Firms & Faces - OE July 2010

firms

Aker Solutions subsidiary STEP Offshore has been awarded exclusive rights to sell Derrick Equipment's solids control equipment and related products in Europe. The agreement is valid for capital equipment such as shale shakers, mud cleaners, degassers, centrifuges and flow dividers, as well as operational equipment, including shale shaker screens and spare parts. Under the agreement, STEP Offshore purchased Derrick Equipment's assets in Germany and will continue operating out of the same facilities with existing staff.

Baker Hughes acquired Russian electrical submersible pumping system company Oilpump Services. The acquisition gives Baker Hughes complete geographic coverage in the largest regional concentration of ESP installations, the company said. Baker Hughes previously operated its ESP service business from a single base in Noyabrsk. The acquisition adds three full-cycle bases in Nyagen, Nizhnevartovsk and Megion and four remote field service bases, with the capacity to service more than 10,000 ESP systems.

TESTING, TESTING: Emerson Process Management has launched a $30 million R&D center in Marshalltown, Iowa, designed to help customers tackle engineering challenges in the process manufacturing and energy industries. The 136,000ft² Emerson Innovation Center includes what Emerson says is the largest 'flow lab' for testing large valves under 'real-world plant conditions to ensure production reliability, efficiency, environmental compliance, and safety before being installed at a customer site'. The flow lab includes a flow loop system (pictured) that can test pressures up to 3500psi.

Exmar Shipmanagement & Cosulich Offshore Services, an Exmar Shipmanagement/Fratelli Cosulich 60:40 joint venture, has signed an agreement with OLT Offshore LNG Toscana to provide operation and maintenance services for its floating storage and regasification unit to be installed offshore Tuscany, Italy.

Seatronics has added Sonardyne's 6G acoustic and inertial navigation products to its list. The first company to take up this equipment is Subsea 7, working under contract to BP in block 31 offshore Angola, Seatronics said. Seatronics can now also offer the Sonic 2024 multibeam echosounder from Californiabased R2Sonic, acquiring two units each for its bases in Aberdeen, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Houston.

CLOSER TO THE ACTION: Norwegian technology company PTC has established its international business development and operations headquarters in Aberdeen. The company, which designs, manufactures and supplies artificial lift and chemical injection systems, plans to double its Aberdeen workforce over the next year.'We recognised that to grow our business globally, we needed to be based in Aberdeen, from where many of our clients are driving their global business,' said PTC founding director Tom Norland (pictured left) with business development advisor Alan Brodie.

SLP Engineering has sold the business and assets of subsidiary Sea & Land Power & Energy to Zefier UK II, a Smulders Group company. Smulders will continue to operate the business from Sea & Land's Lowestoft base, according to SLP Engineering's administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers (OE June). The agreement includes an exclusivity period giving Smulders an option to purchase SLP Engineering as well.

CGGVeritas has reported that Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement has acquired a shareholding stake of over 5%. CGGVeritas chairman and CEO Robert Brunck called the move 'a strong sign of recognition and further support for our highend technology strategy across our products and services and value creation for all our shareholders.'

Aveva has acquired the oil & gas business of ADB Systemer, including the WorkMate product suite. The Stavanger-based business will become a center for Aveva's operations integrity management solutions. Aveva has also picked up Logimatic Holdings' MARS product, which optimizes project control, logistics, materials management, production, resources and planning. It will be merged into Aveva's enterprise solutions group and aligned with its flagship Aveva NET solution.

Geosciences and engineering consulting company Knowledge Reservoir has teamed up with GreyStar to manage, develop and operate oil & gas producing assets around the world. Knowledge Reservoir's upstream consulting business includes expertise in deepwater, improved recovery, field redevelopment, pipeline engineering and other services. GreyStar manages a range of assets throughout North America, including several Gulf of Mexico oil & gas producing operations.

Paradigm Group has acquired Aberdeen energy services company WellMack Resources to form Paradigm Flow Solutions. The deal is the latest move by Paradigm to expand its Aberdeen operations following the acquisition last year of certain parts of Stable Group, which resulted in the creation of Paradigm Oilfield Services. Rob Bain, formerly a director of WellMack, has been appointed managing director of Paradigm Flow Solutions, and fellow WellMack director Hugh MacKenzie becomes technical director.

Dana Petroleum is to acquire the entire share capital of Petro Canada Netherlands from Petro Canada Holdings for about $393 million. The deal, subject to shareholder approval, involves Petro Canada Netherlands' upstream operations in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. The acquisition will boost Dana's number of producing fields from 36 to 54 and increase its production by 8-9000boe/d in 2011 and 10-14,000boe/d in 2012 as new projects come onstream.

Singapore-based engineering and construction services provider Halcyon Offshore has acquired Vantage Engineering, which specializes in mobilization and demobilization of offshore vessel-mounted structures and equipment. Vantage founder Kelvin Tan joins Halcyon's management team as part of the deal.

