Firms
Greatship Subsea Solutions and Gregg Marine formed an alliance to offer subsea geotechnical site investigation services globally. The venture plans to offer a DP2 geotechnical drillship with a seafloor drill capable of coring and sampling in 3000m water depth, 150m below mudline, as well as a DP2 geotechnical site investigation vessel mounted with a deepwater CPT spread and other sampling and site investigation tools.
Teekay has reached an agreement with financially troubled Sevan Marine and its bondholders to acquire three Sevan FPSO units. The agreement also gives Teekay a 40% share of a recapitalized Sevan Marine and the right to acquire future FPSO projects developed by Sevan at fair market value. Teekay will spend $668 million for the Piranema, Hummingbird and Voyageur FPSOs, plus an additional $110-130 million to cover the remaining cost of upgrading the Voyageur. Upon closing, the two companies will enter a cooperation agreement covering joint marketing of offshore projects, development of future projects and project financing.
The Petroleum Extension Service (PETEX) at the University of Texas in Austin has opened a new 13,165ft2 learning and assessment center in Houston offering indoor and outdoor labs and Web-based instruction for oil & gas industry personnel. ‘Our new Learning Center is opening at a critical time for the oil & gas industry,' said PETEX director John Hoopingarner. ‘There has been an increase in training demands because of an increase in drilling demands.' An industry-wide ‘generational divide in the number of qualified recruits' has also heightened the need for oil & gas training, he added.
Gibson Applied Technology & Engineering has acquired Nomad Consulting, which provides project management and technical specialists in subsea systems installation, hook-up, and commissioning of upstream projects. Both companies have headquarters in Houston.
A McDermott International subsidiary and the Shoaibi Group's Eng Khalid S Al Shoaibi have formed McDermott Arabia Engineering to provide engineering and consulting services to the offshore oil & gas industry in Saudi Arabia. Based in Al Khobar, the company offers engineering services from FEED through to offshore commissioning.
Wison Floating Systems in Houston has changed its name to Wison Offshore & Marine (USA) as part of a global re-branding of the Shanghai headquartered group's upstream oil & gas division. ‘Changing our name not only fully aligns us with our team in China, but also better reflects the activities we pursue as a company,' said Wison Offshore & Marine (USA) president and CEO L Dwayne Breaux. ‘While our group in Houston is still focused on delivering the traditional deepwater floating systems on an EPCI or lease and operate basis, through our complete capabilities in China we can supply a greater variety of facilities to the market. This includes all types of offshore and marine products including drilling facilities, fixed platforms and modules, and marine construction and supply vessels.'
Transocean has opened a training centre and offices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 32,000ft2 facility, which will house the driller's Far East and Australia division, is close to the Petronas Towers and headed by MD Kaustubh Dighe.
Tesco Corporation bought Premiere Casing Services of Egypt for an undisclosed sum and will integrate it into its Dubai-based Middle East business unit. The deal mark's Tesco's first major move into the Egyptian tubular services market, and it will retain the Premiere senior management team and its 200-strong workforce.
Fluid handling specialist Hamworthy is opening a new service centre in Brazil. The company has offices in Rio and planned workshops and warehousing in Macae.
Spanish operator Repsol and BSC have established a joint research centre in Spain to tackle multiple research projects and develop advanced hydrocarbon exploration technology in areas such as deposit modeling and subsoil fluids monitoring. Ongoing projects at the new facility include Kaleidoscope, said by Repsol to enable the processing of seismic images 15 times more quickly than competitive systems.
FMC Technologies has launched a recruitment drive to fill 240 jobs in the UK: at the company's manufacturing facility in Dunfermline, its engineering research and development facility in Glasgow, and its engineering design centre in Aberdeen. The new recruits are expected to bring the FMC workforce in Scotland close to 1000.
Bureau Veritas is extending its partnerships in the Russian shipping and offshore sector, focusing on High Arctic offshore projects. BV and the Russian Register are working together to provide basic design review for the Shtokman FPU for the two tendering groups: Saipem, Samsung and Sofec (SSS) and Aker, Technip and SBM (ATS). BV's Offshore Rules have been translated into Russian and co-operation agreements have been reached with the Russian Register and the University of St Petersburg.
Hercules Offshore has increased its ownership stake in jackup operator Discovery Offshore to 28%, bringing its investment in the Luxembourg-based company to $34.1 million. Discovery currently has two ultra high-spec rigs under construction at the Keppel Fels yard in Singapore and scheduled for delivery 4Q 2013.
MSE (Consultants), Apply Altra and Apply Sørco have signed an agreement for extended cooperation for North Sea brownfield and greenfield projects, utilising the Apply group's design and process engineering capabilities and MSE's gas compression, turbine and pump system expertise.
