JPT
Go
spacer

Vol. 58 No. 4

April 2006

Company News


CORPORATE MOVES

  • Shell will locate its latest technology center, Shell Technology India, in Bangalore. The center will deliver high-end technical studies, projects, and technical services for Shell across the globe, as well as for supporting interests in India. The center will open in the second half of 2006 and will move to a purpose-built campus in 2009.

  • Hallin Marine Subsea Intl. formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Hallin Marine U.K. Ltd., to compete for subsea intervention work in the North Sea. The office will be located in Aberdeen. The company provides subsea construction and inspection solutions using support vessels, saturation diving systems, air/mixed gas diving spreads, and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).

  • ReedHycalog announced plans to build a new, purpose-built headquarters and technology center near Conroe, Texas. The center will consolidate three other Houston-area facilities into one location.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

  • Integra Group, a corporation formed to pursue the consolidation of Russian oilfield service companies, announced a U.S. $30 million acquisition of a 75.01% controlling stake in JSC Tyumenneftegeophysica (TNGF). TNGF is a Russian leader in geophysical surveys and seismic services.

  • Repsol YPF acquired a 10% interest in West Siberian Resources (WSR), a company with oil and gas assets in the Russian Federation, and plans to develop projects where WSR owns exploration assets. The company said the move aligns with its goal of geographic diversification.

  • GeoLOGIC Systems Ltd. has purchased the PetroCube product line from software developer PetroSleuth Inc. The software line provides financial, technical, and geostatistical reservoir-analysis tools. GeoLOGIC also entered into a long-term development agreement with AJM Petroleum Consultants, which had been the exclusive marketer of PetroCube products.

  • Baker Hughes announced that it has acquired Nova Technology Corp. of Broussard, Louisiana, for approximately U.S. $70 million in cash and assumed debt. Nova is a supplier of permanent monitoring, chemical-injection systems, and multiline services for deepwater and subsea oil- and gas-well applications and has contracts in the Gulf of Mexico, west Africa, Sakhalin Island, and Brazil.

  • Occidental Petroleum announced that it has completed the acquisition of Vintage Petroleum Inc. The acquisition adds to Occidental’s holdings in its core areas in Latin America, California, and the Middle East. Vintage’s production averaged more than 75,000 BOEPD.

CONTRACTS

  • Shell and Sonatrach signed a memorandum of understanding covering multiple business initiatives. Areas of cooperation include investigating the commercial and technical feasibility for joint developments in Algeria—including upstream development projects, liquefied natural gas, products, and marketing—and evaluating possible asset swaps for upstream exploration, development, and appraisal projects.

  • Wood Group Engineering–North Sea has been awarded a 2-year, renewable supply-chain services contract by Karazhanbasmunai JSC, a subsidiary of Nations Energy Company Ltd., to provide E&P supply-chain management services in Aktau, Republic of Kazakhstan. The contract, valued at U.S. $10 million, is the first for Wood Group in Kazakhstan, with procurement, contracts, inventory, and logistics management the primary contract services.

  • Scomi Group Bhd. subsidiary Kota Minerals & Chemicals Sdn. Bhd. (KMC) has been awarded five contracts for the provision of drilling-fluid materials, equipment, and services in Malaysia. The contracts were awarded separately by Sarawak Shell Bhd./Sabah Shell Petroleum Co. Ltd., Nippon Oil Exploration Malaysia Ltd., Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd., and ExxonMobil E&P Malaysia.

  • Veritas DGC Ltd., through its joint venture company Veritas Caspian LLP, has concluded an agreement with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Kazakhstan for the acquisition of non-exclusive seismic data for the open acreage of the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. The Kazakhstan data library project, officially named the State Geophysical Survey of the Republic of Kazakhstan, will be the core focus of Veritas Caspian.

  • Common Data Access (CDA) awarded Schlumberger Information Solutions a contract for the management and ongoing development of the CDA Well DataStore, one of the world’s largest single collections of digital oil- and gas-well information. The 5-year contract is valued at U.S. $9 million. CDA is a subsidiary of the U.K. Offshore Operators Assn.

  • McDermott Intl. reported that a subsidiary of J. Ray McDermott S.A. has been awarded two contracts by Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO) to provide engineering, procurement, construction, and installation services in Saudi Arabia. The first contract is for an integrated wellhead jacket in the Al-Khafji oil field offshore Saudi Arabia, while the second will support the expansion of KJO’s loading facilities in the offshore Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

  • Halliburton has been awarded a 2-year, U.S. $40 million multiservice contract by Occidental Mukhaizna, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, for the Mukhaizna field in the Sultanate of Oman. The contract calls for Halliburton to provide a range of services including fluid services, cementing, casing attachments, directional drilling, mud logging, reservoir coring, and completion tools.

  • Transocean Inc. said that three of its high-specification deepwater floaters, the Transocean Marianas, Jack Bates, and Sedco 709, have been awarded contracts of 2–3 years for drilling operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and west Africa. The contracts were signed with BP, Woodside Energy, and Shell Nigeria E&P Co.

  • SPS has been awarded a contract by BHP Billiton for SPS proprietary wellbore preparation services for the Neptune Atwater Valley 574 Unit, a seven subsea well project in the Gulf of Mexico. SPS provides displacement and mechanical wellbore-cleanup systems to ensure that the wellbore is in optimal condition before completion.

  • Stolt Offshore has received contract awards totaling approximately $300 million from Petrobras in Brazil. The first contract is for the tie-in of oil export pipelines from the Roncador, Marlim Sul, and Marlin Leste fields. A second contract extends an existing contract to install flexible flowlines and risers in water depths of up to 2000 m. Two additional awards extend contracts for ROVs.

  • Landmark, a division of Halliburton’s Digital and Consulting Solutions Div., has been awarded a 2-year, multimillion-dollar contract to support, train, and consult for Petrobras on a full suite of software and information technology services.