Companies in the news

Schlumberger and Baker Hughes have now closed their previously announced transaction creating the seismic joint venture WesternGeco. (See December World Oil’s “Companies in the News” page) The former president of Western Geophysical, Gary Jones, was named president of WesternGeco.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission relocated to 333 West 7th Ave., Suite 100, Anchorage, Alaska 99501, but will retain the same telephone and fax numbers.

Baker Oil Tools will provide Petrobrás with its Intelligent Completion System for the ultradeepwater Roncador field in Brazil.

Occidental Petroleum agreed to farm out an interest in its Block 15 in Ecuador to Alberta Energy Co. of Calgary, Canada.

Texaco signed three contracts with the China United Coalbed Methane Corp. to expand its coalbed methane program into China’s Ordos basin.

Heerema Group and INTEC Engineering entered into a stock purchase agreement whereby Heerema will acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding share capital of Intec.

Ambar Inc. was acquired by Patterson Energy, Inc., through its subsidiary, Lone Star Mud. The new entity will be called AMBAR Lone Star Fluids Services.

Chevron, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Schlumberger agreed to form OpenSpirit Corp., a company to offer a standardized software infrastructure for the energy industry. Each company is to own an equal share in the new entity. The software will provide the tools to build the advanced collaborative applications required by industry.

Aker Maritime entered into an agreement to sell its U.S.-based deepwater company to the Paris-based international offshore contractor Coflexip Stena Offshore.

Shell E&P got the nod to develop its $1.3-billion Na Kika project, which includes Ariel, East Anstey, Fourier, Herschel and Kepler fields, in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. A sixth field solely owned by SEPCo will be tied back to the host facility, as production capacity becomes available. Water depths range from 5,800 to 7,600 ft. Another recent Shell deepwater discovery, Princess, with potential reserves of more than 200 million boe, is located in Mississippi Canyon Block 765 in 3,600 ft of water. The discovery well and three additional penetrations drilled on the prospect have encountered hydrocarbons in several zones totaling about 300 net ft of pay. Reservoir thickness and quality of sands are similar to the productive sands at Ursa, where daily production levels have reached 100,000 bbl of oil and 140 MMcfg from four wells.

Production Management Industries will market video-monitoring services in the Gulf of Mexico region for IndustrialEyes.

Hunting Oilfield Services consolidated two of its premium connection product lines. The lines obtained through its purchase of Tubular Threading Inc. and Iberia Threading Inc. will be consolidated under the TS-HP and TS-HD brand product lines.

A consortium led by Esso Exploration and Production Chad, Inc., began construction of the Chad-Cameroon Oil Development and Pipeline Project in West-Central Africa. It will develop landlocked oil fields in southern Chad and transport crude 650 mi by underground pipeline to the coast of Cameroon for export to world markets. At the commencement ceremony attended by Chad’s President Idriss Deby, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya and World Bank-Africa VP Callisto Madavo, Esso Chad President Tom Walters described the planned construction activities that will lead to production start-up as early as 2003. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil Far East Holdings purchased an amount equal to about 19% of the China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. IPO as a strategic partner.

St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. signed a purchase and sale agreement to acquire Anadarko basin properties from the William G. Helis Co.and JN Resource’s subsidiaries Colt Resources Corp. and JN Exploration & Production Ltd. Partnership.

Marathon Sakhalin Ltd. agreed to transfer 37.5% of its interest in Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. to Shell Sakhalin Holdings. In return, Marathon receives a 28% interest in the Foinaven field operated by BP, Shell UK Ltd.’s interest and discoveries and prospects adjacent to the field, and a 3.5% overriding royalty on Shell’s production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The boards of directors of Stone Energy Corp. and Basin Exploration, Inc., approved a merger agreement combining the two companies.

Precision Drilling Corp. acquired the global directional drilling and electromagnetic (EM) measurement-while-drilling (MWD) assets of Geoservices and an exclusive worldwide license to Geoservices’ EM-MWD technology.

Bouygues Offshore made an indirect 20% equity investment in Rosetti Marino Spa.

Paradigm Geophysical Ltd. concluded its merger for the Flagship business from Compagnie Générale de Géophysique.

Gas Technology Institute acquired a majority interest in TICORA Geosciences, Inc., a coalbed methane and shale resource evaluation firm, based in Denver, Colorado.

Oceaneering International has finalized its asset transaction with Global Industries, Ltd. Oceaneering acquired 11 work class ROVs in exchange for selling its diving assets and related equipment in Asia, Australia, China and the Middle East, including the dive support vessel Ocean Winsertor.

NS Group completed its sale of Imperial Adhesives, Inc., to Sovereign Specialty Chemicals, Inc.

Synergy Oil & Gas, Inc., purchased the assets of Matthews field, Reeves County, Texas, from MTBB Acquisition Co., a subsidiary of the Stratum Group.

