BUSINESS BRIEFS
Contracts
Shell International Exploration and Production has awarded Hydralift a contract for eight production riser tensioning systems for the newbuild Brutus TLP. The award consists of engineering, procurement, and commissioning of the system with delivery in the first quarter of 2001. Each system will be composed of four high performance cylinders mounted to a support frame.
CHC Helicopter subsidiary, Bond Helicopters, has been awarded a one-year contract by ARCO British Limited to provide helicopter support to offshore oil and gas installations in the Southern North Sea. The service uses CHC'S Sikorsky S76 series aircraft based at North Denes Aerodrome, Great Yarmouth. The contract is valued at approximately $4 million CDN.
Subsea International has a contract from Pennzenergy for ROV drilling support for a completion program in Garden Banks 161 in the Gulf of Mexico.
ABB Offshore Systems has won a NKr 60 million contract from Statoil to prepare the Sleipner installations for low-pressure production.
First Wave/Newpark Shipbuilding was awarded a contract by Pride Offshore of Houma for repair of the jackup drilling rig Pride Colorado at the firm's East Pelican Island facility in Galveston.
PT Gema Sembrown (Nippon-Sembcorp) was awarded a $60 million contract by Premier Oil for engineering and construction of a gas facility on the West Natuna Gas Project.
Bluefin Robotics was awarded a contract by Racal Survey for two AUV units with options for six more.
Kvaerner SNC and Lavalin Offshore (joint venture) have been awarded a contract by Husky Oil to conduct a concept screening study for the White Rose development off Eastern Canada.
People
UNIFAB has promotedJerry Lowery from Manager of the company's offshore division to Vice President of Offshore Operations.
Modec International has appointedPaul Cannatella Manager of Sales and Marketing focusing on FPSO, FSO, and TLPs for offshore and deepwater developments in the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, and South America.
Yves Delepine has been appointed Vice President of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering for Aker Engineering.
TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company announced thatPierre Benichou has joined the company as President of its Africa, Middle East, and Far East Division.
Oceaneering has appointedJim Luke as Managing Director of Oceaneering Australia in Perth, Western Australia.
Thomas Greg has joined paragon Engineering Services as an Instrumentation/Control Systems Engineer. W. A. Wenger has also joined the company as a Project Manager.
Lorin Brook has been named Director of Business Development Support for Shell International Exploration and Production (London). He succeeds Linda Cook, who has become Shell's CEO Gas and Power.
Ian Craig has taken responsibility for worldwide production and development operations at Enterprise Oil (London). Peter Kallos, currently General Manager for Italy, assumes a similar role for the UK, with Mike Whyatt taking his place in Italy.
MDC Technology announced the appointment ofGreg McCormack to the position of Business Development Director for the Hydrocarbon Industry for MDC Technology in Houston, Texas.
Susie McMichael has been appointed Marketing Communications Planner for Halliburton Energy Services - Real Time Reservoir Solutions in Houston.
Puget Sound Rope has announced the appointment ofDr. Forrest Sloan as the Director of Offshore Sales & Engineering.
Scotoil Group (Aberdeen) has namedJohn MacDonald as Commercial Director.
UIE (Clydebank, UK) has namedJohn Holmes as Chairman.
McMoRan Exploration has namedTheodore Fowler as Senior Vice President of MMR and President and Chief Operating Officer of its Freeport Sulphur Company unit.
JP Kenny has appointedRick Hill as President and CEO.
Andergauge has namedMike Walker as Sales Manager for the company's South America equipment and operations.
Weatherford has appointedMark HopmannPresident of the Completion Systems division and Gary Warren as President of the company's Drilling and Intervention Services division.
Nalco/Exxon Energy Chemicals has appointedMark Bosanko as Senior Vice President of Operations.
Mergers, acquisitions, and new companies
Coflexip Stena Offshore and Cal Dive Inter national have agreed to enter into a new business arrangement to replace their joint venture, Quantum Offshore Contractors. The new agreement will enable the parties to consult and cooperate with one another as they see fit on a project-by-project basis on future opportunities in the offshore oil and gas industry.
CMS Trunkline Gas has reached an agreement with El Paso Energy to acquire the Sea Robin Pipeline Company, a 1 bcf/d gas and condensate pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Louisiana west of Trunkline's existing Terrebonne system. The Sea Robin Pipeline is owned by Southern Deepwater Pipeline Company L.L.C. and Southern Offshore Pipeline Company L.L.C.
Hallin Marine Systems (Singapore) and Maridan (Denmark) have singed an operating agreement in which Hallin will offer AUV contracting services from the company's Singapore center using Maridan Martin AUVs.
Company News
China's largest dry dock in Yantai is open. The mega berth in Shandong peninsula, which is 120 meters wide, 400 meters long and 14 meters deep, is equipped with a pedestal crane of 2,000 tons capacity and two 200 ton mobile cranes. The new dock has a nominal capacity of 500,000 dwt. Yantai Raffles shipyard is a joint venture between the Yantai municipal government with Singapore's Tai Sun and Halter of the US. Chinese energy producer Sheng* Oilfield is also a partner.
Auspex Systems has agreed to allow its NS2000 network storage system to become part of the seismic data management offered by Ovation Data Services.
Magellan Corporation (Santa Clara, California) is forming an Advanced Technology Group of focus on precision global positioning technologies.
Fibergate Composite Structures has opened a Houston sales office dedicated to offshore markets.
Oceaneering has moved their principal Australian office from Sale, Victoria to Perth, Western Australia. The Sale office will continue to serve the Bass Strait offshore area.
J. Ray McDermott Middle East has begun the initial loadout of more than seven transportation spreads of the recently completed fabrication contract for Aramco Overseas. The contract was awarded in May of last year and work began in mid-June at the Jebel A* facility to fabricate five jackets and three production deck modules, along with the spools, risers, and shrouds for eight individual pipelines.
Industry Records
Schlumberger announced the setting of another world water-depth record for subsea completion tree systems with its SenTREE 7* universal test tree at a depth of 4,650 ft. This record was set during completion of a five well development in the western part of the Gulf of Mexico. The new record breaks the previous Schlumberger world water-depth record of 3,400 ft set in July 1999 for the Gemini field.