturing experience across aerospace, automotive, optical, and retail businesses, as well as the oil and gas industry.
Royal Dutch Shell has appointedPeter Voser as CEO. The company has also appointed Marvin Odum as director for Upstream Americas, Malcolm Brinded as executive director of Upstream International, and Matthias Bichsel as director of Projects and Technology.
Linda Cook has resigned as executive director of Royal Dutch Shell. She has been with Shell for 29 years.
CygNet Software has appointedTom Ordes as director of its pipeline market. Ordes has 28 years of experience in the oil and gas enterprise automation market.
Ikon Science has appointedDr. Angus McCoss as a non-executive director. McCoss, a geologist, is exploration director of Tullow Oil Plc.
Alliance Wood Group Engineering has appointedEdmund-Hugo Lunde as COO and Dan Dutherage as VP of business development and marketing.
Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA has appointedRoar Bekker as CEO.
Oil & Gas UK appointedGerry Borghesi, joint interest manager of UK/Netherlands at ExxonMobil, as a major oil companies’ representative. The company also appointed Mark McAllister, Fairfield Energy’s CEO, to a
Eliokem has appointedAndrea Valenti as global oilfield chemicals and coatings business manager. He will continue his position as global marketing manager for oilfield chemicals.
Wood Group has appointedCinzia De Santis as group head of health, safety, and the environment, and Phil Ley as group head of safety.
Ausclad Group has appointedPaola Webb as group business improvement/quality manager. Webb has more than 12 years of experience in the engineering and construction industry including management positions with the Halliburton Group and Clough Ltd.
Foster Wheeler has appointedRoberto Penno as MD of global sales, marketing, and
Victaulic has appointedGrady Wilkerson as VP of sales. Wilkerson was previously a US divisional manager for the company. He has worked for Victaulic for almost 30 years.
Rodney Gray will serve as the CFO and executive VP of Cobalt International Energy, L.P.
Noble Denton has appointedGraeme Reid as regional MD for the UK and Kazakhstan.
The T&T Bisso Response Network has namedMirian Castillo as operations assistant for its salvage and emergency response group.
Freddy Gebhardt was named president of Wild Well Control. Since 2005, Gebhardt has served as the company’s executive VP and GM.
Prospect has appointedLisa Wilson as VP of its USA business. From her base in
Marsh has appointedNabil Khawaja to lead its Global Energy Practice’s London-based offshore construction team.
Narong Boonyasaquan has retired as MD of CUEL Ltd. Boonyasaquan became CUEL’s MD in April 2004.
RWE Dea Egypt has appointedHans-Hermann Ecke as GM. Ecke succeeds Hans-Hermann Andreae.
Expro has appointedGavin Prise as CEO. He replaces Graeme Coutts, who has been named executive chairman. Peter Goode, who was appointed non-executive chairman for the initial phase of the privatization of Expro, will step down from this role, but will continue to participate on the board as a non-executive director.
TAM International has appointedJohn Robinson as director of manufacturing. Robinson is tasked with implementing manufacturing programs, setting policy, and overseeing strategic planning for the departments of Quality, IT, Purchasing, and Manufacturing.
National Oilwell Varco has appointedHege Kverneland as corporate VP and chief technology officer. Kverneland succeeds Bob Bloom who is retiring after 40 years with the company.
Company News
Gulf Technical and Safety Training Centre (GTSC) has launched an operational training well at its Mussaffah, Abu Dhabi base, the first to be constructed in the Middle East.
Total E&P UK has awarded Bristow Helicopters a contract to supply shuttle services between the Safe CaledoniaI flotel and the Franklin platform in the central North Sea.
Husky Oil China has awarded WorleyParsons a FEED contract for the Liwan 3-1 area development in the South China Sea.
Apache North Sea has awarded EnerMech a three-year, $9.3-million crane and maintenance services contract. The scope covers all of Apache’s assets in the Forties field in the UK North Sea.
Oranje-Nassau has signed an agreement to sell its oil and gas activities to a Dyas-led consortium composed of ONH, Dyas UK, and a Japanese international trading and investment firm. The net price for the transaction is $866 million.
Ausclad Group has acquired Perth-based Modern Access Services (MAS) for $12 million. MAS provides access services for construction and maintenance programs on major projects in the resources, oil and gas, and industrial sectors.
Schlumberger has acquired Techsia SA, a supplier of petrophysical software. Techsia will continue to operate under its own name.
ASCO Freight Management has opened a new base in Singapore.
Petrobras Oil and Gas has agreed to farm into exploration block 2714A offshore southern Namibia. The block is one of eight operated off Namibia by Chariot Oil & Gas, and covers an area of 5,481 sq km (2,116 sq mi) in the southern Orange basin.
