Business Briefs

Contracts

Alabama Shipyard has been awarded the contract for construction of four new generation liftboats by SEAREX, an offshore operator based in Covington, Louisiana. The SEAREX design liftboat utilizes an open lattice type leg design allowing for the vessels to work in water depths of up to 180 feet and offer increased crane capacity. Construction of the first vessel is anticipated to take 11 months.

Alliance Engineering of Houston, Texas has performed the complete details of the deck structure and production facilities for Shell's Enchilada Platform located in Garden Banks Block 128, Gulf of Mexico. The drilling and production facility has a capacity of 60,000 BOPD and 400 MMcf/d of gas. Alliance!s performance on this project has led to another contract with Shell for structural and facilities design for the Salsa Platform located in Garden Banks Block 172, Gulf of Mexico.

Petrobras is asking for bids for contracts to build two new Megathyst compact semis designed for deep water drilling.

Petroleum Geo-Services has won a US $50 million contract for an acquistion, processing and interpretation project in the Bombay High Field offshore western India. 1,750 square kilometers of 3D acquisition, processing, and interpretation will be involved making this the largest reservoir evaluation project ever awarded.

Perry Tritech has sold a TRITON XL No. 12 remotely operated vehicle to Dolphin for delivery in the second quarter of this year.

Oceaneering has announced that it has been authorized to expand its ROV fleet with the addition of six new vehicles set for delivery in December of this year.

Canyon Offshore has placed an order with Perry Tritech for the production of two 100 hp TRITON XL remotely operated vehicle systems.

Gazprom has nominated Petergaz to manage the offshore section of a pipeline link across the Black Sea, between Djubga, Russia, and Samsun, Turkey. The 400 km section, through water depths of up to 2,100 m, will allow gas throughput of more than 16 BB cm/y. First gas is scheduled for 2000.

Proser, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Framatome, has won a $3 million order from Total for the supply of gas treatment (dehydration) units for phase 3 of the Bonkot offshore platform in the Gulf of Thailand.

A consortium led by QC Data UK has been named the preferred contractor for the first stage of a shared industry Seismic Data Management System.

J.D.R. Cable Systems ordered and has been supplied with the first set of Timco fender units for the Heidrun Riser Protection Net CRPM in the North Sea.

Halter Marine launched two offshore supply boats, the Seacor Vision, 225 ft. anchor handling tug, and the C-Champion, a 220 ft. platform supply boat.

Delta, a manufacturer of wellheads, x-mas trees, valves and associated equipment, has been awarded a contract valued at US $11 million for the supply of wellheads, x-mas trees and field installation by Qatar Petroleum.

Real Time Engineering has won a £500,000 contract to develop and implement Pipeline Integrity Monitoring Systems for two pipelines exporting gas and condensate to Scotland from the Britannia Field in the UK North Sea.

Sonardyne International has won orders to supply acoustic position referencing systems to five vessels now being built at the Ulstein Verft shipyard in Norway.

Stirling Shipping has ordered a Norwegian designed £15 million platform supply vessel from Ferguson Shipbuilders (UK).

Mesa has completed the purchase of Greenhill Petroleum from WMC, the Australian mining company. The $267 million purchase includes proven reserves of 23 MMbbl and 42 Bcf both onshore and offshore of the Texas Gulf coast.

People

Clementine Gustin has been named director of corporate communications for the Elf Aquitaine Group.

Jean-Marie Gerbeaux has been named advisor to the chairman and CEO of Elf Aquitaine. He is in charge of developing new means of communication for the Group.

The Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association (PESA) has announced the election ofJames L. Bryan (Dresser Industries) to Chairman, Doug Rock (Smith International) to Vice Chairman, Zeke Zeringue (Halliburton Energy Services) to 1st Vice President, Dwight E. Beah (Houston Engineers) to Treasurer, and A.J. Kucera (OMSCO Industries) to Secretary.

John J. Kennedy has been appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of Smith International of Houston, Texas.

Lex van den Heuvel has been named regional vice-president Asia Pacific for Geoservices.

Jean Marine Gueguen has been named regional vice-president of Continental Europe and West Africa for Geoservices.

BJ Services (Aberdeen) has promotedStan Lawson to North Sea operations manager. Bert Platje becomes area operations manager for Continental Europe.

