Companies in the news

Exxon affiliate Esso Brasileira de Petroleo Limitada, Mobil Shell Brasil and Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) will jointly explore Brazil’s 2.3-million-acre deepwater Block BS-1 in the Santos basin, about 150 mi offshore. Meanwhile, Exxon has been acquiring interests in several other deepwater blocks in the Campos, Santos and Amazon Mouth basins of Brazil, including the 800,000-acre Block BC-10, the one-million-acre Block BFZ-1, and the BP-1, encompassing about 10 million acres. Water depths on these blocks range from 300 to 6,000 ft.

Schlumberger Ltd. agreed to merge its contract drilling business (Sedco Forex Offshore) with Transocean Offshore Inc. The new firm, Transocean Sedco Forex, has a fleet of 44 mobile offshore drilling rigs, including 27 semisubmersibles, two deepwater drillships, 11 jackups and four tender rigs, and operations in all of the world’s major offshore drilling regions.

Canadian Occidental Petroleum was awarded 100% working interest in two exploration licenses in the Goulburn Grabben basin, offshore northwest Australia. Blocks NT98-7 and NT98-8 encompass 4.3 million acres and contain several large exploration leads identified from seismic data. Additional geologic and geophysical and more seismic data are needed before drilling can begin.

Tech Power Controls Co. broke ground for its new 24,000-sq ft manufacturing facility adjacent to its headquarters building in southwest Houston.

Mobil Corp. was offered four exploration tracts in Norway’s Annual North Sea licensing round. The firm received a 25% working interest in Blocks 25/3 and 25/6, a 25% interest in a tract covering the north part of Block 29/3, a 50% interest in a license covering the southern part of Blocks 29/3 and 30/1, and a 20% interest in a tract covering Blocks 35/8 and 35/11.

BJ Services acquired all the operating assets of Fracmaster Ltd., including Canadian and U.S. subsidiaries, and certain foreign operations in Russia and China.

Talisman Energy agreed to make a take-over bid for Highridge Exploration Ltd. in response to an auction process undertaken by Highridge earlier this year. Meanwhile, Talisman increased its stake in the UK’s Blake field, adjacent to Talisman-operated Ross field, by exchanging a number of central North Sea properties with Amerada Hess. These properties have various gas opportunities with greater strategic significance for Amerada Hess.

Stag Geological Services formed a new company, Stag Engineering Services, to provide wellsite and office-based drilling engineers and a support structure to assist with geological supervision of exploration and development wells.

Beicip-Franlab became a 100% subsidiary of France’s IFP and will be managed by its Directorate and Supervisory board.

Smith International, Inc. and Schlumberger Ltd. completed a JV combining both firms’ drilling fluids operations. Smith contributed its M-I L.L.C. and Schlumberger contributed its Dowell Drilling Fluids business outside the U.S.

Halliburton Energy Services and TRADCO signed a 25-year agreement to form a JV logging operation in Saudi Arabia. Halliburton owns 75% and TRADCO owns 25% of the new company, Saudi Halliburton Logging, LLC. It will offer logging packages tailored to provide solutions for the challenges presented by specific wells and projects. Its primary customer will be Saudi Arabia Oil Co. (Aramco.)

Weatherford International, Inc., is proposing to spin off its Grant Prideco Drilling Products business to Weatherford shareholders. This will allow both firms to focus their operations and growth within their own core areas and to seek opportunities that might not be available on a combined basis.

Santa Fe Energy Resources and Snyder Oil Corp. have merged, resulting in a new firm called Santa Fe Snyder Corp. The firm acquired working interests in four Shell Deepwater Development, Inc., Gulf of Mexico discoveries and some unexplored acreage on adjacent blocks. Santa Fe Snyder also acquired an additional interest in the Anton Irish Unit, in West Texas, from Phillips Petroleum Co., increasing its interest to 29.5%, and adding about 5 million bbl of proved reserves.

Emerson Electric Co., through its Fischer-Rosemount arm, completed its acquisition of Daniel Industries.

