Business Briefs

Cameron delivers miles of riser

Cameron risers [14,448 bytes].

Cameron says it is setting a new industry measurement standard for riser deliveries. Instead of measuring the amount of riser delivered in feet, Cameron is measuring it in miles. Cameron has delivered more than 2.5 miles of riser in the first quarter of 1997 and will be shipping a total of 5.5 miles of riser by the end of the year. Cameron attributes this high demand in the manufacture and repair of riser systems to the industry-wide move to deeper waters and the resulting upsurge in rig upgrades.

Nabors completes land rig conversion

Totruga L2S [12,650 bytes].

Nabors Offshore Drilling has completed the conversion of the Tortuga L2S, mudslide/conventional platform drilling rig. The Torguga is a converted land rig which is set to begin work in the Gulf of Mexico within the next few months. This is the company's second land to sea conversion.

Contracts

Wyman Gordon has been awarded a multimillion-dollar turnkey contract from Shell Offshore for the complete supply of riser connectors for the Ursa tension leg platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Manufacture will be done at its Houston plant.

Kvaerner Oil & Gas has been invited to join the alliance which is seeking to develop gas fields, offshore Nova Scotia, Canada for the Sable Offshore Energy Project.

August Systems has received an order via Overseas Bechtel, for an emergency shutdown system for the Port Fortin LNG facility of the Atlantic LNG company of Trinidad and Tobago.

Coflexip Stena Offshore has ordered two Triton XL: Heavy Work remotely operated vehicles from Perry Tritech.

Global Industries has completed a contract with Burlington Resources laying and burying two separate pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico utilizing its Delta I and Mudbug pipelay barges.

TDI-Halter has signed a contract with Diamond Offshore Drilling for the conversion of the Levingston III slot drilling unit, Ocean Warwick, to a cantilevered drilling unit.

Cameron has delivered the first of its third generation Multiplex (MUX) Drilling Control Systems to be used on 5,000 ft. of water in harsh environment West of Shetlands.

Cooper Rolls has received an order for 15 Coberra 6000 packages to be installed in gas transmission and offshore gas reinjection services in the US, Canada, Slovakia, and the North Sea.

MAI has won a US$1.5 million award from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) to study the redevelopment of seven of Azerbaijan's major offshore oil fields.

Oceaneering has approved the construction of a multiservice vessel for deepwater installation work in the Gulf of Mexico.

Pipeline Engineering (UK) has been awarded a major contract for 20 vertical and horizontal installation pig traps by Iranian Offshore Engineering & Construction.

Air Comfort of Beaumont, Texas has recently signed a contract with Samsung Heavy Industries to design and manufacture air conditioning equipment for two new Reading & Bates 726 ft. deep water drillships.

Nautronix has been awarded a contract to supply the Hallibutron 301 stimulation vessel operating in the Persian Gulf with an ASK4001 Dynamic Positioning System.

People

Western Geophysical's founder, Henry Salvatori, died Sunday, July 6 at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 96. Salvatori established Western in 1933, served as president until 1958, and retired in 1968. After his retirement, Salvatori gained prominance as a philanthropist for educational institutions, cultural and civic groups, and conservative political causes.

Stefano Bianchi has been named President and CEO for Sonsub International and Bruce Gilman has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer.

Bob Connon, managing director of Chevron Europe, and Mark Hope, executive director of Enterprise Oil, have been named executive officers for the UK Offshore Operators Association (London).

Sven Svedman, former Norwegian ambassador to Israel, has been appointed head of Intsok (Stavanger), the foundation that promotes Norway's oil industry internationally.

Clement Chou is the manager of Chevron Europe's new Business Development Group (Aberdeen).

Conoco UK (Aberdeen) has named Carin Knickel as general manager, business development. Her predecessor, Glen Bishop, moves to the new post of general manager, international exploration. Reporting to him will be Phil Close, manager of the new international operating unit. Finally, Bob Pelzer has become general manager of Conoco (UK)'s legal and security department.

