Companies in the news

Enerflex Systems Ltd. opened their $38-million gas compressor package manufacturing and office facility on a 40-acre site in southeast Calgary, Canada. The 328,000-sq-ft facility will accommodate Enerflex Manufacturing, Enerflex Power Systems and Enerflex Systems corporate group.

Chevron Corp. acquired 100% of Petrolera Argentina San Jorge, including proved reserves of 180 million boe with potential reserves of more than 400 million boe.

Talisman signed an agreement with Elf Exploration UK and Elf Transportation Ltd. to acquire interests in the Fourth Round Assets in the North Sea in exchange for cash and other assets.

The Virginia State Corp. Commission approved the merger of Dominion Resources Inc. and Consolidated Natural Gas Co. CNG’s Virginia Natural Gas, Inc., will be sold.

Veritas DGC Inc. began construction on its new corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas. The new facility will include two, three-story office buildings and a single-story 61,300-sq-ft technical services building. The office buildings will be complete in September 2000.

Trans-Dominion Energy Corp. was issued a joint license with Petrotrin, Trinidad’s state-owned oil company, for an extensive exploration project covering Trinidad’s South West Peninsula.

Production tests in Bolivian wells SAL-X-10 (San Alberto X-10) in Block San Alberto, in 1998, and Sábalo X-1 in San Antonio this year revealed gas production capacities beyond 6.5 MMcfd per well for a consortium led by Petrobras Bolivia S.A. Reserves are now estimated to be 1 Tcf and 16 million bbl of condensate.

Pendaries Petroleum Ltd. will increase its interest in Block 04/36 in China’s Bohai Bay to 18.2%, following withdrawal of a partner from the block. A subsidiary of Kerr-McGee owns the remainder of foreign interest in the block.

Bellwether Exploration said the company’s new strategy will be to exploit and expand its three core areas in W. Texas, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico by acquisition and expanded drilling. Plans include expanding the number of operated fields within its portfolio, extending the reserve life index and regularly divesting mature properties. An international strategy will focus on acquiring and exploiting producing fields. The strategy also includes improving exploration success by drilling in and around existing core areas, both domestically and internationally, and favoring low-risk exploration, acquisitions and exploitation. All functions that do not add significant value will be outsourced.

Big Bear Exploration Ltd. successfully completed the sale of substantially all of the assets of Blue Range Resource Corp. to Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.

Chevron and its Tengizchevroil partners celebrated the 100th anniversary of the country’s oil industry. Among those attending the celebration were President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev and Richard Matzke, president of Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc.

TransCanada completed its sale of Angus Chemical to The Dow Chemical Co.

Caminus LLC completed its acquisition of Texas-based DC Systems, Inc.

National Environmental Service Co. signed a letter of intent to acquire Summit Environmental Services of Enid, Oklahoma.

Penn West Petroleum closed its acquisition of 12,300 bpd of oil and liquids and 57 MMcf of gas from BP Amoco. The assets are located adjacent to Penn West’s existing operations in Canada’s Drayton Valley and Willesden Green areas of Alberta and the Hoosier area of Saskatchewan.

EnerVest Energy acquired interests in 30 wells located in Wyoming’s Pine Canyon and Nitchie Gulch fields.

Coastal Oil & Gas Corp. exchanged selected assets in Wyoming and Texas for Santa Fe Snyder’s assets in Utah, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico plus a cash payment.

Weatherford acquired Cardium Tool Services, which specializes in the design, engineering, manufacture and service of completion tools and specialty completion systems. Weatherford’s Grant Prideco subsidiary acquired a controlling 54% interest in H-Tech, a Singapore-based drill pipe manufacturer.

The new name of the firm created by the merger of Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., and Nabors Offshore Drilling, Inc., is Nabors Offshore Corp.

Red Man Pipe & Supply Co. intends to acquire assets and operations of R. J. Gallagher Co.

Daily International Inc. closed its acquisition by Weatherford International, Inc.

LICEnergy acquired the assets of Energy Solutions Inc.

Schlumberger’s GeoQuest has acquired Merak. Merak will retain its brand name, and will add Geoquest’s Oilfield Manager (OFM) as its fourth product line.

The European Commission in Brussels gave its approval of the merger between Pakhoed and Royal Van Ommeren.

Santa Fe Snyder signed a Gas Sales and Purchase Letter Agreement for the 20-year sale of natural gas from the Jabung Block by PERTAMINA, Indonesia’s state oil and gas company to PowerGas Ltd., a subsidiary of Singapore Power.

Woodside Energy Ltd. agreed to acquire Petroz Offshore Pty Ltd. for $5 million.

Gulfstream Resources Canada acquired Hardy Exploration & Production (India) Inc.

Canadian Occidental is increasing its 1999 capital budget investment in Canada by $44 million to $614. The majority is earmarked for drilling high-volume-horizontal-production wells, waterflood programs and facility expansion and upgrades. About $12 million will be earmarked for exploration, including a 3-D seismic program in the Findlay area.

Italy’s Eni subsidiary signed an agreement to transfer to Algeria’s Sonatrach a 40% interest in the Gardan Block 3 in south Yemen.

Bowridge Resource Group Inc. agreed to acquire Custom Welding Services Ltd.

The Hanover Compressor Co. joined Ziff Energy in its first Reducing Field Operating Costs/Best Practices Rocky Mountain study. The study will evaluate operating costs and practices for various producing fields in Green River and Wind River basins of southwestern Wyoming.

Copyright © 1999 World Oil
Copyright © 1999 Gulf Publishing Company