BUSINESS BRIEFS

The Port Fourchon board of commissioners has renewedTed Falgout’s contract as director for another three-year term through Dec. 31, 2009. During his term, Falgout will be responsible for preparing the commission for his successor. A replacement will be selected six months prior to Falgout’s departure.

Devon Energy Corp. has appointedLyndon Taylor senior vice president and general counsel. Taylor assumed his new role Jan. 31, following the retirement of Duke Ligon, who had been with Devon for more than 10 years.

Wireline Engineering has appointedBill Petrie as a director responsible for strategic development. Petrie has led the repositioning of the company, reducing dependency on the UK market and diversifying its product base, the company says.

Steve Mermelstein will step down as president of Oil Air Hydraulics Inc. after four years of service. Mermelstein will remain at the company part time to handle strategic projects and special accounts. He will also perform some outside consulting services. Klas Bergersen will take Mermelstein’s place as the new president of Oil Air Hydraulics. He will relocate to Houston to fill this role. The transfer of responsibility is targeted for March 31, 2007.

RBG Ltd. has appointedKen Fiddes director of sales and marketing. Fiddes joined the company in early January 2007 and is taking the role previously held by Willie Rennie, who has moved to the position of director of energy services. Fiddes will develop the group’s sales and marketing strategy and will manage the sales and marketing functions. He also has overall responsibility for brand management, corporate communications, customer relationship management, sales planning, and business development.

Mike McEvilly has joined Helix Energy Solutions as its vice president of capital projects. In this position, McEvilly will lead Helix’s capital projects department and will be responsible for executing key projects.

Seadrill has appointedTim Juran as senior vice president and head of the company’s North and South America operations, based in Houston.

Pride International Inc. has appointedGeorge Wasaff to the position of CEO for Latin America land and E&P services.

James Mitchell also has joined the company. Mitchell will be CFO for Latin America land and E&P services. Carlos Etcheverry was named COO for Latin America land and E&P services.

Pride has also appointedJeffrey Chastain, formerly vice president, investor relations and corporate communications at Transocean Inc., as vice president investor relations.

Rowan Co.’s Inc. has appointedRobert Kramek to its board of directors. Kramek recently retired from the American Bureau of Shipping, where he served since 1998, most recently as president and COO.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. has appointedMark Chatterji as CFO. Chatterji has been acting CFO since Nov. 1, 2006. He has an MBA in finance and risk management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from Georgetown University. Chatterji has held senior finance roles over the past 10 years, most recently commercial director at Woodside.

Superior Offshore International has appointedJoe Glass general manager of the company’s marine department. Frank Feurtado, former general manager of the marine department, will serve as the department’s operations manager. Glass’s duties include planning, directing, and coordinating day-to-day fleet operations as well as reviewing project plans to determine time frames, limitations, procedures, safety management, staffing requirements, and resource allocation.

Conoco Phillips has reorganized its technology and major projects group into two operations: a technology group and a project development group.Ryan Lance, senior vice president, technology and major projects, will be senior vice president, technology. Luc Messier, formerly president and CEO of Technip USA, joins ConocoPhillips as senior vice president, project development. Lance and Messier will be in Houston as part of the ConocoPhillips management committee, reporting to Jim Mulva, chairman and CEO.

G. Thomas Graves III, president and CEO of Toreador Resources Corp., has resigned, and existing board member Nigel Lovett has been named president and CEO. Current board member Herbert Williamson III was elected vice chairman of the board of directors.

Anthony Tripodo resigned from the Petroleum Geo-Services ASA (PGS) board of directors effective Feb. 1, 2007, to assume his role of executive vice president and CFO of Tesco Corp. PGS’ nomination committee has begun the search for Tripodo’s successor, who will be put up for election at the annual general meeting scheduled for June 13, 2007.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), has appointedDominic Dunne to drive its external communications strategy.

Dunne has joined APPEA’s Canberra secretariat in the new role of director external communications.