Phillips Petroleum UK (Woking) has appointed Bud Chamberlain to replace Allyn Risley as UK managing director. Risley has moved to Bartlesville as VP, International Liquefied Gas.

BP (London) has confirmed that Peter Sutherland will serve as chairman in a non-executive capacity. Dr Chris Gibson-Smith and Richard Olver will also join shortly as managing directors, while Rodney Chase becomes deputy group chief executive from next January.

Weatherford Enterra has elected Thomas J. Edelman a director of the company.

BJ Services has appointed John Adams Manager of the company's recently created BJ Process and Pipeline Services Division.

Dr Chris Wright has been appointed director, New Business by Lasmo (London).

Max Pitcher, formerly of Conoco, has been named Director to Brunswick Technologies board of directors.

Arve Thorvik has become senior VP for health, the environ ment and safety at Statoil (Stavanger).

Grant Ferguson has been appointed vice president, Europe/Africa, for Western Atlas Logging Services, based in London.

Baker Hughes INTEQ has named S. Dwight Strickland to the position of Vice President, Fluids.

Mark Crabbe has become a Partner and Sales Director of Virtual Results International, a company that uses New Media to serve the oil and gas industry.

Kv'rner Oilfield Products (London) has reorganized into five separate divisions. Mike Teers will be president of the US division, with Al Williams executive vice-president. Bernie Anson is the managing director in the UK, with units in Norway, Brazil and Asia Pacific headed respectively by Oddvar Dankertsen, Kjell Pedersen and Geoff Ansley.

Spectrum (Woking) has appointed Steve Batchelor as sales and business development manager for its Data Management Services division.

BJ Services has appointed Stan Lawson to North Sea Operations Manager and Bert Platje to Area Operations Manager for Continental Europe.

Sean Sutcliffe is replacing Dr Lawrence Jackson, who is set to retire, as president of Pipeline Integrity International (Cramlington, UK).

Sjef van Raamsdonk is the new managing director of the Den Helder Training Center (den Helder, The Netherlands).

Umbilical specialist JDR Cable System (Littleport, UK) has appointed David Simpson as quality manager and Malcolm Giles as senior project engineer. Kevin Johnson becomes operations manager in Houston.

Compressor maker Peter Brotherhood (Peterborough, UK) has named Ian Arbon as managing director.

New law firm Cameron McKenna has appointed Robert Palmer as a partner in its Oil and Gas team (Aberdeen).

Michael Stewart has been appointed to the newly-created position of Information Systems Manager for Syntroleum.

M.W. Kellogg has named R. Clark Goode, Jr. vice chairman and CEO and Eric Moorehead president of M.W. Kellogg Technology.

James Woods (formerly of Baker Hughes) has joined CONEMSCO as chairman and Peter Menikoff has been named president and CEO.

BW/IP has elected Bernard G. Rethore the company's president and chielf executive officer to the additional position of chairman of the Board of Directors.

Cameron has appointed Joe Vinson Vice President, Human Resources.

General Marine Leasing has announced the hiring of three new employees: Bob Neil has been named General Manager, Glenn Aguilar is the new Operation Manager for all fabrication yard operations and special projects, and Sally Bruno has been named Marketing Director and International Sales.

Transocean Offshore has named W. Dennis Heagney to the Company's board of directors to fill the remaining term of Reidar Lund, who resigned as a director effective May 31.

Ronald L. Kuehn Jr. will remain Chairman and CEO of Sonat through April 2001.

Pamela E. Perry has been named Vice-President of marketing for Sonat.

George F Sandison has been named President of Saudi Arabian Texaco.

Robert Dertz has been appointed as vice president of manufacturing at The Louis Allis Company.

Bruce Lokay has been named Vice-President of sales and marketing for Perry Tritech.