Faroe Petroleum is exchanging various field interests in the Norwegian North Sea with DONG Energy E&P Norge. DONG will take Faroe’s 10% stake in the Trym gas field, currently seeking development approval. In exchange, Faroe gains 9.3% and 1.86% shares respectively in the producing Glitne and Enoch oil fields.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) has pre-qualifiedSpring Energy as an operator on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Invensys Process Systems (IPS) has opened a North Caspian service center in Atyrau, Kazakhstan.
Premier Oil has issued a tender for a rig to drill development and exploration wells on its West Lobe and Anoa Deep fields offshore Indonesia.
Premier Oil expects to complete its $505 million acquisition of Oilexco North Sea Ltd. (ONSL) by the end of May. Production from the ONSL fields in the UK sector is currently around 13,000 boe/d, and the process of assimilating the ONSL operations into Premier is under way.
Total E&P UK has started basic engineering studies for its Laggan-Tormore project west of Shetland. The Laggan and Tormore fields provide one of the UK’s largest undeveloped gas resources.
Drydocks World has added two new berths to its facility, increasing its conversion capacity. The new FPSO quay is on the lee face of the main breakwater, with a total length of 668 m (2,191 ft) and a dredged depth of –11m DMD (Chart Datum) over a length of 630 m (2,067 ft).
FoundOcean has formed a joint venture with Process Measurement and Control (PMAC) Systems, an Aberdeen-based company involved in cathodic protection inspection.
Agip KCO has awarded Aker Solutions and Saipem two contracts for hook-up work on the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea. One contract includes the offshore hook-up, commissioning assistance, onshore pre-fabrication, all logistic support, and inshore hook-up work for Phase I development of the field. The other contract includes engineering and job carding for prefabrication and installation and vessels preparation.
Norwest has agreed to sell its North Sea assets to Silverstone Energy for $1.8 million. The assets comprise a 25% interest in the Cobra gas discovery and Norwest’s interest in several exploration licenses in the Inner Moray Firth.
Noble Denton has moved into a new office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The office provides engineering and consultancy for FPSOs/FPUs, subsea transportation and installation, marine surveying, risk and project management, marine operations, and HSE.
Eni Norge is applying for concession to construct and operate an electric cable link between mainland Norway and the Goliat field production facility in the Barents Sea.
Aker has purchased 11,797,752 shares (18% stake) in Det norske oljeselskap ASA (Det norske).
Chevron Energy Technology Co. has contracted WorleyParsonsIntecSeafor facilities engineering services for the current phase of the Rosebank project.
Proserv Offshore has launched Proserv Energy, a new division offering decommissioning services. Initially targeted at the US market, Proserv Energy will take over offshore assets earmarked for decommissioning, assuming the risks and responsibilities of planning, project managing, budgeting, and execution.
RWE Dea AG has agreed with Fairfield Energy to farm-in on the undeveloped Clipper South gas field in the southern British North Sea.
J P Kenny is to carry out front-end engineering design of the pipeline, umbilicals, risers, and flowlines for the INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG project in Western Australia’s Browse basin. MCS is designing the dynamic riser system.
AMEC has selected Aker Solutions as a subcontractor for the offshore facilities front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the Ichthys project off northwestern Australia.
Endeavour International Corp. has closed the sale of its Norwegian subsidiary, Endeavour Energy Norge, to VNG-Verbundnetz Gas AG for $150 million.
Petronas Carigali will exercise its purchase option over the FSO Oguzhan and mobile offshore production unit operating offshore Turkmenistan.
Venture Production’s capital program for this year is focused on exploration drilling to prove up new gas reserves in the UK southern North Sea.
Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry andEni have agreed on new joint initiatives to develop hydrocarbon reserves. These include an extension of the license for the Belayim oil field in the Gulf of Suez, which Eni operates, for a further 10 years through 2030.
Delta Engineering Corp. will now be known as Delcor USA.
Electromagnetic Geoservices’ vessel fleet will be reduced temporarily from three to two vessels. These actions will result in 29 temporary layoffs, 28 redundancies, and four consultancy contracts being terminated, the company says.
Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corp. has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Addax Petroleum for $7.2 billion. The acquisition is subject to government approval. Canadian law firm Fasken Martineau is advising Addax in the transaction
Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) has begun construction on a marine supply base in Porto Amboim, Angola. The base is expected to become operational in June 2010 and will support the offshore transport and installation activities for the block 31 development and other offshore energy projects in the future, the company says. The base will consist of a quay, which will be protected by a breakwater. It will also be equipped with two crawler cranes, four wheel loaders, and two forklifts.
