Companies in the news

R&M Energy acquired Campbell Industries Ltd., of Edmonton, Canada.

The Sea Wolf Drilling Ltd. joint venture sold the Sedco Explorer and Drill Star semisubmersible rigs to Pride International Inc. for about $45 million in cash and 3.03 million shares of Pride common stock.

Intertek Testing Services opened a new laboratory in Sunbury, London named the Sunbury Technology Center.

Wood Group has restructured the company into two divisions, Wood Group Oil & Gas (comprising Wood Group Well Support, Wood Group Engineering and Wood Group Production Facilities), and Wood Group Power.

Nuevo Energy Co. reported proved reserves as of Dec. 31, 2000, of 283.6 million bbl of oil.

Idex Corp. acquired Lake Bluff, Illinois-based Liquid Controls. Liquid Controls becomes IDEX’s 12th stand-alone business and will be operated as part of the Pump Products Group.

Fairfield Industries’ data processing division has completed over 9,500 sq mi of 3-D reprocessing through Kirchoff pre-stack time migrations on its non-exclusive shallow water database in the Gulf of Mexico. A total of 10,500 sq mi of 3-D reprocessing will be completed by mid-2001.

Devon Energy Corp. acquired another 0.8% interest in the Azeri Chiraq-Gunashli oil fields in the Caspian Sea, offshore Azerbaijan from Ramco Energy for a purchase price of $58.3 million. This increases Devon’s interest to 5.6%. Net proved reserves are 17.5 million boe.

Exploration Consultants Group PLC and Decollement Consulting Ltd. have merged, to expand and enhance joint services. Offices will be in Houston, Calgary, Perth and headquartered in Henley, England.

Apache Corp. completed its acquisition of properties in the Zama area of Northwest Alberta, from Canadian affiliates of Phillips Petroleum for about US$490 million. Included are about 212,000 developed and 275,000 undeveloped acres, extensive infrastructure and 3-D and 2-D seismic. Current production is about 70 million MMcfgd and 6,000 bpd with proved reserves of about 71.6 million boe. Meanwhile, Apache also closed its acquisition of Repsol YPF assets in Egypt’s Western Desert and, with partner Shell Overseas Holdings, the acquisitions of Fletcher Challenge Energy for a combined cost to Apache of about US $1 billion.

TIORCO, Inc., and Polymer Systems, Inc., merged under the TIORCO name, to better serve producers in the North Mid-Continent area.

Murphy Oil subsidiary Murphy Sabah Oil Co., Ltd., completed a farm-in agreement to acquire Esso Exploration & Production Sabah LTD’s entire 80% interest in Block H, offshore Sabbath Malaysia.

Pogo Producing Co. completed its acquisition of NORIC Corp.

Provident Energy Trust agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Maxx Petroleum Ltd. at a price of $7.00/share.

Northern Border Partners agreed to purchase the 350-mi interstate Midwestern Gas Transmission pipeline extending from Portland, Tennessee, to Joliet, Illinois, from El Paso Corp.

EXCO Resources, Inc., agreed to acquire oil and gas assets from Tulsa, Oklahoma-based STB Energy, Inc., for $15 million cash.

King Resources, Inc., acquired the Authority to Prospect 651P. Located in northeastern Australia. The 470,000-acre tract will be operated by Queensland Gas Co. Ltd.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. signed an amendment to its Production Sharing Agreement with Algeria’s Sonatrach, enabling it to resume exploration of Blocks 404, 208 and 211.

PGS Production is a new company formed by PGS Golar Nor and PGS Atlantic Power.

TotalFinaElf and its partners approved the launching of the Otter oil field development plan, in the northern UK sector of the North Sea. Plans call for five subsea wells, three oil and two gas, plus two water injection wells equipped with electrical pumps and tied back to the neighboring Eider platform, operated by Shell.

Vintage Petroleum agreed to acquire Canadian-based Genesis Exploration Ltd.

Western Geophysical and Geco-Prakla completed a joint venture consolidating their operation with the new name of WesternGeco L.L.C.

Weatherford International, Inc., purchased Tesco Corp.’s underbalanced drilling business for about $33 million. Acquisition includes eight integrated UBD systems plus stand-alone nitrogen generating units, pressure control units and other related equipment.

Globe Wireless opened new sales and customer support offices in Hong Kong, SAR and Hamburg, Germany.

Anadarko Petroleum will more than double its Rocky Mountain area exploration and development budget to over $131 million.

Kerr-McGee replaced 255% of its 2000 worldwide production of 108 million boe at an average of $4.81/boe. Worldwide net additions of proved oil and gas reserves totaled 275 million boe in 2000.

Quicksilver Resources Inc.’s total proved reserves are 14.9 million bbl of oil or 669.2 Bcfe.

Evergreen Resources Inc. increased its proved reserves 57% to an estimated 875 Bcfg, up from 559 Bcf in 1999. Gas reserves added were 335 Bcf with annual production of 19.5 Bcf.

U.S. Crude Ltd. opened a new field office on one of its leases in Oklahoma as a headquarters.

Hunting Oilfield Services completed its acquisition of Vinson Supply Co.

Varco International entered into a non-binding letter of intent with ICO Inc.

Ocean Energy, Inc., and EnSight Resources, L.L.C., agreed to acquire EnSight’s oil and gas assets located primarily in East Texas and North Louisiana in a $121 million transaction.

Maxx Petroleum Ltd. agreed to sell essentially all of its non-core properties for a total of $15 million.

Habanero Resources Inc. acquired 50% of Goldwater Resources Inc.’s 15.4% working interest in its Kern County, California acreage. The agreement gives Habanero the right to participate in 50% of Goldwater’s interest on all future drilling programs on this property.