Brian K. Ayers has been elected Vice-President for domestic exploration of Coastal Oil & Gas, the exploration and production subsidiary of Coastal Corp.

James R. Storfer has been elected senior vice president for finance and administration of its unregulated natural gas subsidiary, Coastal Gas Services.

James E. Moylan, Jr., is the new senior vice-president and chief financial officer of Sonat.

President of Sonat Services James A. Rubright, has been promoted to president of Southern Natural Gas and head of Sonat Pipeline Group. He will continue in his current position as senior vice-president of Sonat.

George F. Sandison has been named President of Saudi Arabian Texaco. He will be located in the Partitioned Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Alliance Engineering (Houston, Texas) has announced the appointment of James H. Crestinger, Jr. to Project Manager. His duties will include engineering, design, and project services for the oil and gas industry.

Mergers, Acquisitions & New Companies

Baker Hughes Process Systems has merged with PETRECO, formerly a division of Petrolite. PETRECO is a manufacturer of dehydrators, desalters, gas floatation systems, distallate treaters and sweetners located in Houston, Texas.

Cameron and Falcon Drilling have entered into an alliance for the supply of drilling products and services including repair, installation and maintenance services, and technical support and storage.

Camco Products and Services has acquired CAMLOW S.A.I.C. of Argentina and Southern Oilfield Supply and Manufacturing in Hammond, Louisiana.

Underwater Technology has entered into an exclusive distributorship agreement with John S. Smart Consulting Engineers to distribute Trenton wax tapes to the offshore, shipping, and port facilities industries.

Cooper Cameron has acquired the assets of Wellhead Services (New Mexico and Colorado) and Marta-Co Wellhead (Vernal, Utah).

Weatherford Enterra announced the closing of the sale of the Company's subsidiary Total Engineering Service Team (TEST) to National Tank Company (NATCO) of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Enron has confirmed the completion of a merger with Portland General.

Coflexip Stena Offshore announced that it

has purchased an equity interest in Cal Dive International and an agreement with Cal Dive to form a strategic alliance to jointly pursue deepwater opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Company News

Otto H. York has announced the formation of Otto York Separations which will provide computational fluid dynamics analysis.

Cameron has broken ground for a new engineering test facility housing a complete laboratory to test Cameron oilfield equipment.

Houston based Precision Tube technology is opening a full Coiled tubing Service Center in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, the first of its king in Canada.

Abbeville Lumber of Abbeville, Louisiana, is expanding and spinning off its offshore division to form a new company Abbeville Offshore Quarters by enlarging and adding on to its shop facility.

AEA Technology's NDT Centre has won a contract to supply King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia with an integrated horizontal well test facility and X-ray scanner system.

Frigstad Offshore semi Galaxy Driller has received the contract from Conoco Indonesia for a drilling program on the Natuna area of the South China Sea.

Sonsub has completed a contract with Global Industries to assist in the installation of a 3-in. glycol supply flowline connecting Shell's deepwater Mensa development to the platform at West Delta 143A.

Perry Tritech has sold two 100 hp Triton XL, remotely operated vehicles to Cal Dive.

Fugro has won an alliance contract with Rockwater to provide survey and remotely operated vehicle services for the company's projects offshore the UK and Norway between 1997 and 1999.

Global Industries has completed two pipeline installation contracts in the Gulf of Mexico, one for Vastar and the other for Sonat Exploration.

Brown Brothers has received orders for a swivel stack to be installed on the Ramform floating production, storage, and offloading vessel for Conoco's Banff Field.

American Oilfield Divers' American Pacific Marine division has received a $4.5 million contract from the US Navy for repairs on the Wilson Cove Pier on San Clemente Island.

Aker McNulty has received the contract for the modification of the semi Northern Producer from Sea Production.

Ferguson Seacabs has received a £1 million contract from McDermott for the construction of a 35-ton workshop module and 18-ton local equipment room for the Occidental PS1D platform in Qatar.