Apache Corp. has completed its acquisition of Gulf of Mexico properties from Shell Exploration & Production Co.

Tuboscope and Newpark Resources have merged. The surviving company, Tuboscope, will likely change its name to reflect the integrated services to be provided.

Berco Resources, LLC acquired a majority working interest in Bear Creek field, located in Dunn County, North Dakota. Included in this field is the Bear Creek Duperow Unit, a secondary recovery waterflood project producing about 650 boepd.

Ocean Energy farmed out part of its working interest on the 650,000-acre Block C, offshore Equatorial Guinea, to its partner, Mobil. The agreement calls for a wildcat and additional seismic on the deepwater portion of the block.

Oakbay B.V., parent company of Varel International Inc., acquired National Oilwell’s drill bit division, Walker-McDonald. Meanwhile, Varel has acquired PDC Drill Bit from Oil Tool Specialties Inc.

Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. sold its Hell’s Hole and Park Mountain field properties to Coastal Oil & Gas Corp. The sale includes 24,000 net leasehold acres with 36 producing wells, associated pipelines, gathering systems and production facilities. Daily production from these wells is approximately 6 MMcfg.

Anadarko Petroleum and Lasmo plc agreed to sell their interests in an Algerian oil development project to Agip Algeria Exploration.

Black Sea Energy and Sunwing Energy merged to form Ivanhoe Energy Inc. And Ivanhoe Energy acquired Diatom Petroleum Inc.

The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission presented its 1999 Chairman’s Stewardship Awards to Marathon Oil Co. and Prima Energy Corp. for outstanding achievements in conservation and environmental protection. The firms were commended for demonstrating the compatibility between resource development and ecosystem conservation.

Subsurface Consultants & Associates, LLC, has moved its headquarters to Houston from Lafayette, Louisiana, to better serve its clients’ exploration and development consulting and training needs.

Coastal Oil & Gas Corp. is purchasing all the Gulf of Mexico exploration and production assets owned by subsidiaries of Titan Exploration, Inc. Included are about 89,000 net acres in the Gulf off Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, accounting for net production of 11 MMcfgd and 450 bcpd. The company also announced the acquisition of various onshore properties with net production of about 26 MMcfgd. Included are interests in 98 wells and 31,000 net acres. A significant portion of the acreage is in Bob West and George West fields in South Texas, but the purchase also includes additional properties in South Texas, Louisiana and Wyoming.

Weatherford International, Inc., is acquiring Dailey International Inc. in a $195-million stock deal. The agreement contemplates a filing by Dailey and its U.S. subsidiaries of petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Apache Corp. acquired several Gulf of Mexico properties from Shell Exploration & Production Co. for $715 million and one million shares of Apache common stock. Apache estimates the properties’ proved reserves at 127.3 million bbl of oil equivalent. The transaction, the largest in Apache’s history, includes 22 producing fields, 18 of which will be operated by Apache, 16 undeveloped blocks and access to 3-D seismic data covering more than 1,000 blocks throughout the Gulf. Properties are in waters less than 700 ft. Production averages 24,900 bopd and 125 MMcfgd.

John Lawrie (Aberdeen) Ltd. and International Tubular Services Ltd., both of Aberdeen, have agreed to merge. In addition to its tubular services, ITS sells and services drilling and well control equipment and provides drilling and coring services. John Lawrie is in scrap metal processing, demolition, steel stocking and supply and pile construction and supply.

Stress Engineering Services, Inc. has acquired H.O. Mohr Research and Engineering, Inc. from Oil States Industries, Inc. Mohr will continue to operate as an independent lab offering full-scale testing of drilling, pipelining and deepwater production equipment.

Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) is creating the Center for Integrated Reservoir Management Systems, a multi-year collaborative effort to involve several R&D organizations and oil and gas companies. Using data from producing fields to develop a reference database, the center plans to develop new and improved technologies and ultimately build new models for optimal production strategy and reservoir management.

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Copyright © 1999 Gulf Publishing Company