World Bank Group investment arm IFC has extended a $35 million loan to GAC Group to help the global shipping, logistics and marine services provider acquire new vessels to support offshore oil operations in a number of emerging markets. The loan will finance the purchase of up to six offshore supply vessels, three of which will operate in Kazakhstan while the remainder will go to Africa and the Middle East.

Lifting and marine services firm Cosalt Offshore has invested over £1 million developing a lifeboat division with an eye toward future expansion. The division comprises a service center, workshops and storage adjacent to Cosalt's facilities in Aberdeen.

Exova has opened a testing laboratory in Aberdeen, expanding its network of 111 laboratories in 24 countries. The Aberdeen lab provides a range of corrosion, mechanical and metallurgical tests and includes a welding school. Exova, formerly known as Bodycote Testing Group, is based in Edinburgh and employs over 3500 personnel worldwide.

Petrofac has purchased TNEI Services for £7.5 million. TNEI is a specialist consultancy based in the UK supporting the energy, power and renewables sectors.

Houston-based proppant supplier Carbo Ceramics has acquired all intellectual property rights and trademarks for Fracpro fracture design modeling software from the Gas Technology Institute. The purchase will allow continued development of the FracproPT software program as well as complementary well stimulation programs.

faces

Ashit Jain has been appointed COO of Global Industries and James Osborn the new chief marketing officer. Jain was previously SVP, Asia Pacific/ Middle East, based in Global's Singapore office. Osborn joins Global from IntecSea, where he was most recently SVP, business development. Global also announced that president Peter Atkinson will retire from the company in March 2011.

John Jordan (pictured) is the new chief executive for the Americas at oilfield logistics firm ASCO Group. Jordan, who most recently led a management team at Cranes International/ Sparrows Offshore, will be responsible for ASCO's North and South American logistics operations as well as its international freight forwarding business.

Robert Flexon is the new CEO at engineering and construction contractor Foster Wheeler. Flexon, who joined the company in 2009 as president and CEO of Foster Wheeler USA, succeeds Raymond Milchovich, who will stay on as non-executive chairman and serve as a consultant. Michael Liebelson is the new EVP and chief development officer.

Desmond King of Chevron has been appointed president of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, succeeding Ian Schott as the 69th president of the 30,000-member organization. King joined Chevron in 1981 and has held several positions including head of corporate strategic planning.

Tracy Terrell is the new MD of technology at Energistics. Terrell was founder and MD of consultancy EnterSys Group and served as CTO of The New Release.

Johan Pfeiffer has been named VP, global surface wellhead at FMC Technologies. Pfeiffer joined FMC in 1993 and most recently served as general manager, subsea eastern region.

Alex Russell (pictured) has been appointed head of management and professor of petroleum accounting at Robert Gordon University's Aberdeen Business School. He also serves as chair of the UK's Oil Industry Finance Association.

Richard Bachmann has been named chairman and interim CEO at Trico Marine Services. Trico COO Rishi Varma was also named president, a position he will hold in addition to his current job. The appointments replace former chairman, president and CEO Joseph Compofelice.

Guzhao Li (pictured) has been appointed associate at MMI Engineering's Houston office. Gushao joined the firm in 2002 and serves as the MMI Houston engineering manager.

Bill Cochrane is the new MD at Wood Group subsidiary ODL. Mark Docherty has joined the company as COO.

Frank Mathews (pictured) has been named president of Greene's Energy Group subsidiary Devin International, and is also VP of the Devin Business Group. Mathews' move comes after 31 years with Weatherford International.

Robert Biglin, currently director, commercial Southeast Asia, has been named VP and treasurer of Hess Corporation, effective 1 September.

Chris Nussbaum has been appointed chairman of SPE Aberdeen section. With 25 years' experience working in the oil and gas industry, Nussbaum succeeds Jeb Tyrie and will hold the chair until June 2011.

Steve Jewell (pictured) has been appointed the new subsurface director at Xodus Group (see story: The book of Xodus). Jewell joins the Aberdeenbased company from Composite Energy where he was COO.

Chris Finlayson is to move from Shell to join BG Group at the start of September as the company's EVP, Europe and Central Asia.

Tay Lim Heng (pictured) is the new deputy CEO and executive director, sustainable development, at Keppel Integrated Engineering. Tay previously served as deputy secretary at the Ministry of National Development and chief executive of the Maritime & Port Authority in Singapore.

Rick Burt joins CHC Helicopter as MD, Australia. Burt was previously SVP for oil & gas operations at Cougar Helicopters.

Chris Smith has joined RMSpumptools to assist in the expansion of the company's existing Malton, Scotland, facilities. A materials scientist, Smith will be responsible for setting up a new materials laboratory.

Louise McGowan (pictured) is the new sales and marketing manager at Electro-Flow Controls Group.