Declan O'Driscoll has been named regional vice-president of north Europe for Geoservices.

Andre' Floris has been named corporate manager of EPF and field management for Geoservices.

Michael Bouvaard has been named vice-president of the operations and research support group for Geoservices.

Apache has announced the executive appointments ofKevin Ikel, general manager in Egypt to vice president and general manager of Egypt, Rodney Eicheler to vice president - exploration and development and deputy general manager of Egypt, and Al Buron has been named vice president of Apache's western region.

Ponder Industries has electedEugene Butler chairman and CEO of the company succeeding Larry Armstrong who resigned as an officer to pursue other interests.

Tom Johnston has been named regional vice-president North America by Geoservices.

Halter Marine Group has namedAngus H. Cooper II, Burt H. Keenan, and Daniel J. Mortimer to its board of directors.

Schlumberger has namedGilles Michel manager marketing & technique for Sclumberger Integrated Project Management located in Paris, France.

Loomis International has been purchased byLarry C. Johnson, former executive vice president and CFO of the company, who is now the new president and CEO.

Charles M. McCall has been appointed senior vice-president of drilling operations by Cliffs Drilling Co.

Doug Stroud has been named vice-president of sales and marketing for Perry Tritech.

Ziad Awad has been named vice president of Schlumberger Dowell Africa-Mediterranean and will be located in the Paris, France office.

Pogo Producing has promotedGerald Morton, Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, to the position of Vice President - Law and Corporate Secretary.

Total Oil Marine has appointedHenry King former chairman of Denton Hall, and Rolf Erik Rolfsen managing director of Total Norge, to its board. Legal manager Angus Gow has been appointed company secretary.

Hans Wagner has been named president of the Balmoral Group International which has responsibility for producing riser buoyancy modules at their Houston facility and servicing the drilling markets of North and South America.

Prentiss "Sonny" A. Freeman has resigned as executive officer and director of American Oilfield Divers. He will remain as a consultant for the next three months.

Houston-based Global Marine Drilling announced the promotions ofJohn Munson to the position of president of the company's international turnkey subsidiary, Global Marine Integrated Services and Tom Morrow to vice president and general manager of Global Marine's Challenger Minerals.

Rod Stanley has been named the new president and chief executive of American Oilfield Divers.

Jack F. Brown has been hired as the vice-president of venture operations for MW Kellogg.

Bjoernar Skjevik has been appointed head of the Aker Stord fabrication yard in Norway. He succeeds Jon Lund, who has taken up a new post in Aker Maritime management in Oslo. Skjevik's previous position as head of the Aker Verdal fabrication yard has been taken by Eilif Due.

James F Guion has been named senior vice president of Kerr-McGee, with responsibility for production operations in the Exploration and Production unit.

Jerome Sean Brian Als, former managing director of Petrochem, has accepted the position of country manager for newly acquired Baker Performance Chemicals Trinidad Division.

Rockwell Smith has been named Vice President of Crowley Petroleum Transport, an affiliate of Crowley Maritime formed to operate tankers in the U.S. West tanker trades.

Bob Connon, managing director of Chevron UK and Mark Hope, UK director of Enterprise, have been appointed UKOOA executive officers.

John Battle is the UK's new energy minister at the Department of Trade and Industry (London).

Peter Sutherland will serve as interim non-executive chairman of BP (London) while the company seeks a long-term successor to Sir David Simon. The latter has left to become a minister in Britain's new Labor government.

Tim Thomas has become managing director of Canadian Petroleum UK (Staines), a subsidiary of Canadian Oxy. Dr. Harold Hughes, formerly director-general of the UK Offshore Operators Association, has become a non-executive director of the company.

Union Texas Petroleum (London) has addedHoward Dalton, ex-British Gas, and Roger Pierce to its board of directors.

Texaco (Aberdeen) has namedJeff Hallam manager for drilling services support operations in West Africa, the Middle East and Eurasia. Ken Gunn replaces him as drilling head for the Captain, Strathspey, Galley and Mariner projects.

Statoil (Stavanger) has created a new business area, known initially as Technology & Expertise, for whichRandi Grung Olsen has been named senior vice-president. Tor Fjaeran is promoted to senior vice president of Statoil's Exploration & Development Norway (LUN) division, with Stig Berseth becoming an executive vice president.