Superior Energy Services has agreed to acquire Houstonbased Complete Production Services for $6.2 billion. The deal will create what Superior described as ‘the premier diversified mid-cap oilfield services company' and will be led by current Superior president and CEO David Dunlap.
Specialist downhole tool provider Peak Well Systems has appointed Sandnes-based GS Oiltools as its exclusive Norwegian representative.
North Africa Consulting & Shipping has been established to serve the oil & gas industry in the Mediterranean and North African regions, providing project and construction management, geophysics, engineering, logistics and shipping expertise. The NACS head office is in Tunisia, with branch offices in Egypt, Algeria, Libya and the UK, and it has strategic partnerships with Oilfields Marine Services and Cresta Engineering.
Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical has been established in Stockton- On-Tees, northeast England, to provide subsea cable and umbilical installation and trenching services in the offshore oil & gas and renewables sectors. A new SMD-designed Jet Trencher ROV ordered by the company is expected to be available in the summer of 2012.
Halliburton has entered into an agreement to acquire San Angelo, Texas-based oilfield chemical groupMulti-Chem, founded in 1993. Halliburton completion and production division SVP Marc Edwards commented: ‘Integrating fracture stimulation design with life-of-well chemistry solutions will enable our customers to optimize reservoir management and positively impact production decline curves.'
Faces
Alexander Dodds will serve as the BP-nominated executive director responsible for upstream activities. He was previously the head of ExxonMobil's business in Qatar.
Jim Mulva (pictured) will retire as chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips when the company's restructuring into two independent entities is complete in 2Q 2012. Ryan Lance, currently SVP, E&P international, will become chairman and CEO of the upstream company. Greg Garland, SVP, E&P Americas, will head up the new downstream organization.
Jerel ‘Jerry' Gilmore (pictured) has been appointed president of decommissioning specialist TSB Offshore (formerly Twachtman Snyder & Byrd). He has over 37 years' experience in the oil & gas construction industry and most recently served as VP operations for Proserv Offshore.
Tony Allen, a 30-year industry veteran, has been appointed EVP for Kvaerner's International business area. He previously held corporate management roles with a number of contractors, including Canada's SNC-Lavalin and early North Sea pioneers Earl & Wright and Humphreys & Glasgow, and also served as a project manager and technical director for Kvaerner in its earlier manifestation in the 1990s.
Simon Turner is stepping down as operations director of Mermaid Offshore Services to pursue personal interests. He had previously served as commercial director and GM during his 20-year tenure with the company.
Nick Haines (pictured) has joined the Penspen offshore engineering stream in London as senior subsea specialist. Previously with JP Kenny, he served a four-year stint as engineering manager for BP's ultra deepwater block 31 development off Angola.
Peter Brazier has been appointed as Australia regional manager of ITF, based in Perth. Ryan McPherson, ITF regional director for the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, will oversee the industry technology facilitator's base in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, until a full time technology analyst is appointed next year.
Frode Linge (pictured) will head up Senergy's new Oslo regional office as project/asset manager. He was previously with Shell, Petroleum Development Oman and, latterly, Energy Consulting.
Mike Arnold (pictured) has been appointed MD of new Bibby Offshore subsidiary Bibby Remote Intervention, based in Aberdeen. A 28-year subsea industry veteran, Arnold most recently served as MD of Hallin Marine's western division having earlier founded specialist ROV contractor, Rovtech, subsequently acquired by Fugro.
BUTTERFLY MINDS: A new five-year global Enterprise Framework Agreement (EFA) signed at Shell's corporate HQ in The Hague identifies US butterfly valve products specialist Bray International as a supplier of more than 2500 line items of Bray (resilient and Teflon seated), McCannaLok (high performance/double offset) and Tri Lok (triple offset) butterfly products and related services. The EFA encompasses all Shell direct operations and its affiliates around the world for both capital and operating expenditures. Pictured at the recent signing are (left to right): Wayne Hutchinson, VP enterprise categories and supplies management contract procurement, Shell; Leonard Moore, Bray's global market manager, oil & gas sales, and VP sales & marketing, USA; Craig Brown, president & CEO of Bray International; and Erik Bonino, Shell's EVP project & engineering services, projects & technology.
RAM HOME: OEM ram provider Variable Bore Rams has opened an office in Broussard, Louisiana. The facility (pictured) includes a 26,654ft2 shop and warehouse along with a 3000ft2 climatecontrolled elastomer storage room. The new location is intended to offer easier access to clients and space for equipment with room for inventory expansion.
LUANDA OPENING: Pictured at the official opening of KBR's new Angola Operating Center in Luanda are (left to right): Chris Sherertz, VP business development, KBR Upstream; John Quinn, president, downstream, and Rebel Le Boeuf, SVP, KBR Upstream.
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