Business Briefs

People

Jeffrey K. Skilling will become Enron's new Chief Executive Officer in February.

The USNational Ocean industries Association namedTom Fry its new president.

Horizon Marine, Inc. welcomesDr. Steven P. Anderson as Chief Scientist.

Shell namedCatherine Lamboley Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary.

Shell namedJørn Berget Vice President of production.

Robert J. Singletary, P.E. was promoted to Staff Engineer for Waldemar S. Nelson and Company, Inc., Engineers and Architects.

Ronald C. Cambre, Chairman of the Denver Newmont Mining Corporation board, was elected to McDermott's International, Inc. board of directors.

Magnus Unger was appointed deputy Managing Director of Lundin Oil AB.

CGG appointedDominique Robert Executive Vice President of Land-Shallow Water Data Acquisition; Herv

Linux NetworX, Inc. namedRobert Dunoskovic Vice President of Manufacturing.

Alliance Engineering promotedRonald D. Jones to Senior Engineering Consultant.

Contracts

Bouygues Offshore signed a $44 million contract with Total Indonesia to supply equipment and associated services of a platform for Total's Tunu 8, gas field.

Fugro GeoServices, Inc. will conduct three high-resolution 3D seismic surveys for BP Corporation within the Gulf of Mexico.

Racal Survey Canada Ltd and Mobil Oil Canada Properties signed a three-year contract to supply remotely operated vehicle services to Mobil's operations in Nova Scotia.

GeoQuest will provide exploration and production software as a platform for subsurface evaluation worldwide for Norsk Hydro Exploration.

BP in Norway announced an alliance with Schlumberger Oilfield Services for the Valhall Water Injection Project (WIP), operated by BP in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

Maritime Well Service, a Stavanger-based subsidiary of Aker Maritime, secured contracts with a combined value of NOK 250 million for provision of well services to Phillips Petroleum and Norsk Hydro.

BJ Services Company's Well Services Division for Europe and Africa has been awarded a contract by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. (SPDC) to provide cementing and integrated completion services in Nigeria.

Station 12, the Netherlands-based world market leader in mobile satellite communications, signed an agreement with Visma ASA, to acquire Visma's marine division, SpecTec.

BP chose Heerema Marine Contractors to install facilities, associated pipelines, and gathering lines in BP's Gulf of Mexico deepwater projects worth more than $400 million.

Sonsub Inc. recently completed testing of a 20-in., deep "m" shaped steel jumper for Shell International Exploration and Production.

BP and PricewaterhouseCoopers signed a $200 million agreement to include BP's recently aquired Arco and Vastar onshore and offshore operations and some corporate activities for more than nine years.

National Petroleum Construction Company of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd., India agreed to a well platform project.

Consafe Engineering Ltd., and Diamond Offshore Ltd. signed a

Diversa Corporation signed an agreement with South Africa to obtain environmental samples from South Africa.

BP contracted with Bently Nevada Corporation to provide a knowledgeable condition and performance management system to enhance BP's oil recovery project in the U.K. North Sea.

Under an approximate £5 million contract withAmerada Hess, Weir Westgarth will provide a two-phased supply of sulphate removal package to the Syd Arne field in the Danish North Sea.

Bollinger Shipyards, Inc. contracted with Cardinal Services to build two 245-ft liftboats to operate in about 180 ft water depths.

Mergers & acquisitions

Patterson Energy, Inc. acquired Ambar Inc. for approximately $7.8 million. The new company will be called Anbar Lone Star Fluid Services.

Total Fina Elf and a group of Belgian financial investors agreed to sell the Oleochemicals business unit within the Fina Oleochemicals N.V. structure.

Shell Australia Investments Limited bid $14.80 cash for each Woodside Petroleum Ltd. share and one call option on one Woodside share for the Woodside-Shell merger. The bid is in discussion.

ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company and Mustang Engineering, Inc. signed an agreement to make Mustang the only marketing agent for URC's compliant piled tower concept.

Bouygues Offshore and Doris Engineering created a 50/50 venture called Doris, Inc. to provide engineering services to clients based in the United States.

Schlumberger Limited and Baker Hughes Inc. closed a transaction to create a seismic joint venture called WesternGeco.

Naremco Technology Ltd. acquired the Orkney Water Technology Centre, wholly owned by Kværner, operated by Environment and Resource Technology Ltd.

NKK Corporation and Chiyoda Corporation agreed to expand their engineering, procurement and construction businesses together.

Stratos Global Corporation acquired Datacom, including $4 million in cash for a total of $44.25 million.

Apache Corporation and Shell Overseas Holding Limited cleared a previous agreement to acquire Fletcher Challenge Energy subsidiaries.

Weatherford International, Inc. will acquire 48 percent interest in Universal Compression, Inc. through a merger of Weatherford Global Compression Services.

Weatherford International, Inc. acquired Starfield Multilateral Well Completion technology from Starfield Holdings, Inc.

Western Geophysical and Magic Earth have teamed up to combine Western Geophysical's seismic data acquisition and processing resources with Magic Earth's volume visualization and interpretation tools.

Company news

TransCanada International changed its name to GDF Production Nederland B.V.

Santa Fe International Corporation Board of Directors authorized construction of two deepwater semisubmersibles and up to four high performance jackup rigs.

PetroValves opened a new 30,000 sq ft facility in Houston.

Dead Sea Bromine Group launched an e-commerce initiative to order products directly through the Internet.

Emerson Electric Co. formed Emerson Valve Automation, a new operating division that consol-idates the company's valve automation products and services.