BUSINESS BRIEFS

CGG has appointedC. Richard Price to the position of director 3D Marine within the company’s Offshore SBU. Price will be responsible for the strategic direction, technology, and operations of CGG’s recently expanded 3D marine acquisition business.

Eric Johnson is the new VP of marketing for the Halliburton Energy Services Group (ESG). Previously, he served as the Director of Strategic Marketing for ESG.

Patrick and Karmous

Patriot Mechanical Handling Inc. has added to its senior management teamCharles Patrick as VP of products and rig packages. Patrick will oversee equipment specifications, engineering and all facets of project management for their products and drilling packages. Kal Karmous has joined Patriot as VP of operations. Karmous is responsible for building the company’s production capacity and leads the operational management team. Tim Myers has been selected as VP of marketing and sales and will lead the global sales force. George Taggart is the new VP of business development and will direct all aspects of the Global Aftersales Group, including parts, service, training, overhaul and repair, and installation and commissioning.

Endeavour International Corp. has namedWilliam L. Transier chairman, CEO and president of the company, and John N. Seitz named vice-chairman of the board of directors. Transier will relocate to London from Houston as the company seeks to build the North Sea-focused independent oil and gas company. Seitz will serve in a consulting capacity based in the Houston office. Both formerly served as co-CEOs of the company.

Dominion Exploration and Production, a subsidiary of Dominion, has appointedRichard L. Fowler VP and GM of GoM operations. The region includes Dominion E&P’s deepwater, Continental Shelf, and southern Louisiana assets. Fowler previously was GM of deepwater development and has been with the company since 1996.

Pride International Inc. has namedRodney W. Eads to the position of executive VP and COO. He will assume responsibility for the company’s worldwide offshore operations and Eastern Hemisphere land assets.

DeepSea Engineering and Management Ltd. has appointedMike Martin as its VP of business development in Houston. He will report to the group’s Managing Director, Dan Jackson and will initially focus on providing DeepSea’s advanced engineering services for riser, pipeline, and umbilical design to deepwater customers in the GoM. He will work in close co-operation with deep sea engineering managers and engineering resources to improve customer satisfaction and care standards. He will recruit, train, and manage other business development personnel and assist in business development activities in other DeepSea Group businesses worldwide.

Benton

Frank Benton joins J. Ray McDermott Engineering LLC as director of business development. Benton will office at HQ-Houston and focus on aggressively marketing its full scope of engineering services from concept to detailed design.

Companies

On Aug. 24Grenland Group ASA’s Technology Division signed engineering contracts with Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in Korea. The contract covers extensive engineering work for drilling modules/topsides for the newbuild deepwater drillships for Ferncliff Drilling AS and Petrobras International Braspetro BV. The engineering work starts immediately and is planned to be completed by late spring 2007.

Subsea 7 Inc. has been awarded four new long-term contracts in Brazil and Equatorial Guinea for the provision of ROV and intervention tooling services. The contracts have been awarded through Subsea 7’s newly created division, Subsea 7 i-Tech, which was formed to focus on the requirements of the dynamic drilling support market. Three contracts are from Petrobras to provide ROVs onboard three drilling units with a combined term of 10 years, with options to extend to a maximum of seven years. The company has also been awarded a contract by Exxon Mobil affiliate Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc. for two ROVs onboard a drilling unit and a vessel for work offshore Equatorial Guinea.

VWS Westgarth, part of Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies, has been awarded two multi-million dollar contracts by the IHC Gusto/Single Buoy Moorings (SBM) partnership on their FPSOs Mondo and Saxi Batuque projects for the ExxonMobil-operated Kizomba C development in block 15 offshore Angola. The contract award calls for the supply of combined sulphate removal/wash water membrane packages. The sulphate removal plant is designed to remove sulphates and other divalent ions from injection water to enhance oil recovery using Dow/Filmtec SR90 membranes. The removal of these ions reduces the tendency of barium sulphate and strontium sulphate scale to form in the reservoir. The wash water is used in the crude desalting process.

Chevron Corp. is opening energy technology centers in Aberdeen, Scotland, and Perth, Australia. The two centers will provide research, development, and technical services for the company’s worldwide operations. Chevron Energy Technology Co. (ETC) will operate the centers through assigned local legal entities. The centers are expected to open in early 2007. The Aberdeen and Perth facilities will complement existing major technology centers operated by ETC in California and Texas. Those centers provide research, development, and technical support to Chevron’s upstream, downstream, global gas, and emerging energy businesses around the world.

Sonangol Pesquisa e Producão S.A. has signed a letter of intent with Aker Kvaerner for supply of the subsea production system for the Gimboa field in block 4/05 offshore Angola. The scope of work for Aker Kvaerner Subsea covers project management, engineering, manufacturing, testing, delivery and installation support for the Gimboa subsea production system. The subsea equipment will be installed in 700 m of water at the Gimboa field, about 80 km offshore Angola. This will be the first offshore field Sonangol is developing as operator.