Aker Maritime (Oslo) has reorganized into five main business areas, reporting toSverre Skogen as president and CEO. Among other appointments, Svein Eggen heads US operations from Houston and Jan Wennesland is responsible for Products out of Kristiansand. Bjorne Rune Gjelsten has been nominated as chairman of the Aker Maritime board.

Tony Read has been appointed chief executive of the International Marine Contractors Association (London), with Jane Bugler as technical director.

Lighting specialist Victor Products (Newcastle, UK) has namedAlan Parkinson area sales manager for the North of England.

Shirley Mattingley has joined Axsia Serck Baker (Gloucester, UK) as marketing manager. James Cramond also joins as FPSO business development manager.

MacArtney Underwater Technology (Esbjerg, Denmark) has appointedNiels Erik Hedeager as managing director. Anders Andersen has a similar new title at Macartney Norge (Stavanger).

UK global positioning specialist Navstar Systems (Northampton has namedMichael Duckham as managing director, Clive de la Fuente as sales and business development manager, and Mark Sampson as sales manager.

Jonathan Kane has been elected vie chairman of the Council for Gas Detection and Environmental Monitoring (Winnersh, UK).

Tony Snead has been named vice president of Fisher-Rosemount Systems & Solutions (Bognor Regis, UK).

Mergers, Acquisitions & New Companies

Halliburton Energy Services has recently acquired a 26% ownership interest in Petroleum Engineering Services, making Halliburton the largest minority shareholder in the company further strengthening the alliance between the two to provide smart wells to the offshore industry.

Tidewater of New Orleans has announced that it has completed the acquisition of O.I.L. from Ocean Group of the United Kingdom for the purchase price of US $535 million.

Baker Performance Chemicals has acquired Petrochem Limited of Trinidad and Tobago, a specialty chemical supplier to the oilfield industry. The acquired business will operate as Baker Performance Chemicals Trinidad Division.

Stewart & Stevenson Operations is announcing the formation of an alliance agreement with ABB Sub-Sahara Afirca for jointly promoting operation and maintenance service for gas turbine equipment and turbine packages in the industry.

Schlumberger Limited and Baker Hughes have signed agreements through their respective business units Wireline & Testing and Baker Oil Tools for the joint development and marketing of the initial phase of Intelligent Completion Systems.

Smith International announced that it has completed the acquisition of Tri-Tech Fishing Services, a leading supplier of fishing, electric wireline freepoint and backoff, and other downhole remedial products for the Gulf of Mexico.

Otto York and CDS Engineering have established a strategic alliance, Otto York Separations, to promote two and three phase separations technologies and products worldwide.

Weatherford Enterra announced that it has acquired the assets of Matrix Oilfield Specialties, a surface and downhole equipment rental company to coiled tubing service companies and related users in Texas and Louisiana.

Dailey Petroleum Services has announced the acquisition of Air Drilling International (Denver, Colorado) and the acquisiton of Phoenix Drilling Services (Houston, Texas). The acquisitions are consistent with the company's strategy to increase its distribution of its directional drilling services and downhole tools.

The Energy Industries Council and the Northern Offshore Federation have combined resources to provide a joint office in Houston to serve their respective members and to continue to promote British energy technology and expertise to buyers worldwide.

Canyon Offshore, a newly formed remote intervention company based in Houston, Texas, has opened for business and will provide ROV's, manpower and remote systems engineering to clients operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

Company News

HAM Marine has been approved for $24.8 million loan guarantee from the US Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration to expand and modernize its shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Construction on the new facility is expected to begin in the first quarter of 1998.

HLS Offshore has changed the name of the company to Horizon Offshore Contractors. They have also changed the names of two of their vessels: LPC 101 is now Cajun Horizon; American Enterprise is now American Horizon.

Balmoral Group has acquired a 310,000-square-foot facility in Houston, Texas to manufacture a complete range of floatation products for oil and gas projects operating in deepwater Gulf of Mexico and around the world.

As of July 1, 1997, MMFG of Bristol, Virginia, the world's largest pultruder of composite structural components and the nation's largest precaster of polymer concrete products, will change its name to Strongwell.