People
MOGAS Industries Inc. has namedJeff Diestler as account manager for control valves. Diestler will promote MOGAS’ FlexStream technology.
MOGAS also has appointedJonquil Hill as its director of product engineering. She will oversee the production and product side of the company’s engineering efforts.
Otto Energy has appointedRichard King as commercial manager. He will manage and optimize Otto’s contracts, negotiate exploration and project agreements with farm-in partners, and evaluate potential new ventures. King also will manage debt-financing arrangements for the oil and gas marketing sector and manage the supply chain.
Hemsted
CTC Marine Projects has appointedMarcus Hemsted as technical sales manager for Australia and New Zealand. He will develop the company’s trenching business in those regions.
Electronic Power Design Inc. has appointedWashington Maurojorge to serve as business development consultant.
Saudi Aramco has namedKhaled A. Al-Buraik as executive director of affairs.
InterMoor has appointedLonnie Olds subsea services operations manager of its Lafayette, Louisiana, office.
KBR has appointed T.Kevin DeNicola as senior VP and CFO. DeNicola’s responsibilities will include oversight of KBR’s treasury, accounting and finance, investor relations, tax, and internal audit operations.
ABS has appointedTodd Grove as president and COO of the classification society’s Pacific division.
Energy Partners Ltd. has namedSteve Longon executive VP and COO. Longon will oversee all aspects of EPL’s operations, including exploration, drilling, and production.
Brush Wellman Inc. has appointedMark M. Comerford as president of Alloy Products.
Nexus Energy Ltd. has appointedPeter Thomas as CFO, effective in late August.
Schilling Robotics Inc. has appointedGil Llacuna as VP and corporate controller, and Sally Larocca has become the company’s first VP of human resources.
Divecon Services has appointedPaula Landry as a sales representative. Landry’s responsibilities include serving existing and potential customers, and promoting diving and subsea construction.
BG Group has appointedSir David Manning, GCMG, as a non-executive director.
Paradigm has appointedGary V. Morris as CFO. Morris will be accountable for all of Paradigm’s finance including accounting, financial planning and analysis, tax, treasury, audit, and investor relations.
Minerals Management Service (MMS) has selectedMike Saucier as the new regional supervisor for field operations. Saucier will oversee 170 engineers, geoscientists, technicians, inspectors, and clerical who are responsible for safe and environmentally responsible oil and gas operations throughout the US Gulf of Mexico.
MMS Gulf of Mexico region has appointedMeryl Andry as leasing program manager for the office of leasing and environment. She will be in charge of leasing policy, planning, adjudication, and sales for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic offshore areas.
Goff
Medco Energi US has appointed four new VPs as a part of the company’s realignment. The company has appointedSteve Goff as VP of petroleum engineering,
Gary Johnson as VP of production operations,
Ted Russell as VP of drilling and capital projects,
andDaniel Frugé as VP and CFO.
Afren has appointed a 12-person technical team of geologists, geophysicists, reservoir engineers, and petroleum engineers. The team, led byShahid Ullah, previously constituted Randall & Dewey’s international technical team.
AMEC has appointedIan McHoul as CFO, effective September 2008. McHoul previously served as group finance director at S&N.
AGR Petroleum Services has appointedSjur B. Talstad as CEO, effective Oct. 1, 2008.
Marion Energy Ltd. has appointedDouglas Martin to the board of directors as an independent, non-executive director.
TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. has appointedJohn Adamick as senior VP of geological products and services. Adamick will be responsible for TGS’ newly created well log and interpretive products business unit.
The company has also appointedKaren El-Tawil to replace Adamick as VP of business development. El-Tawil will be responsible for investor relations, corporate marketing, and mergers and acquisitions.
Isaksen
The company has namedStein Ove Isaksen to replace El-Tawil as VP NSA sales, based in Houston. Isaksen will be responsible for the integrated NSA seismic and well logs sales team.
Ingrain has addedDr. Avrami Grader to its executive management team. He will serve as Ingrain’s chief scientist, leading the firm in developing advanced methods for the computation of rock properties and multi-phase flow through reservoir rocks.
Xodus Group has appointedJohn Greene as senior process control specialist for the company’s oil and gas division in Aberdeen. The company also has appointed Frank Masson as principal design engineer for the company’s subsea division.
Jennifer Farneti has joined CUNO as scientific application support specialist II for the CUNO laboratory at 3M’s Oil and Gas Customer Center in Houston. Farneti will be responsible for technical field support to the CUNO sales force, including filtration product trials and customer visits, as well as obtaining and analyzing samples.
