People
Richard Vernotzy and Allen Gault are the new Chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively, of the Deepwater Industry Group for year 2000-2001.
BHP Petroleum (Melbourne) created a Portfolio Leadership Team consisting of Philip Aiken, President, Keith Hunter, President, Deepwater, Discovery & Appraisal, and Mike Weill, President, Integrated Business development.
Premier Oil (London) named Richard Liddell Group Operations Director. Steve Lowden becomes Commercial and Business Development Director.
Kvaerner Oil and Gas established a new engin-eering division in London, led by Ian Corbridge.
Kvaerner Oilfield Products (London) named Bjorn Lepsvik head of its subsea technology business, following the retirement of Marco Fabbri.
Tony Powell is the new head of the UK Health and Safety Executive's Offshore Division (Aberdeen).
Bob Nye was named Operations Manager at International Pipeline Products (Carrick Garrison, UK).
Michael E. Wiley, 49 will become Baker Hughes' Chairman, President and CEO.
J. Todd Mitchell, President of GPM, Inc. of Houston, has been elected Chairman of The Woodlands-based Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC).
Robert Hobbs transferred to Veritas Marine Surveys as VP - Advanced Exploration Products.
Dr. Kenneth Tubman is joining Veritas as Vice President and General Manager of Veritas Exploration Services Division, Canadian Operations.
Richard K. Hotze was named Vice President for Compressor Engineering Corporation. Daniel C. Sibley was appointed CFO and General Counsel of the company.
Global Marine Inc.'s Board of Directors elected Alexander A. Krezel and Michael R. Dawson as Vice Presidents.
Foster Wheeler USA Corporation appointed Steven E. Eggert Director, Deepwater Technology of its oil and gas division responsible for upstream business.
Brian K. Reese, P.E., has joined Paragon Engineering Services, Inc. as a pipeline project manager. - Reese
Paragon Engineering Serv-ices, Inc. appointed the following: Daniel T. Ransbottom, P.E., Project Manager, responsible for environmental/regulatory issues for two US pipelines; Thomas J. Ford, P.E., Project Manager, on a Far East offshore project; Brian F. Kennedy, P.E., Project Manager and Project Engineer for marine pipelines. - Ford
Oceaneering International, Inc. appointed Kevin McEvoy as Senior Vice President Western Region, and Robert P. Morrison as Senior Vice President Manufacturing, a new position. - Ransbottom
Petroleum Geo-Services appointed the following: Chris Usher President of PGS Data Processing, headquartered in London; William Marr Lonabaugh as Supervisor of Land Data Processing; and Michael Floores as Senior Geophysicist for Land Data Processing. - Kennedy
Contracts
ABB Lummus has a $260 million contract from ADMA-OPCO to design the Offshore Khuff Gas Project in Abu Khabi, UAE. Construction will be done by NPCC in Abu Dhabi.
Baker Energy and Nigerian subsidiary, Overseas Technical Service Nigeria Ltd., were selected by Nigeria LNG Limited to provide maintenance services on a liquefaction plant at Bonny Island in Rivers State, Nigeria. The contract is for two years and is estimated at $10 million.
Phillips Petroleum Company UK Ltd., on behalf of Maureen partners, awarded Aker Maritime a contract to remove a structure.
Enron Offshore Services and Technology has a $50 million contract for additional pipeline installation work with Petróleos Mexicanos for facilities in the Bay of Campeche.
BP announced that Wood Group/Mustang will undertake front-end engineering and design work for the BP-operated Clair field. Work on the $5 million contract will be completed in the second quarter of 2001.
Elf Petroleum Norge AS, BP Amoco UK Limited, Kerr-McGee North Sea (UK) Limited, Shell U.K. Exploration and Production, and Phillips Petroleum Company Norway have jointly awarded a $250,000 engineering evaluation study to Versatruss Americas to remove a 12,000-ton deck.
SAS Gouda BV signed a supply contract for the engineering, manufacturing and delivery of a complete pipehandling system and pipe lifting davits system for a derrick/lay barge to be used by Iranian Offshore and Engineering Company.
Arbroath firm Pioneer Oil Tools Ltd has a £240,000 contract to supply downhole tools to Iran.
CapRock Services Corpor-ation is providing access and videoconferencing capabilities to Ensco International's fleet of vessels operating in the Gulf of Mexico and transmitting drilling information in real-time to land-based headquarters.
Halliburton Energy Serv-ices entered into an agreement with 4th Wave Imaging Corporation to provide 3D time-lapse vertical seismic profile services to oil and gas producing companies.
Hydralift has a contract with Diamond Offshore for an upgrade aboard the semisubmersible Ocean Baroness.
Sonsub Asia (Singapore) recently began drilling and completion services for Woodside Energy Ltd. onboard Transocean Sedco Forex's 702 drillship located on Australia's Northwest Shelf.
SpecTec BV has an agreement with Boskalis and Multiplan International (Hong Kong) to provide AMOS Mail and AMOS Personnel software.
Perry Slingsby Systems, Inc. was awarded a contract by Canyon Offshore Inc. of Houston for Triton Registered ST 200 cable installation and maintenance ROV systems.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Transocean Sedco Forex acquired R&B Falcon Corporation of Houston for $5.8 billion, making the firm the third largest oil services company in the world, with an equity market capitalization of $17.7 billion.
Apache Corporation closed on the $385 million acquisition of an Occidental Petroleum subsidiary that owns interests in the Gulf of Mexico, including properties in 32 fields, half of them operated on 93 blocks, with total proved reserves at 56.8 million b/d.
Global Industries, Ltd. and Oceaneering Inter-national, Inc. signed a letter of intent to exchange certain assets and share facilities in Asia and Australia.
PanCanadian Petroleum Limited agreed to purchase the exploration, production, and midstream and marketing division of Montana Power Co. for $475 million.
Compagnie Generale de Geophysique and Paradigm Geophysical Ltd. have reached agreement under which Paradigm Geophysical would acquire the Flagship reservoir interpretation and characterization software division of CGG for 1.5 million Paradigm shares and $4 million cash.
TransCanada Pipelines announced it has an agreement to sell its Netherlands assets to GDF International S.A., a subsidiary of Gaz de France, for $501 million.
Houston-based Weatherford International acquired Alpine Oil Services Corporation of Calgary, Canada and will issue 1.26 million shares of stock to Alpine security holders.
SpecTec announced today that its parent company Visma ASA has signed an agreement to sell its marine division - SpecTec Group - to Netherlands-based Station 12 for EUR85 million.
Apex Oil Company entered into a confidentiality agreement with Crown Central Petroleum Corp-oration in connection with a potential acquisition or merger with Crown.
Company News
Linux NetworX, Inc. opened a Houston office located at 1330 Post Oak Blvd., Ste. 1600.
OSL Offshore Systems & Deck Machinery, LLC announced the formation of an alliance with Philadelphia Gear Corporation to manufacture and supply turnkey Rack and Pinion electric-driven jacking systems for offshore rigs.
BJ Process and Pipeline Services said it is expanding in the Middle East/Asia Pacific Region with a regional office in the Oilfield Supply Centre in Jebel Ali free-zone near Dubai.
