BUSINESS BRIEFS

Borgland Dolphin,s Ramrig, on the deck of Smitbarge 2 prior to the main lift at Belfast.

Two of Smit Transport & Heavy Lift's large floating sheerlegs have visited Belfast, performing lifts required for the Borgland Dolphin. The former semisubmerisible accommodation vessel is undergoing conversion at Harland and Wolff for drilling duties in the North Sea. The floating sheerlegs Taklift 4 and Taklift 7 were mobilized for the dual lift of the Borgland Dolphin?s 850-ton Ramrig structure. The actual lift was completed in just four hours.

Contracts

Dresser-Rand (Olean, New York), has been awarded a contract to supply field catalytic cracking (FCC) equipment to the Pemex Refinacion Company. Joint venture partners TransAlta Energy and Air Liquide Canada have awarded Delta Hudson Engineering (Calgary) the engineering, procurement, and construction plant in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Energy Transportation Group (New York), has transferred day-to-day management responsibility for a fleet of eight liquefied natural gas ships serving the Indonesia-Japan trade route to the Japanese-owned BLNG. Diamond Offshore Drilling (Houston) has awarded a contract to FirstWave/Newpark Shipbuilding for the repowering of its offshore drilling rig Ocean King. Petris Technology (Houston) was awarded a contract with the US Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service in New Orleans. SeaBeam Instruments (E. Walpole, Massachusetts), has been awarded additional contracts in Japan for Sea Beam? 2100 Series multibeam bathymetric survey sonars. Smedvig (Stavanger) signed a new contract with Aker Maritime for the RamRig dual drilling package on the drillship West Navion. Stolt Comex Seaway announced the award of three contracts for projects in 1999 and 2000 in the North Sea and Irish Sea with a total value of $41 million. Subsea International (Houston) has completed a contract with Oryx Energy, assisting with various ROV-related tasks at the Neptune Spar platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

People

Richard E. Woolbert, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of McDermott International, will retire effective January 1, 1999. R.H. "Bob" Gruy has announced his retirement from SOFEC effective February 1, 1999 after 25 years. Colloid Environmental Technologies (Arlington Heights, Illinois), a wholly owned subsidiary of AMCOL International, announced Ryan F. McKendrick has been promoted to President of Colloid and Vice President of AMCOL. Alliance Engineering (Houston) has announced Jeff Jaffurs [5,448 bytes] as Design Manager and James E. Johns as Senior Electrical Engineer. Santa Fe International's (Dallas) restructured Board of Directors now includes Richard N. Haass, Khaled R. Al-Haroon, and Gordon M. Anderson as Class I Directors, Ferdinand A. Berger, Stephen J. Solarz, and Nader H. Sultan as Class II Directors, and C. Stedman Garber, Jr., Sami F. Al-Rushaid, and Robert E. Wycoff as Class III Directors. TransCoastal Marine (Houston) has appointed Nathan M. Avery as Chairman and CEO of the company. ABB (Zurich) announced the appointment of Gorm Gunderson to Executive Vice President and Member of the ABB Group Executive Committee. Triton Elics International (Watsonville, California) has announced Jean-Claude Aissa for its newly created New Product Support Manager for Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa. Oceaneering (Houston) has promoted T. Jay Collins to President and Chief Operating Officer. Pool Energy Services (Houston) announced Thomas N. Amonett to serve in an advisory capacity to its Board of Directors. Ramco Oil & Gas appointed Philip E. Maxwell as President, Muradkhanli Operating Company. UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) has appointed David Odling as Assistant Director, Policy, and Nigel Essex as Company Secretary. Vernon Chagnard has joined Danos & Curole Marine Contractors (Larose, Louisiana) as Manager, Eastern Profit Center. Diversa Corporation (San Diego, California) announced the appointment of Robert J. Pangborn, Ph.