Sub-Atlantic has appointedAlasdair Murrie as sales and marketing manager. Murrie will lead the growth of the company’s international sales strategy. He will also be responsible for identifying and implementing future marketing and advertising strategies.
Talisman Energy has appointedL. Scott Thomson as executive VP of finance and CFO.
Spectraseis has appointedIan Vann and
Fagerås
Bjarte Fagerås to its board of directors.
Hyperdynamics Corp. has namedSarah Berel-Harrop as CFO and principle accounting officer. The company has also appointed Roger D. Friedberger as a director. He also will serve as the financial expert on the board’s audit committee.
Sevan Marine ASA CFO,Egil Kvannli, has resigned from his position. Birte Norheimv, group controller since 2005, has been named VP finance. He will be responsible for accounting, purchase, IT, and investor relations.
Hercules Offshore Inc. has appointedJohn T. Rynd as the company’s CEO and president. Rynd also has been named as a director.
FW Murphy has hiredDarren Barnes as technical product manager for oil and gas electronics.
Geotrace has appointedDarko Tufekcic as a geoscientific advisor. Tufeckic will promote Geotrace’s reservoir services to oil companies in Eastern Europe.
Company News
Total is selling its interest in the Virgo field in the Gulf of Mexico. The company is offering its operated 64% working interest in two leases -- Viosca Knoll blocks 822 and 823.
Mobil Producing Nigeria has begun operations on a $1.3 billion project in Nigeria to produce and sell natural gas liquids. The East Area Natural Gas Liquids II project involves the recovery of 275 MMbbl of natural gas liquids from associated gas produced in East Area reservoirs from blocks OML 67, 68, and 70.
Cameron has acquired the DynaTorque line of products and services from Hines Corp. The products will be offered through Cameron’s flow control division, part of the company’s drilling and production systems group. DynaTorque designs, manufactures, markets, and sells manual gear operators, overrides, components, accessories, and specialty products, including mechanical partial stroke test devices, for use with valves, actuators, and dampers.
Petrofac has acquired Eclipse Petroleum Technology for $14 million. Eclipse’s services include field development, production modeling and optimization, well life cycle risk management, and petroleum engineering functional consulting.
Qserv has awarded Peak Well Services a $1 million contract to supply a comprehensive ultra heavy-duty (UHD) fishing tool package. The order covers the provision of UHD toolstrings; wire and cable recovery equipment; standard and non-standard downhole tool recovery components; debris recovery; and removal systems.
Dominion Gas has awarded contracts totaling $8 million for work in the UK and Norwegian North Sea. The contracts were awarded to Ritchie for supply of quad frames, Norris for new cylinders, and Gardner Cryogenics for new Helium road tankers.
Wood Group Wireline Services (WGWS) has received certification from ABS Quality Evaluations for compliance as a downhole service company in the oil and gas industry.
Plexus Holdings has acquired Plexus Deepwater Technologies from Grant Prideco for $2 million.
Malta Oil has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) as contractor and operator with the government of Malta to drill a well on Area 4, which includes blocks 4, 5, 6, and 7, offshore Malta. The PSC grants the exclusive right to explore for and exploit oil and gas from a 5,700-sq km (2,201-sq mi) area that extends south from Maltese waters to the agreed and internationally recognized border with Libya. Four prospects and five leads on the PSC Area have been delineated.
Dynamic Offshore Resources has acquired Northstar Exploration and Production and its wholly owned operating subsidiary Northstar GOM LLC for $235 million. Effective at closing, the Northstar GOM name will be changed to Dynamic Offshore Resources NS.
BPZ Resources has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Shell Exploration Co. (West) to negotiate for a farm-out agreement in Peru. The companies hope to create a 50/50 venture in blocks Z-1, XIX, and XXIII. The three offshore blocks are about 1,300 km (800 mi) north of Lima, Peru.
A consortium ofSBM Offshore and Advanced Production and Loading (APL), has received a letter of award from Total E&P Angola for the engineering, procurement, supply, construction, and installation of the oil loading system on the Pazflor project. SBM Offshore will engineer, procure, and supply two oil offloading lines based on the Trelline, a large-diameter, reinforced, bonded rubber hose, which will be suspended between the FPSO and the deepwater CALM buoy.
Cross Group was contracted by Wild Well Control to provide a work platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The multi-purpose barge,Crossmar 7 was dispatched to assist with debris removal from several platforms that were damaged and destroyed during the destructive 2005 hurricane season. The debris is being transferred to a material barge, which is then transported back to shore for proper disposal. The Crossmar 7 is scheduled to carry out debris removal on fields throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
Equipment and Technical Services has integrated the operations of its subsidiary Geonav Marine Systems with its existing equipment rentals and services under the ETS name. ETS’ system sales division will now include Geonav’s team and product lines featuring the Geonav EZNav software system and the Geonav I-Compass heading sensor.