Fugro NV has acquired Rovtech Ltd., a provider of ROV services. The acquisition is effective immediately and is expected to be earning enhancing to Fugro in the remainder of this year. The combination of Fugro’s global network with Rovtech’s rig support and IRM business will lead to substantial synergies. It also will enable Fugro to strengthen its ROV business in support of offshore construction, drilling and underwater engineering in combination with its survey business.

Acergy SA has been awarded a contract by Cabinda Gulf Oil Co., a subsidiary of Chevron, for installation of the export pipeline system on the Tombua Landana development offshore Cabinda, Angola. The contract is for the installation and tie-in of two export pipelines that will connect the Tombua-Landana drilling and production platform and the Benguela-Belize oil and gas pipeline transportation system. Installation is planned for mid-2008.

BMT Fleet Technology Ltd., a subsidiary of BMT Ltd., is launching a new program of Arctic research in cooperation with Memorial University of Newfoundland. The Arctic is rapidly becoming a key area of activity for offshore oil and gas development and the Ocean and Arctic Structures Research Program, funded by BMT, will support researchers at Memorial University in this field. Dr. Claude Daley, currently the Chair of the Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering program, will be the first director of this research program.

Cameron has been awarded a contract by Total E&P Nederland BV for the supply of CameronDC all-electric subsea production systems for a multi-well subsea development in the North Sea. The scope of supply includes all-electric subsea trees and an all-electric control system for a two-well development known as K5F located in the K5 block of the Dutch Sector. The control system is configured for expansion to four wells. Deployment is planned for mid-2007 with production to start in late 2007.

Schlumberger and Infosys have formed a global alliance to provide comprehensive information management solutions that integrate upstream technical and business processes for oil and gas companies. The alliance will address a wide array of solutions, primarily focused on the integration of E&P petrotechnical data and applications, including unstructured data, with financial and human resources back-end systems, in order to streamline operational and strategic business decision-making processes.

Ocean Pioneer

Deep Marine Technology Inc. has signed a long-term lease agreement for the four point Ocean Pioneer anchor vessel. Ideally suited for pipeline construction and pipeline abandonment works, the vessel joins the 220-ft Agnes Candies and the 150-ft Mother Theresa DSVs in DMTs fleet.

Bardex Corp, a designer and supplier of a wide range of heavy load moving, handling and positioning systems for the offshore and shipyard industries, has been contracted by Noble Drilling for equipment upgrades to the Bardex rig skidding systems on the Apache Forties Alpha and Bravo platforms. For each rig, Bardex supplied piston-gripper assemblies, rated at 150-ton capacity to suit the existing beam flange; the grippers will interface with the existing Bardex supplied jacking cylinders that have been in service for over 30 years. The original Bardex hose-type gripper assemblies, installed in the mid 70’s, are being replaced after 30 years of service by the improved piston-type gripper assembly.

Grenland Group’s Technology Division has entered into a frame agreement with Frontline Management AS for the building of Frontline’s new fleet of oil and gas production vessels. Frontline plans to build several production vessels, based on existing tankers. The intention of the agreement is that Grenland Group shall be Frontline’s engineering partner for building the production vessels. First call-off is the pre-engineering of production vessel number one. The next phase will possibly be more comprehensive and include detail engineering, procurement of equipment, and installation/commissioning.

Acteon, a UK-based oilfield service company, has launched its newest company, InterMoor do Brasil. InterMoor do Brasil, with offices in Rio de Janeiro, will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acteon. They will offer specialized mooring and rig relocation services. The company provides back-of-the-boat services, including subsea installations, manifold installation work, and presetting of drilling conductors. Although they are an independent Brazilian company, they are affiliated with Houston-based InterMoor and will utilize the resources from both InterMoor’s Houston and Amelia offices. InterMoor’s John Riggs will be the managing director for the new company and will relocate to Rio de Janeiro.

Schilling Robotics, a producer of remotely operated underwater vehicles, recently completed the sale of its ultra heavy-duty ROV system, the UHD 09, to Acergy. Acergy’s purchase in March 2006 of the two Schilling Robotics UHD systems, UHD 07 and UHD 08, marked the beginning of a collaboration between Acergy and Schilling to produce a new fleet vehicle for Acergy. Unlike the UHD 07 and 08 systems, the UHD 09 will be supplied without a tether management system. The vehicle will be specifically configured to support high-speed, low-noise, free-flying survey systems. The ROV system will be installed on Acergy’s new vessel, Acergy Viking, and will operate primarily in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

CCG and University of Bergen signing agreement

CGG and the University of Bergen, Norway’s second largest university, are to step up their R&D co-operation and forge closer ties within the framework of a master research collaboration agreement. The agreement, signed on Sept. 15, includes the conduct of joint R&D projects, two of which are already underway: the donation of CGG’s seismic processing software, Geocluster, to the University, and the creation of an adjunct professorship. This position will allow a closer relationship to develop between graduates and undergraduates and the wider geophysical industry while offering students the opportunity to become actively involved in seismic research and product development at an early stage in their careers. The collaboration will also bring industrial hands-on experience to the University.