Companies in the news

Triton Energy Ltd.’s Ceiba field, offshore Equatorial Guinea, will be produced using an FPSO from Norway’s Bergesen DY Offshore AS.

Krescent Energy Co., LLC, acquired the majority working interest in Hordes Creek field in Goliad County, Texas, and an overriding 2% interest in OCS South Timbalier Block 38. The firm also signed a definitive agreement to acquire interests in eight fields in Louisiana and Texas.

Coastal do Brasil Ltda. signed an agreement with Petrobrás for Brazilian Block BPAR-10 in Parana, northeast of the city of Curitiba. Meanwhile, Coastal also signed a letter of intent to negotiate a joint bidding agreement regarding natural gas projects in Venezuela.

Chevron will partner with Petrobrás in a 50/50 exploration venture to explore Block BC-20 in the Campos basin and Block BCUM-100 in the Cumuruxatiba basin. Meanwhile, Chevron acquired a 15% interest in the Mer Profonde Sud deepwater tract, about 50 mi offshore Republic of Congo in water ranging from 3,300 to 6,000 ft.

Conoco Inc. agreed to acquire a 20% interest in the Zafar Mashal exploration block in the Caspian Sea, pending final ratification by the Azeri Parliament.

The European Union gave antitrust clearance to TotalFina SA’s purchase of France’s Elf SA.

Wood MacKenzie and Merak formed an alliance to jointly develop economic-analysis and data-mapping software.

Weatherford Global Compression Services purchased Alpha Gauge & Instrument, Inc., of Bakersfield, California.

Newfield Exploration Co. closed its acquisition of three producing gas fields in Hidalgo, Brooks and Kenedy Counties, Texas.

Severn Trent Services completed its acquisition of Quanterra.

TUSK Energy, Inc., agreed to acquire all of the common shares of Auburn Energy Ltd.

Conoco acquired a 30% working interest on Block 15-2 in Cuu Long basin, offshore Vietnam.

Ultra Petroleum’s year-end proved reserves are 74.7 Bcfge, a 71% increase from June 30, 1999, the end of its fiscal year.

ExxonMobil’s additions to its proved oil and gas reserves totaled 1.7 billion boe in 1999, replacing 106% of production.

Ernie Coutts signed a joint venture agreement with Commercial Coating Systems Inc., creating a new company named ODIN Vortex International Inc.

Union Drilling, Inc., added three rotary drilling rigs and related equipment to its fleet in two separate transactions. Its fleet now includes 39 land rigs. One rig was acquired from Twin Drilling Co and one was from Les Wilson, Inc.

Dietsmann Group incorporated Dietswell Engineering, a new business unit, to deliver comprehensive resources in the contiguous fields of integrated drilling studies, wellsite support, advanced well technology, integrated drilling operations and project management.

Affiliated Resources Corp. acquired an 85% interest in Seneca Energy Partners L.P.

Norway’s Statoil will offer several non-core oil fields for sale to the highest bidder.

EOG Resources, Inc., and Burlington Resources signed an agreement for the exchange of certain properties to complement each company’s respective asset base and provide meaningful economies of scale. EOG will receive properties in the Permian basin of southeast New Mexico and West Texas. Burlington will receive gas properties in northwest Oklahoma and Hemphill County, Texas.

Koppel Steel Corp. has added ICO AGSII computerized inspection. Its new 22,000-sq-ft facility provides advanced inspection technology for tubular quality.

Tetra Technologies, Inc., purchased all of the assets of Southern Well Testing, Inc.

National Oilwell, Inc., completed its merger with Hitec ASA.

Urengoil Inc., Eurogas Corp.’s Russian subsidiary, will begin early production from its Yaro-Yakinsk gas condensate field in Western Siberia. The initial well pad will accommodate four wells. Initial production is slated for mid-2000 for two years, from 232 production and water injection wells.

Mariner Energy, Inc.’s, wildcat on the Devil’s Tower Prospect in Mississippi Canyon 773, about 140 mi southeast of New Orleans in 5,610 ft of water, encountered a significant number of hydrocarbon-bearing sands. Appraisal drilling is slated for the second quarter of 2000.

Tappit Resources Ltd. intends to purchase all of the outstanding common shares of Backer Petroleum Corp.

Nutek Inc. purchased Clipper Operating Co.

Baker Hughes Inc.’s enterprise approach to its Intelligent Well Technologies will focus the efforts of about 80 people from Baker Oil Tools, Baker Atlas and other Baker Hughes divisions on providing a complete range of intelligent completion solutions tailored to clients’ production requirements.

Talisman Energy agreed to acquire properties in the Central North Sea from Elf Exploration UK plc, ARCO British Ltd. and Texaco Britain Ltd. Included are interests in the Claymore, Piper, Saltire, Chanter, Iona and Scapa producing fields, as well as the Flotta terminal, related pipelines and undeveloped acreage.

Geophysical Development Corp. (GDC) entered into an agreement with a Texas-based software company, significantly expanding GDC’s capability to provide pre-stack time and depth migration.

Gorman-Rupp Co. acquired selected assets of the Fluid Products Division from Xolox Corp.

Oneok Inc. purchased Kinder Morgan Inc.’s natural gas gathering and processing assets in Oklahoma, Kansas and West Texas.