Technip has acquired Eurodim, an engineering and consulting company. Based in Rueil Malmaison, France, Eurodim’s assets include a team specializing in the design and execution of mobile systems and equipment.
Technip also has acquired EPG (BV Ingenieursbureau EPG), a specialized engineering company in the oil and gas and petrochemical sectors.
Bibby International Services has acquired the Ukraine-based crew manning agency, MA Olevent, for an undisclosed amount.
Salamander Energy Plc has acquired interests in certain Indonesian assets from Serica Energy, in an all cash transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, Salamander will acquire an additional 15% working interest in the Glagah Kambuna TAC, offshore North Sumatra, and a 23.4% interest in the Kutai PSC, East Kalimantan.
IHS has acquired Reservoir Visualization’s current inventory of digital log and raster image assets for $4.1 million.
Centrica has reached an agreement with Marathon Oil to acquire interests in a package of non-operated oil and gas assets in Norway for $375 million in cash. Centrica will acquire interests in the Heimdal area of the Norwegian North Sea, which includes producing fields, discoveries, and exploration prospects.
Grenland Group is expanding its business and is building a new engineering headquarters near Torp airport in Sandefjord, Norway.
Weatherford International and Petrowell have entered into an exclusive, worldwide manufacturing and distribution arrangement aimed at bringing emerging reservoir completion technology to the market.
Aker Solutions has acquired Qserv, a provider of well, process, and pipeline services in the North Sea and International markets.
Ingen Ideas, based in Aberdeen, has opened its first international office in Dubai, UAE. The office will serve Ingen’s Middle East customers and will support its growth plans in Africa, Caspian Sea, and Asia-Pacific regions.
AGR Petroleum Services has acquired Aberdeen-based TRACS International Consultancy, a provider of integrated services and training in the geology and petroleum engineering sectors, in a deal worth $40 million.
Schlumberger has acquired Staag Imaging, a Houston-based provider of depth imaging technologies for seismic data processing. Staag will become part WesternGeco.
Schlumberger has also acquiredExtreme Engineering, a Calgary-based supplier of unmanned measurement-while-drilling (MWD) systems. Extreme Engineering will continue to operate under its own brand.
Sensornet and BMP Enterprise have formed a joint venture to provide full product and field installation service for upstream and downstream monitoring products in the US oil and gas market.
Moyno Inc. says its Moyno 2000 progressing cavity pump delivers optimized performance and long life handling of highly viscous, abrasive, solids-laden drilling mud. The product can manage abrasive materials in excess of 80% solids with an operating range to 4,500 gpm and pressures up to 1,500 psi. Its gear joints are lubricated to run at 180° F (82° C), far cooler than oil-lubricated joints, according to the company. The product also features the proprietary Ultra-Shield rotor coatings for corrosion protection.
Moyno also offers it Tri-Phaze System, which is the only patented progressing cavity solution offered for multiphase pumping applications in the oil and gas industry, according to the company. The system allows all fluids produced at the well site including oil, water, and gas, to be transported simultaneously through one pipeline to a central processing station. The unit is capable of generating flow rates up to 60,000 b/d of fluid with suction pressures up to 900 psi and discharge pressures up to 1,200 psi. The product also features a stator elastomer formulation which exhibits resistance to aromatics.
R&M Energy Systems offers the Moyno ERT Power Section, which can improve the overall performance of power sections used in downhole drilling applications, the company says. Applying an even thickness of rubber to the stator contour and supporting each lobe with steel minimizes the rubber’s degree of dimensional change during use due to temperature, chemical attack, and loading. An additional benefit of the product is its ability to use shorter power sections with performance outputs comparable to that of longer conventional product. This can improve the motor’s directional response as well as MWD and LWD measurement quality by placing their sensors closer to the bit, the company says.
BP has awarded Parker Drilling a contract to construct, deliver, and commission a land-based rig to drill ultra extended-reach wells for offshore targets in the Liberty field of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea.
Drilling will occur from an existing satellite pad that is part of BP’s Endicott oil field. The rig will be owned by BP, and drilling is anticipated to start in 2010.
Although the Liberty field is nearly six miles offshore, the rig’s ultra extended-reach drilling capability will enable development of the field with the least environmental impact, as the wells will produce directly into existing facilities without the need for an offshore platform, artificial drilling island, or subsea pipeline, Parker Drilling says.
