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Vol. 226 No. 12 |
Halliburton’s Energy Services Group will purchase Easy Well Solutions AS, a Norwegian company specializing in downhole technologies. Easy Well’s range of patented products includes the Swell Packer isolation system, Constrictor annular barrier tool, and Oil Selector inflow control system. The Swell Packer system is based on the swelling property of elastomers in hydrocarbons, swelling up to 200% to seal the annulus around the pipe, isolating producing zones and adapting to shifts in the formation while retaining seal’s the integrity. The Constrictor is an alternative to traditional gravel packs or expandable screens, preventing fines migration in the annulus to maintain production through use of thermodynamic absorption of hydrocarbons in rubber. The Oil Selector system significantly reduces water and gas breakthrough.
BJ Process and Pipeline Services (BJ PPS) has opened a new base near St. John’s in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. The base replaces the previous Mount Pearl facility that had been operating since 1996, and joins existing BJ PPS bases in Sarnia, Ont., and Halifax, NS, that serve eastern Canada. The new 5,000-sq-ft base features offices and a sizable maintenance workshop, and it houses a suite of specialist process and pipeline equipment.
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 Prosafe said that the Abo FPSO has operated 1,000 days without a lost time injury (LTI). The vessel is stationed at Abo field, offshore Nigeria, for Nigerian Agip Oil Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eni. The vessel began production on Abo at the beginning of April 2003, and has operated without an LTI since then. “The management’s active and visible involvement has been a key factor in achieving this result”, said Arne Austreid, Prosafe’s president and CEO
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The Aberdeen section of SPE has received a prestigious award for excellence for the first time in its 30-year history. It was one of only six out of the 160 SPE sections worldwide to win the SPE President’s Award for Section Excellence, 2005. To win, the Aberdeen section had to demonstrate excellence in a number of areas, including technical dissemination, membership development and community interaction. In particular, the section was praised for its work with students and young engineers.
Kerr-McGee Corp. has completed the sale of its 40% non-operating interest in the Javelina gas processing and fractionation facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, to MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. for about $156 million, including adjustments for working capital. Kerr-McGee plans to use all net after-tax cash proceeds, estimated at $110 million, to reduce debt. This transaction is part of the company’s strategic plan to divest non-core assets and focus on oil and gas exploration and production.
The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service has reopened its Gulf of Mexico Regional office in New Orleans. Because of extensive damage sustained by the regional office during Hurricane Katrina, a temporary office with a contingency of employees was established in Houston.
Merrick Systems, a developer of software for upstream oil and gas production, formed an alliance with NuTech Solutions, a scientific-software company specializing in optimization, and Advanced Resources International, a consultancy recognized for expertise in non-conventional gas and enhanced-oil-recovery technologies. The Intelligent Production-Optimization Alliance promises to help oil and gas companies tackle the problem of efficiently extracting fuels from heavy-oil fields, watered-out oil fields, and non-conventional gas sources.
Keep America Beautiful, Inc., chose Koch Industries, Inc., to receive its 2005 Vision for America Award. Koch, the nation’s second-largest private company, was recognized for its commitment to continually improving the environmental and safety performance of its many companies and for the many conservation projects its companies do in their communities. Koch subsidiaries have developed model programs that include setting best practices and advancing emissions-control technology. Its Flint Hills Resources subsidiary was recognized by the EPA as a Clean Air Award winner for its success in reducing refinery flare time by 88% since 1997. Since 2004, releases on Koch Pipeline Company -operated pipelines have been reduced by 81%.
Schlumberger Ltd will relocate its US corporate office from New York to Houston in the second half of 2006. The company will continue to maintain corporate offices in Paris, France, and The Hague, The Netherlands. Founded in Paris in 1926, Schlumberger has had a long association with Houston, where the firm’s North American operations have been coordinated since 1934.
Veritas DGC Inc. has expanded the Global Processing Facility in its Houston, Texas, headquarters. This significant extension more than doubles the company’s seismic data processing power. The new facility is a highly engineered cluster computing environment, powered by the 64-bit AMD Opteron dual-core processor. The expanded cluster system also acts as a resource for the company’s worldwide grid of processing centers, enabling any Veritas center to deliver advanced seismic processing and imaging techniques.
Timothy and Bernadette Marquez of Denver have pledged $10 million, a record gift in school history, for the construction of a new petroleum engineering building on the Colorado School of Mines campus. With this gift, the school has reached the $125-million goal of its Transforming Resources capital campaign, the most ambitious fundraising initiative in CSM history.
Baker Hughes has implemented a company-wide policy that prohibits mobile phone usage while driving a motor vehicle on business. This change is part of a comprehensive campaign to enhance driver safety through awareness, training and behavioral change. The policy applies to all US and international offices, and field sites. Employees receiving a phone call while driving are instructed to allow the call to be forwarded to voicemail.
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