Contracts
Halliburton Energy Services has won a contract from Brunei Shell Petroleum to provide sand control and completion services for the company's fields in Brunei.
SubSea International completed the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) portion of the Elf Virgo platform installation in more than 1,300 ft water depth. Subsea International participated with Heerema's SSCV Balder.
DSND Consub has concluded agreements with Petrobras to extend the contracts on a number of vessels. The T/C contract on the ROV support vessel Salgueiro has been extended by two years from December 2000 at a total value of $10.8 million. Petrobras also extended the contracts on eight supply vessels by one to two years, with a total value of $9.2 million.
Petris Technology has been awarded the "Historical Well Cleanup: Validation, Revision, and Cleanup of Existing Data in the Gulf of Mexico Region" contract by the Minerals Management Service in New Orleans, with completion set for 2003.
Statoil signed a contract with the Stolt Rockwater Joint Venture for the Gullfaks Satellite Phase II-Exportpipeline (GFSE) subsea construction tie-in work. The work, valued at nearly $20.8 million, begins in June 2000, and will involve the DSV Seaway Osprey and tie-in a new pipeline between the Gullfaks A and Gullfaks C platforms.
Sonsub (Stavanger) has been awarded a contract by Statoil for the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) of subsea structures and spools. The project work will connect the Norne FPSO and Heidrun TLP to the 42 in.
People
Following the merger between TotalFina and Elf (Paris),Thierry Desmarest is now Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Committee. Other members include Jean-Luc Vermeulen, Executive VP and President of the Exploration and Production Division, and Christophe de Margerie, Executive VP and Vice-President of Exploration and Production.
Saga Petroleum (Sandvika, Norway) has elected the following as directors to the board:Thor Haakstad, Odd Ivar Biller, Marianne Aamodt, Jenny Paaske Sevaldson, Hans Joern Roenningen, Leiv Nergaard, Torstein Busland, Kurt Hoeyland, Espen Loeken, and Alseiv Brandsoey.
Brindex (London), the association for independent oil companies in the UK sector, has namedIan Craig of Enterprise Oil as chairman.
Chuck Taylor is the new Operations General Manager at Chevron Europe (Aberdeen).
Paul Hillegeist has joined Quest Offshore Resources of Houston as Chief Operating Officer.
Herve Le Bouc has been elected chairman of Bouygues Offshore (Paris).
Jan Joergensen is the new Executive Vice President of Kvaerner Oil & Gas (Oslo).
Gary Shaw is the new Senior VP -International Oil & Gas Projects for ABB Vetco Gray (Houston). Allan Costlow becomes Senior VP - Western Region Operations, and Stefan Radwanski becomes Senior VP - Asia Pacific/Middle East (Singapore).
Daniel Valot has succeeded Pierre Vaillaud as chairman of engineering group Technip (Paris).
Doug Bell has been promoted to Sales Manager - Far East and Middle East Regions (Jakarta) for BJ Tubular Services.
Dr. Mordechai Abir has been elected to the Board of Directors of Paradigm Geophysical (Herzlia, Israel).
Kenneth Toole is the new Director of Research at Balmoral Group (Aberdeen).
Westfalia Separator (Milton Keynes, UK) has appointedLuis Esquerdeiro as Oilfield Technology Business Devlopment Manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Shipbuilder Harland & Wolff (Belfast, UK) has namedBrynjulv Mugaas as its new CEO.
Stephen Lawrenson has joined the Metereological Office (Bracknell, UK) as Managing Director, Commercial Division.
Captain David Pockett has been promoted to Group Managing Director of London Offshore Consultants (London).
Energy specialistGary Campbell has joined law firm Sinclair Roche & Temperley as a partner in its London office.
Herbery L. Henkel has succeeded James Perrella as CEO of Ingersoll-Rand Company. He will continue to hold the title of President.
El Paso Energy has announced the addition of five new directors to the board -Ronald L. Kuehn (non-executive Board Chairman); Max L. Lukens; Adrian Tocklin; Joe B. Wyatt, and Selim K. Zilkha- and the appointment of Patricia A. Shelton as President of El Paso Natural Gas Company. She succeeds Richard O. Baish, who is retiring.
Michael Davis has been appointed Product Manager of Tech Power Controls' line of drilling optimization systems.
Floyd R. Price has been named President of Apache Canada Ltd. He was previously President of Apache International.