The Houston Technology Center (HTC) has electedWalter Ulrich as president and CEO.

InterMoor Inc. has promotedKathy Legnon to Gulf of Mexico sales coordinator.

Based in InterMoor’s Houston office, Legnon will work with the vice president of sales and marketing, Brad Adkins, to help coordinate the scheduling, distributing, and maintaining information that applies to the growth and improvement of the company’s overall sales efforts in the GoM.

The board of BP Plc. has appointedAndy Inglis managing director of the BP Group. Inglis also succeeds Tony Hayward as chief executive of BP’s E&P business.

McDermott International, Inc. has electedJohn Nesser III as executive vice president, chief administrative and legal officer. Nesser will be responsible for all administrative and legal functions, including human resources, administration, benefits, risk management, information technology, and legal issues. McDermott has elected Liane Hinrichs as vice president and general counsel, replacing Nesser. Hinrichs will continue to serve as corporate secretary. Reporting to Nesser will be Louis Sannino, executive vice president of human resources. Tim Woodard, newly appointed vice president, chief risk officer, and Claire Hunter, vice president, litigation, claims, and compliance, also will report to Nesser.

Companies

Aberdeen-based waste management firmTWMA is supplying equipment and services for Shell and BP in the Mediterranean. TWMA expects to open another office in Cairo to facilitate expansion. In the early part of 2006, the company established an operations base and treatment facility in Egypt’s Ameriya Free Zone, close to the port of Abu Qir. The thermal desorption treatment facility operates under full license.

Knight Well Services, a division of Knight Oil Tools, has opened a new facility at Houma’s Port of Terrebonne to house its plug and abandonment equipment. The new facility is on three acres with 70 m (230 ft) of water frontage.

The Petroleum Authority of Thailand has awardedTechnip a contract for basic and detailed engineering of four wellhead platforms with subsea pipelines and tie-ins for the Arthit gas field in 80 m (262 ft) of water in the Gulf of Thailand. The new installation is tied to existing wellhead platforms. Technip is scheduled to deliver the engineering studies by May 2007 from its Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur operations and engineering centers.

Lukoil Nizhnevolzhskneft has awarded a contract to Bluewater Energy Services B.V. for a soft yoke mooring system for oil export from the Yurii Korchagin field in 20 m (66 ft) of water 200 km (124 mi) offshore in the Caspian Sea. Oil will be transported from a platform 60 km (37 mi) north of the mooring system via pipeline to an FPSO permanently moored to the system. Shuttle tankers will transport the crude. Bluewater’s contract covers design, procurement, and fabrication and will include a disconnection system. Delivery is scheduled for the second half of 2008.

BJ Process and Pipeline Services (BJ PPS) opened a new operations base in Doha, Qatar. The 465-sq-m (5,000-sq-ft) base houses offices and a workshop. Services provided from the base include cold and hot nitrogen work, chemical cleaning, hydrostatic testing, nitrogen and helium leak detection, and pipe freezing, as well as pipeline and process pipe cleaning and drying.

Singapore’sSMOE has been contracted to build a $300-million integrated platform deck for Carigali-PTTEPI Operating Co. Sdn. Bhd. (CPOC). The deck is to be installed in block B-17 of the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (MTJDA). The contract includes engineering, procurement, construction, load-out, offshore hookup, and commissioning services in the field. Work on the 16,329-metric-ton (18,000-short-ton) deck will begin in May, with completion scheduled for June

Sime Darby Engineering Sdn. Bhd. is to build a process platform, a utility platform, and three bridges for Maersk Oil Qatar AS for the offshore Al-Shaheen block 5. The company is to complete the engineering, procurement, construction, installation, hookup, and commissioning contract over 33 months.

Odim ASA has won contracts totaling $4.8 million from Olympic Holding and Bourbon Gaia. Olympic Holding has contracted for two automated launch and recovery systems for ROVs in water depths to 4,000 m (13,123 ft). Bourbon has contracted for a subsea module handling system for 1,500 m (4,921 ft) water depth.

