FIRMS and FACES

FMC Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire control and automation system solutions provider Control Systems International (CSI). Founded in 1968, CSI is headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas, and has operations in Irvine, California, and London, England. Robert Potter, FMC energy systems EVP, said the acquisition provides immediate benefits for the company's measurement solutions business and supports its long-term expansion strategy for subsea production and processing systems.

Petrofac has acquired KW, a UK-based high-end subsea pipeline consulting and engineering services business with offices in Woking and Aberdeen.

Tenaris and CRC-Evans have entered into a commercial agreement to offer an integral package of tubular line pipe and welding technologies for offshore operations. The deal follows the technical cooperation agreement signed early last year, which includes permanent R&D activities using CRC-Evans state-ofthe- art welding solutions at the Tenaris R&D Center in Mexico.

Norwegian technical ship and rig management services provider Star Information Systems (SIS) is establishing a permanent base in Rio de Janeiro, headed by Hans- Kristian Fjaerem. SIS customers operating in Brazil's burgeoning offshore sector include Teekay Petrojarl, Farstad Shipping, Solstad Offshore, Ocean Rig, BW Offshore, and Siem Offshore.

The solutions group of Crowley Maritime and PB Towage, part of the Pacific Basin Shipping group, have formed a business alliance that combines their respective services and regional positioning to collectively broaden their project management, marine project cargo and logistics capabilities in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Aker Solutions is strengthening its presence in northern Norway with the acquisition of Sandnessjøen Engineering, which has for 20 years supplied engineering and project management services to the oil & gas and construction industries in the Sandnessjøen area. The company will continue to be headed up byHalvard Lie and will work closely with Aker's new Tromsø office.

Scotland's Weir Group has acquired Novatech, a Dallas, Texas-based and family-owned manufacturer of well service pump valves and valve seats for upstream oil and gas applications, for $176 million.

Total has become a member of the World Ocean Council, joining 40 other companies in in an alliance addressing today's ocean stewardship challenges and opportunities facing ocean industries. 

Faces

Malcolm Brinded (pictured), a 37-year veteran of the Royal Dutch Shell group, is stepping down as an executive director with effect from 1 April. Andrew Brown, currently EVP Qatar, will take over Brinded's responsibilities for Shell's upstream international business as a member of the executive committee from the same date.

Joe Burkhardt will receive an OTC distinguished achievement award in Houston next month for leading the concept and system engineering of Exxon USA's Subsea Production System (SPS), a groundbreaking shallow-water pilot program that was itself recognized as OTC's project of the year in the early 1970s.

José Miranda Formigli Filho (pictured) is the new head of E&P at Petrobras, replacingGuilherme de Oliveira Estrella. Formigli, a civil engineer, has served the Brazilian state oil company in E&P roles for 29 years, latterly as Pre-salt E&P executive manager. In another recent Petrobras senior management appointment, José Alcides Santoro Martins stepped up to the Gas & Energy executive post left vacant by Maria das Graças Silva Foster. Martins was previously executive manager, energy operations.

Steve Preston (pictured) and John Smith join the Offshore Installation Group (OIG) this month as CEO and executive vice chairman, respectively. Preston joins OIG from Heerema Marine Contractors where he served as EVP, commercial & technology. Mechanical engineer Smith was the inaugural CEO of Subsea7 and later served as CEO of Clough. He and Preston are past presidents of IMCA.

Claudi Santiago, former president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas has joined First Reserve as MD and COO, based in the energy investment firm's London office.

Bill Stobaugh (pictured) has been promoted to EVP corporate planning & business development at Murphy Oil Corporation. He will continue to report to president and CEO David Wood. Tom Mireles moves up to VP in Stobaugh's team.

Stephen Colville has been named as president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors following the retirement of Dr Lee Hunt.

Jeffrey Soine is CEO and president of Houston-based Renaissance Offshore, recently started up with a $300 million equity commitment from Quantum Energy Partners to acquire and redevelop legacy oil producing properties in the shallow water Gulf of Mexico. Soine was EVP of Woodside Energy's international business unit and prior to that served as W&T Offshore's asset acquisitions manager.

Brian Moore (pictured left) has been appointed senior EVP North America for Superior Energy Services and will oversee the company's completion and production service lines. From March 2007 until the merger between Complete Production Services and Superior, Moore was Complete's president and COO. Superior also has two new EVPs: Westy Ballard (pictured), responsible for developing core services in international markets, and Greg Rosenstein, responsible for corporate development.

Craig Muir has been appointed MD of Petrofac's engineering & consulting services business and will be based in the Sharjah office. Most recently Muir was Amec's Abu Dhabibased EVP responsible for regional growth in the Middle East, Africa and the CIS.

Dirk Warzecha (pictured) will take over from the retiring Ralf to Baben as COO and an executive director of Hamburg-headquartered RWE Dea on 1 January 2013. Warzecha, a petroleum engineer, is currently GM of RWE Dea Egypt in Cairo.

Curt Terje Espedal has become the new European regional manager for Roxar Software Solutions. He joined the Emerson Process Management business unit from Landmark Graphics, where he was MD Norwegian operations.

Stephane Constant (pictured) has taken up the newly created, full-time post of CTO to lead the Xodus Group's integration of surface and subsurface services. Constant worked as a reservoir engineer for Elf and Agip in the UK and Premier Oil in Singapore before becoming technical director and co-founder of Horizon Energy Partners, sold to SGS in 2008. He joined Xodus last year as a non-executive director.

Alexandre Imperial has been named MD of DNV's new deepwater technology centre in Singapore.

Colin Erskine and Mike Grubb have been appointed global business director and technical manager, respectively, at Forum Subsea Technologies' rental equipment and calibration services business unit, DPS Offshore.

Glynn Rhinehart (pictured) has been named president of Fugro Chance, replacing Phil Stutes who has been promoted to Americas regional director of Fugro's survey division. Dr Guy Oliver (pictured) has been named president of Fugro Robertson in Houston. He joined the former Robertson Research International as a sedimentologist in 1997.

Irwan Halik heads Peak Well Systems' newly opened Southeast Asia regional office in Kuala Lumpur as technical sales manager. Halik, a petroleum engineer, was with ExxonMobil E&P Malaysia for five years, latterly as a subsurface engineer specialising in well interventions.

Joseph Devoltz (pictured) has joined Environmental Drilling Solutions in Lafayette, Louisiana, as HSE/QA manager. He was previously with MI-Swaco.

Albert Skiba has been appointed Gulf of Mexico VP for safety training and skills body OPITO International. Back at Aberdeen headquarters, Larraine Boorman (pictured) has taken over the OPITO reins from David Binnie. 

Issue: March 2012

PRIZE GUYS: Newcastle-based umbilical systems supplier Duco landed the top honour – subsea company of the year – at the Subsea UK annual awards dinner in Aberdeen last month. The company has seen turnover increase year on year with over £100 million in new contracts awarded in 2011 alone. Other winners this year included Nautronix, whose NAS eBOP (Nautronix Subsea Emergency Blowout Preventer) system secured the innovation and technology award; Specialist Subsea Services (new enterprise);Bowtech (global exports) and Expro (safety leadership). Robert Eddon of Soil Machine Dynamics received the emerging talent award for his work in implementing SM D's successful graduate and mentor scheme.

Jerry Baker, chief engineer at Atkins, received Subsea UK's outstanding contribution award in Aberdeen last month. In a career spanning over 40 years, he has championed development and promotion of subsea integrity, authoring the industry's first guidelines to concentrate on integrity management.