Richard L. Rankin has been appointed Vice President of Foster Wheeler's Oil and Gas Division.
Grant Prideco has namedRandall Edwards Inside Sales Manager in The Woodlands, Texas office and Glenn Westerman as Regional Sales Manager, based in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Mergers, Acquisitions & New Companies
Quest Offshore Resources (Houston), a new company offering consultant services for the African market, has acquired the Subsea Database which provides detailed data about planned subsea developments worldwide.
Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG) announced an agreement concerning the acquisition of all GeoScience Corporation shares, 80% of which are owned by Tech-Sym Corporation. Tech-Sym signed committed to tender all such shares into the offer related to the merger of GeoScience and Sercel (100% owned by CGG). The new company will be headed by Thierry Le Roux, presently President of Sercel.
Fugro has signed an agreement in principle with CGG to purchase CGG's Airborne Geophysics activities (Geoterrex, Dighem, Geomag) for C$28 million. Geoterrex, Dighem and Geomag, located in Paris, Ottawa, Toronto, Sydney and Rio, operates aircraft dedicated to airborne geophysical acquisition.
Robertson Research International has purchased the assets of Reservoir Research Ltd. and has acquired title to Petrofacies projects.
El Paso Energy and Sonat Inc. have completed the $6 billion merger that will result in the divertiture of ownership in East Tennessee Natural Gas Company and Sea Robin Pipeline Company, plus Sonat's one-third interest in Destin Pipeline Company.
Aker Marine Contractors and Vryhof Anchors BV (Vryhof) have signed a Letter of Intent to extend their cooperation agreement through their US-based joint venture company, TACP/Aker LLC. As part of this the new agreement, AMC will sell to Vryhof the substantial assets and rights of Sea Talon Anchors, while Vryhof will continue to concentrate on the design and manufacturing of high holding power drag embedment anchors and the supply of mooring components through other alliances.
Buoyancy products specialistCRP Group (Skelmersdale, UK) has acquired New Orleans-based hose distributor Wood Corporation, and established a new division based in Houston. David Wood has been named President.
Coflexip Stena Offshore acquired additional shares of Peerless Shipping & Oilfield Services (an Indian company) bringing its holdings to 58% of the equity share capital of PSOS. PSOS operates three multi-support vessels for underwater/subsea engineering services, deepsea diving, underwater inspection, rescue operatons and firefighting.
Company News
Schlumberger has opened the Reservoir Completions Center in Houston, created to expand capabilities of the Schlumberger Reservoir Development Product Group, which will develop techniques to optimize reservoir performance.
Compagnie Generale de Geophysique(CGG) announced the foundation of The Flagship Group, a fully owned subsidiary, which will include all activities concerning oil and gas data interpretation software. CGG co-founded a distribution network in the USA, Flagship Geosciences LLC (Houston) to provide dedicated support focused on software.
Odegaard (Copenhagen) has established an office in Aberdeen to promote its seismic inversion software, headed by ex-Shell geophysicist Dr. Dave Davies.
Exploration Electronics (Great Yarmouth, UK) has created a new Products Division to serve the geophysical survey equipment rental market. Steve Talbot is Products Manager.
Oceaneering has acquired the WB80 accommodation and maintenance work barge to support Southeast Asian operations.
Cajun Tubular Services (Lafatette, Louisiana) announced it has opened a new sales office in Houston.
Heerema, a sponsor on the 1999 Heavy Lift Vessel Survey, has a new website that can be seen at www.heerema.com.
Gulf of Mexico record
Diamond Offshore's turnkey subsidiary, Diamond Offshore Team Solutions (DOTS), has drilled the world's deepest water depth turnkey well with its Ocean Clipper drillship. The well was drilled in over 7,200 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico for Marathon and marks the sixth deepest well ever drilled worldwide.
The Ocean Clipper has logged the world water depth record for a turnkey well in 7,200 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico for Marathon.
E-commerce comes to wells
New entrant WellBid Inc debuted its website at the SPE Convention in Houston. The company is streamlining the way in which bids for well construction and repair are managed by using the Internet for the bidding and procurement process. The company seeks to collapse the time wasted in the process and improve cost efficiencies. "WellBid is a central location at which engineers who are drilling and completing oil and gas wells can hook up with, and get information and bid requests from, the vendors that supply the products and services the engineers need," states Jack Doak, Vice President of Marketing. The company is located in Denver, Colorado.