FMC Corp. Energy Systems opened new sales and service centers for its surface wellhead systems in Pampa, Texas, for the greater Texas and Oklahoma panhandle area, and in Longview, Texas, for the East Texas and northern Louisiana areas.

ABB agreed to sell its Grayloc Connector business to Yellowstone Energy Products.

Energy Workspace.com was accepted into the Microsoft ASP licensing program and now adds Microsoft’s leading programs and server applications to integrated energy applications already hosted online.

Murphy Oil agreed to buy Beau Canada Exploration Ltd.’s producing properties in western Canada.

Hunting Oilfield Services and Airtrust (Singapore) opened a threading facility at the Tianjin Pipe Mill in Tianjin, China.

National Oilwell joined PetroCosm Corp. as an equity partner and will utilize the B2B marketplace as a distribution channel to its customers. Registered users should eventually have more than 60,000 lines of catalog items offered by National Oilwell.

Sensa acquired York Sensors Ltd.

Stabil Drill acquired Drilling Logistics Inc. to market its extensive line of downhole tools internationally.

Denbury Resources Inc.’s CAPEX budget for 2001 of $100 million is geared to further increase output from existing fields and increase its Gulf of Mexico presence. An estimated 25% of the budget has been allocated to Heidelberg field, 15% to Little Creek field, 15% to offshore fields, 18% to seismic, acreage, corporate overhead and other discretionary items, with the balance to be applied to additional existing fields. Targeted production for next year is a company-record 25,000 boepd, comprising about 17,000 bopd and 48 MMcfgd, a 24% increase from its expected average daily production for 2000.

Hornet Energy Ltd. completed its acquisition of Pinon Oil and Gas Ltd.

Highview Resources Ltd. completed the sale of its interest in the Amisk oil property and battery. Proceeds from the sale will be applied to its ongoing exploration and development program.

Fakespace Systems Inc. opened its first European development office in Leicestershire, UK.

Interbasin Resources Ltd., signed a joint-venture agreement with Optimum Petroleum Development Ltd., for a 100% working interest in Nigerian Oil Prospecting License OPL 310 covering 500,000 acres from the shoreline over the shelf into deep water. The tract is adjacent to Oil Mining License 113, which contains the Aje oil/gas discovery. Of 11 high potential prospects identified within the block, five are structural closures similar to Aje, with the largest in relatively shallow water. Two deepwater submarine fan prospects have also been identified. A wildcat is slated for early 2001.

Reperforations of two producing wells have successfully boosted Lundin Malaysia Ltd.’s field production to 15,000 bopd from 13,500 bopd since the first of October 2000. As a next step, design work is currently underway to boost production from other producers and drill two development wells during first quarter 2001. This program will result in an estimated sustainable production rate of 17,000 bopd. Work on the Phase II development project, which will produce 40,000 bbl of liquid per day and 250 MMcfgd from September 2003, is proceeding on schedule. Basic engineering has been completed and tender invitations have been issued for the central processing platform and long-lead compressors and generators.

Kerr-McGee Corp. was awarded five deepwater permits in the Outer Browse basin, offshore Australia, including 6.4 million acres in water depths ranging from 1,500 to more than 8,000 ft.

Conoco and its partners on offshore Viet Nam Block “15-1” have achieved a record-setting flow rate of 17,800 bpd from the block’s first exploratory well in the Cuu Long basin, 120 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh City. Discovered in late September, operators believe the combined 17,800-bpd flowrate is a record for a single well in Viet Nam, based on combined well tests of more than 12,600 bpd from three zones, and an additional 5,200 bpd from three other zones. Appraisal and second exploratory wells will be drilled on the block in first-quarter 2001 to confirm acreage potential. Conoco also plans exploratory drilling on several other offshore Viet Nam blocks next year.

Invader Exploration Inc.’s multi-zone gas discovery located in the Arkoma basin in eastern Oklahoma, will be tied into existing production facilities one-half mile away.

Unocal Corp.’s exploration drilling offshore southwestern Viet Nam confirmed the earlier Kim Long natural gas resource in Block B and discovered the Ca Voi (Whale) natural gas field in Block 52/97. The wildcats are located approximately 175 miles west of Ca Mau, Viet Nam, in 215-280 feet of water.

Bellwether Exploration’s Tiguino field 1, in the Oriente basin of Ecuador, was drilled horizontally and successfully completed in the Napo T sand, with output of about 2,000 bopd.

Seven Seas is currently drilling below a measured depth of 8,000 ft on its El Segundo 6E in Colombia’s prolific Magdalena basin. Output is trucked from the Guaduas oil field. The new well is being directionally drilled to a target MD of about 9,400 ft with a planned bottomhole location around 3,200 ft northeast of the surface location. Current field production has climbed to 5,000 bpd. Since output began on Aug. 9, 2000, the field has produced over 158,000 bbl of oil.