D, as Senior Advisor, and the promotion of R. Patrick Simms as Senior Vice President-Operations. Global Marine (Houston) announced Edward A. Blair has been elected to its Board of Directors. Robert L. Ayers has been appointed President of ITT Industries? Industrial Pump Group. SGS Redwood (East Grinstead, UK) has namedGuy Malling [5,966 bytes] Executive Officer. Kellogg Brown & Root (Houston) announced the first tier of management in the new organization: Peter M. Evans, Executive Vice President, Business Execution; Thomas E. Giles, Senior Vice President, Business Development; Frank J. Yancey, Senior Vice President, Contstruction and Maintenance; Jim H. Miller, Senior Vice President, Shared Services; Donald G. Stokes, Vice President, Construction and Maintenance; Eric L. Moorehead, Vice President, Technology Acquisition and Development; and James H. Lehmann, Chief Counsel. Marathon Oil (Houston) announced the appointment of G. David Golder to the newly created position of Vice President, Asian Operations, International Production. Andergauge Drilling Systems (Aberdeen) has made several appointments to its team: Stuart Masson [8,008 bytes], Head of Corporate Applications Engineering in the UK; Robert Dinnie [13,830 bytes], Head of Corporate Applications Engineering in the US; and John F. Gilbert, Jr. and Stuart Estes as District Sales Representatives. Measurement Technology (Luton, UK) promoted Mark Jacobs [20,343 bytes] to UK Sales Manager. Petris Technology (Houston) announced H. Rene Calderon [4,822 bytes] has joined its Corporate Business Management Group.

Mergers, acquisitions & new companies

Allied Signal (Seoul) announced it will join Kohap, S.K. Chemicals , and Sam Yang to form a new Asian Performance Fibers company based in South Korea. Apache (Houston) reached an agreement to acquire from subsidiaries of Novus Petroleum of Australia certain oil and gas interests in the Carnarvon Basin offshore Western Australia for approximately US$49 million plus adjustments. Petroleum Geo-Services (Houston) and IBM announced they have finalized the agreement regarding the acquisition of the entire PetroBank Product Family by PGS. Chevron (San Francisco, California) has established a new subsidiary, Chevron Environmental Management, to centrally manage activities for its U.S. operating companies. Hanover Compressor (Houston) announced it has acquired all of the capital stock of Eureka Energy Systems. Baker Oil Tools (Houston) announced the acquisition of Sonoma. GeoQuest (Houston) announced it has acquired the software technology suite from Oil Technology Services. Deutag Drilling (Bad Bentheim, Germany) has signed an agreement to purchase the platform drilling activities in the UK sector of Smedvig Holdings, its subsidiaries, and Smedvig Energy Services. Freeport-McMoRan Sulphur ( New Orleans) and McMoRan Oil & Gas announced its stockholders have approved the merger of FSC and MOXY, creating McMoRan Exploration. Fugro N.V. (Lafayette, Louisiana) announced the formation of its new company, Fugro GeoServices, for the specific purpose of serving the marine geophysical market in North and South America. Stolt Comex Seaway (Aberdeen) has acquired the Remotely Operated Vehicle business of Dolphin.

TGS-NOPEC and Bedford Interactive Processing Services have signed the final purchase agreement that transfers 100% of the BiPS shares to TGS-NOPEC for GBP 1.7 million.

Company news

Global Industries (Houston) has announced the upgrading of its largest heavy-lift, deepwater pipelay vessel Hercules. Cadcentre (Wilmington, Delaware) has licensed its PDMS product to the corporate engineering division of BASF AG as its new standard design plan. Solar Turbines (San Diego, California) was named a winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the manufacturing category by the US Department of Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Brookfield Engineering Laboratories (Staughton, Massachusetts) is building a new 92,000 sq ft headquarters and plant in Middleboro, Massachusetts. ABB Vetco Gray?s (Zurich) Montrose plant achieved the ISO 14001 accreditation. Inpro/Seal (Rock Island, Illinois) reported record shipments of bearing isolators for the nine month period ending September 30, 1998. Texaco announced a worldwide upstream reorganization designed to place emphasis on the company?s long-term production and reserve growth. R&M Energy Systems (Houston) recently established its world headquarters in Houston, Texas. Smith Drilling & Completion (Houston) recently opened a new Houston Service Center, the company?s latest drillstring repair facility.

• Offshore Rig Report [90,061 bytes]

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