Tenaris S.A. and Hydril Co. have announced a merger agreement whereby Tenaris will acquire Hydril. Subject to approvals from shareholders and government authorities, the deal is expected to close in 2Q 2007.

Singapore’sPan United Marine Ltd. says its order book totaled $335 million as of January 2007, and the outlook for more conversion jobs is strong. PUM’s contracts include the conversion of Frontier Discoverer drillship. PUM signed five new shipbuilding contracts and its first FPSO conversion contract in 4Q 2006, along with another shipbuilding contract in 1Q 2007.

ASL Marine Holdings Ltd. says its order book for shipbuilding as of Dec. 31, 2006, was approximately $249.34 million to build 40 vessels, including offshore support vessels, tugs, barges, and tankers. The Group’s new shipyard at Guangdong, China, was expected to begin operations in 1Q 2007.

Oilexco North Sea has signed a letter of intent to use a Sevan Marine floating production platform for its Shelley development in UK North Sea block 22/2b. The Sevan platform is under construction at the Yantai Raffles shipyard in China. The two parties have agreed a fixed five-year contract (the platform is reusable), valued at around $370 million.

Diamond Offshore has signed a letter of intent (LOI) for use of its semisubmersible drilling rig Ocean Confidence in the Gulf of Mexico for four years. The contractor expects maximum total revenue under the LOI of $730 million. Pending a definitive contract, drilling is scheduled to begin in January 2008, following a commitment with BP in the GoM.

Canadian independentsStratic Energy and Grove Energy have agreed to merge, subject to shareholder approval. They have re-named the combined company Stratic Energy Corp. The new company owns interests in development projects in the Turkish sector of the Black Sea and in the UK and Dutch North Sea, with various other exploration interests in eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, including offshore Tunisia.

Marathon Petroleum has contracted Acergy for pipelay and construction work on the Volund field development in the Norwegian North Sea. The $140-million contract covers engineering, procurement, installation, tie-in, and pre-commissioning of 30 km (18.6 mi) of production, gas lift and water injection lines; a control umbilical; a 160-metric-ton (176.37-short-ton) production manifold; and a choke and metering structure. Acergy also will perform installation, hookup, and commissioning of a subsea control system. The work is to be completed early in 2009.

Pyramid Petroleum has entered into an option agreement to purchase a 20% non-operated interest in certain oil and gas properties in the GoM, for $7 million. If the option is exercised, the company would more than double its GoM production to 665 boe/d, and increase its proved and probable reserves to 2.71 MMboe. The planned acquisition includes 12 producing and 40 non-producing wells.

TheUS Maritime Administration (MARAD) has approved Excelerate Energy’s Northeast Gateway deepwater LNG port for installation in Massachusetts Bay, which will be the first of its kind in the northeast. It will be located 21 km (13 mi) southeast of Gloucester. The port is designed with capacity to deliver up to 800 MMcf/d through a 26-km (16-mi) pipeline that will feed into Algonquin Gas Transmission’s existing HubLine. The line connects directly to the New England gas grid. First gas is expected to be delivered in December 2007. Northeast Gateway will use a dual subsea buoy system to dock and offload LNG from Energy Bridge vessels. The buoys will submerge 26 m (85 ft) below the surface when not in use

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has completed the previously announced sale of its interests in the deepwater GoM Genghis Khan discovery to the owners of the adjacent Shenzi field for $1.33 billion. The Shenzi ownership group comprises BHP Billiton with 44% interest, Hess Corp. with 28% interest, and Repsol YPF with the remaining 28%.

Perth-basedAdvanced Well Technologies has begun operating out of Kuala Lumpur to serve the Southeast Asian markets. The company is involved in conceptual design, detailed engineering, and execution of green field development projects. AWT also provides engineering for mature field refurbishment projects, including production optimization and improved oil recovery, field abandonment project management, and executing well construction projects.