BUSINESS BRIEFS

May 1, 2006
Offshore engineering services provider Acteon has appointed Kevin Burton to the newly created position of VP, technology.

People

Offshore engineering services provider Acteon has appointedKevin Burton to the newly created position of VP, technology. Burton will be responsible for advancing and delivering technology solutions to the industry. Burton has been with Acteon in various senior roles since 1995. He is a chartered engineer with the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

Chevron Corp. has appointedJay Pryor to the position of VP for business development, reporting to Dave O’Reilly, chairman and CEO. The appointment is effective May 1, 2006. Pryor joined Chevron in 1979 and has held numerous positions within the company, including manager of petroleum engineering at Tengizchevroil (a Chevron joint-venture partnership) in Kazakhstan and managing director for Thailand, before moving to Lagos, Nigeria to head up Chevron’s Nigeria/Mid-Africa strategic business unit.

Knowles
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Mustang Engineering, a subsidiary of international energy services company John Wood Group Plc, has appointedSteven R. Knowles president. Knowles succeeds Mustang co-founders/presidents William G. Higgs and Paul E. Redmon, who now serve as co-chairmen of Mustang and members of the Executive Committee. Knowles began his career at Mustang 12 years ago, holding positions as project engineer, project manager, and Upstream Business Unit manager.

Kikendall
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Teledyne RD Instruments has appointedWilliam Kikendall as general manager of the organization. Kikendall has served as general manager of Teledyne Geophysical Instruments (Houston, Texas) for the past six years, and will now oversee operations at both Teledyne Technologies’ facilities.

Subsea solutions provider Hallin Marine appointedMike Arnold managing director of its wholly owned UK subsidiary, Hallin Marine UK Ltd. The Aberdeen-based subsidiary was formed recently to exploit opportunities in the North Sea and to house the new remote operated vehicle division of the parent company. Arnold is a veteran of the subsea intervention industry and has extensive experience in the construction, development, operation, and marketing of ROVs. Since 2004 Mr. Arnold has worked as an international consultant within the subsea intervention market.

Enventure Global Technology has announced a number of promotions and additions to its management ranks on a worldwide basis.Gary Prehoda is a new global director of sales, leading a business development team that last year accounted for more than $65 million in sales of solid expandable tubular (SET) systems. He brings more than 33 years of oil and gas experience in service, sales, and engineering to his new position.

El-Mofty
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Wael El-Mofty has been hired by Enventure as general manager for Saudi Arabia. He will support technical and business development activities in Saudi Arabia and focus on creating new opportunities to apply SET technology. El-Mofty brings 20 years of oil and gas experience to his new position, including petroleum engineering and directional drilling.

Rana
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Enventure has also recently hiredAntonio Rana as business development manager in the Asia-Pacific region. He will support technical and business development activities in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Rana brings more than 30 years of oil and gas experience to Enventure. Prior to joining Enventure, Rana worked for Halliburton, Cooper Cameron, AVA and Dresser Oil Tools, and Schlumberger, holding a variety of sales, engineering, and management positions.

Deep Marine Technology Inc. has hiredSteven Lambert as diving operations manager. In this role, Lambert will be responsible for the coordination of diving personnel and equipment, cost tracking, and overseeing of shop activities. Lambert joins DMT with over 10 years of experience in diving operations ranging from diver to project manager. Most recently, he was project manager for a major diving company.

Chris Riffe has joined oceanographic services company Horizon Marine as manager of offshore operations. Riffe brings over 25 years of experience in operational oceanographic work in the offshore industry and academic research communities. Riffe will enhance Horizon’s Eddy Watch program with an increased offshore data collection and analysis capability. He will also manage the company’s Houston, Texas office. Prior to joining Horizon Marine, Riffe held various positions of management in offshore service companies and was responsible for the installation and coding of a large percentage of ocean current measuring systems aboard offshore rigs and platforms in the GoM.

TMK Sinara North America Inc., Houston, Texas, has appointedCharles (Chuck) King as VP of sales, responsible for starting up the Houston office for TMK Sinara to establish distribution and sales in the Americas for the tubular steel mill, TMK. King has 32 years experience in management positions with other steel mills including Vallourec & Mannesmann and Republic Steel.

Companies

Oil and gas services providerTetra Technologies Inc. has acquired the assets and business of Louisiana-based Epic Divers Inc. (and associated affiliates) for $50 million in cash. Epic offers a full complement of commercial diving services and operates a fleet of marine vessels, including saturation dive units capable of supporting saturation diving up to 1,000 ft below sea level. Geoffrey M. Hertel, president and CEO of Tetra, says of the purchase, “In addition to offering a quality service to our external customers, the acquisition of Epic allows Tetra to more effectively control costs and ensures the availability of a critical service component necessary to perform well abandonment and decommissioning services.”

Independent drill bit companyVarel International has moved its Australia office from Mount Pleasant to Booragoon in Western Australia. The Australia office coordinates sales and service for Varel’s oil and gas customers operating in Australia and New Zealand.

Oil States Industries Inc. has recently received an order from a GoM gas transmission pipelines operator for its 500th mechanical underwater hot-tap fitting. Hot-tapping is a process whereby an access port is machine-cut through the wall of an in-service (or “hot”) pipeline without disturbing the product flow of the pipeline in order to add additional flow or, in some cases, divert product flow from the pipeline. Oil States’ mechanical hot-tap fittings are used on subsea pipeline systems worldwide, including the GoM, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia- Pacific regions.

Ocean Design Inc., provider of subsea electrical and fiber optic interconnect systems, has opened its new corporate headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida. The new 100,000-sq ft facility allows the company to consolidate its Florida operations, and to expand capacity production. The facility houses the advanced product laboratories to support the development of next generation technologies and engineered solutions.

Schlumberger recently inaugurated a new oilfield research center in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The new center, to be known as the Schlumberger Dhahran Center for Carbonate Research, houses a team of international scientists working on oil and gas industry research projects in collaboration with other research institutes, both in the Kingdom and worldwide. Activities will emphasize the carbonate reservoirs of the Middle East but are expected to have worldwide application.