BUSINESS BRIEFS
People
ESR Technology has appointedDr. John Evans as GM of its Aberdeen operations. Evans will be responsible for leading and managing the company’s Aberdeen oil and gas team and growing revenues in line with the company’s development plans for the North Sea region. He replaces Martyn Foote, who now leads ESR Technology’s Middle Eastern operations.
Mustang has appointedMike Dear as CFO. Dear succeeds Meg Lassarat, who has served as Mustang’s CFO since 2002. Dear has over 20 years experience in the oil and gas service industry and comes to Mustang from Wood Group, Mustang’s parent company, where he has served as group financial controller since 2006.
Atwood Oceanics has appointedRobert J. Saltiel as president and CEO. Saltiel will be responsible for the company’s worldwide business. He replaces John R. Irwin, who is retiring.
Hyperdynamics has appointedFred S. Zeidman to its board of directors.
R.S. Platou (USA) Inc. has appointedBob Donley as president. Donley previously served as VP for the company.
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping has appointedDr. Arthur Cheng as VP of research based in Houston. He will help develop new technologies and applications in CSEM, seismic inversion, and rock properties modeling.
Foster Wheeler has appointedClive Vaughan as CEO of the upstream oil and gas group within the company’s global engineering and construction group. Vaughan will be based in the company’s Houston office.
J. Ray McDermott has appointedStephen M. Johnson as president and CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2010. Johnson is currently president and COO of McDermott International, J. Ray’s parent company. He succeeds Robert A. Deason, who is retiring.
Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. has appointedAndrei Galaev as CEO. He replaces Ian Craig.
Total Exploration & Production has appointedOlivier Cleret de Langavant as senior VP of finance economics information systems. He succeeds Philippe Chalon.
BJ Services has promotedDave Drysdale to area manager for Northern Europe and West Africa (NEWA). The company has also appointed Pete Clenshaw as business development manager and Richard O’Dowd as executive account manager.
Corrosion Resistant Alloys has appointedJerry Rubli as senior sales engineer. Rubli has over 35 years experience introducing and promoting technical products and services in the oil and gas industry. He has previously worked for Hydril, H.O. Mohr Research and Engineering, RTI International Metals, and most recently VAM USA.
Hyperdynamics has appointedWilliam A. Young as executive VP for commercial affairs. Young will be responsible for negotiating and managing all of the company’s commercial transactions, including partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial contracts. He will also oversee investor relations for the company.
Verdande Technology has appointedAli K. Garkasi as operations manager for the Middle East and North Africa. Garkasi previously served as senior lead drilling engineer for Saudi Aramco.
Clough has appointedNeil Siford as CFO. Siford has worked at Clough since 2006 as finance manager for capital projects and asset support, financial controller, and most recently as joint acting CFO.
New Zealand Oil & Gas has appointedPeter Griffiths as a director of the company.
Acteon has appointedWill Rowley as group analyst. Rowley previously served as director of analytical services for Infield Systems.
Kairiki Energy has appointedDr. Mark Fenton as MD. Fenton has extensive experience in the oil and gas industry with over 24 years in operating oil and gas companies, including several years in executive management roles.PennWell has appointedRoger Kingswell as an independent sales representative for Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands. He will have responsibility for the Oil & Gas Journal, Offshore, Oil & Gas Petrochem Equipment and all special supplements, maps, and posters.
Company News
Wood Group has opened a new office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The new facility will provide operations and maintenance, commissioning, and other technical services to the Brazilian market.
Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co.has awarded Noble Denton a contract for failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and trials for a ten-vessel newbuild program, due for completion in 2012.
BP has awarded Technip two contracts for the Schiehallion field development in the North Sea, west of the Shetland Islands. The first contract, which was recently completed, covered the design and manufacture of a 720-m (2,400-ft) gas-lift flexible riser and a 770-m (2,500-ft) water-injection flexible riser. The second contract covers installation of the risers, as well as pre-commissioning, tie-ins, and testing.
Petrobras has awarded John Crane a three-year dry gas seal repair services contract. The deal covers the repair of dry gas seals used for upstream and gas transportation applications at Petrobras’ facilities in Brazil. The contract also includes the supply of spares.
A consortium comprisingDONG Energy, E.ON, and Masdar has awarded JDR Cable Systems a contract to supply subsea power array cables for the first phase of the London Array offshore wind farm. The scope awarded to JDR includes engineering, design, and manufacture of over 200 km (124 mi) of 33-kV array cables including proprietary hang-off and termination systems that will link individual wind turbine generators, wind turbine generator arrays, and offshore substations.
Husky Energy is increasing its 2010 capital expenditure program and production guidance to $3.1 billion, an increase of 20% over 2009. The company’s 2010 offshore plans will focus on drilling development wells on the North Amethyst project. Production from the area is expected in 1Q 2010 and will ramp up during the year as new wells are tied-in.
Chevron Australia has awarded Technip a front-end engineering design contract for the Wheatstone project’s offshore processing platform. The upstream portion of the project comprises development of gas fields in the WA-17-R and WA-253-P permits in water depths of 70 m to 200 m (230 ft to 656 ft).
The service contract 54 block A (SC 54A) joint venture partners have approved development of the Tindalo oilfield, offshore Philippines. The field will be developed using a leased, jackup rig, which will re-enter and complete the suspended Tindalo-1 well for production. The field partners will install an electric submersible pump as part of the well completion to maintain production rates throughout the life of the field.
Following the exercise of a right of first refusal bySociedad Nacional De Combustiveis De Angola (SONANGOL), the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Sociedad Pesquisa E Producao, has agreed to purchase a 20% undivided working interest in Angola block 32 from Marathon Oil.
Vessel listings forHelix Energy Solutions, Cal Dive, and Bisso Marine were inadvertently not included in the worldwide pipelay vessels poster mailed with the November 2009 issue. We are working to compile those listings and we will include them in the digital poster which is available for download at http://www.offshore-mag.com/index/maps-posters.html.