Companies in the news

The Coastal Oil & Gas Corp. closed its acquisition of the assets of Greenbrier Operating Co. and its limited partnerships in Hidalgo County, Texas.

McMoRan Exploration was granted the right to explore all or parts of 90 of Texaco’s Gulf of Mexico tracts in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Seven leases are included in water depths from 10 to 2,600 ft.

Stratos agreed to acquire Shell Offshore Services Co.

In an agreement between the principal shareholders of Sidanco and Tyumen Oil Co., Chernogorneft will be transferred free of debt to the full ownership and control of Sidanco. BP Amoco will remain a 10% shareholder in Sidanco and will continue to provide senior management control to the holding company and its subsidiaries. Sidanco and Tyumen Oil Co. have also agreed to jointly evaluate the long-term management and development of the Samotlor oil field in West Siberia through a joint venture.

UTI Energy Corp. agreed to acquire the drilling assets of Schneider Drilling Corp., including three currently marketable land drilling rigs, major components for two additional rigs, about 70,000 ft of drill pipe and assorted spare parts and drilling equipment.

Giant Energy Corp. acquired 77.88% of the common stock of Spindletop Oil & Gas Co.

St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. acquired King Ranch Energy, Inc., and renamed it St. Mary Energy Co.

CNG Producing Co. acquired an average 42% working interest in the West Broussard field in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. CNG’s share of current production is about 17 MMcfgd and 400 bcpd.

Nuevo Energy Co. completed the sale of its interest in 13 onshore fields and a gas processing plant in Ventura County, California, to Vintage Petroleum, Inc.

Texaco signed an agreement with newly formed Magic Earth, LLC, to further develop and market Texaco’s proprietary 3-D visualization technology. Meanwhile, Texaco also received a 20% interest in Brazil’s Shell-operated, offshore Block BS-4.

The Lanzhou Petroleum & Chemical Machinery Works (LPCMW) of Lanzhou, China, will now sell its LS pumping units direct through its Walnut, California-based subsidiary, LS Petro-Chem Equipment Corp. and via their website, www.pumpingunit.com.

Esso Exploration and Production Egypt, Ltd., acquired a 25% interest in Egypt’s 10-million-acre Northeast Mediterranean (NEMED) block from Shell, which retains a 75% interest.

TDI-Halter, L.P. changed its name to Friede Goldman Offshore Texas, L.P.

Apache Corp. completed its acquisition of producing properties and other assets in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, Canada, from Shell Canada Ltd.

Bray International, Inc., acquired Flow-Tek.

Callon Petroleum Co. purchased Santos USA Corp.’s 20% working interest in the Boomslang deepwater discovery on Ewing Bank Block 994.

EEX Corp. agreed to acquire Tesoro Petroleum’s U.S. E&P operations. Production is 80 MMcfde from estimated proved reserves of 204 Bcfe. EEX will establish an office in San Antonio, Texas, from which all of its U.S. onshore E&P operations will be managed and staffed, primarily by current Tesoro E&P employees.

National-Oilwell, Inc., acquired the assets of Skytop Brewster Co.

Hallwood Energy Corp. acquired producing properties in the Yoakum Gorge area of Lavaca County, Texas, including 34 wells producing 4.5 MMcfgd and 3.5 Bcf of proved reserves as well as exploration acreage and 3-D seismic data.

Oceaneering International, Inc. acquired the Aberdeen-based subsea and offshore consultants Ian Murray Engineering Ltd.

EnerVest Energy, L.P. acquired interests in 70 wells and an associated 55-mi gas gathering system in the Hemphill field, Texas. Current production is 2.4 MMcfgd net to EnerVest’s working interest.

Equity Oil Co. acquired additional working interests in 14 fields and 74 producing wells in the Big Horn basin of Wyoming and Montana.

Newly-formed and wholly-owned by Texaco, Houston-based Alto Technology Resources Inc. will market Texaco’s proprietary remote sensing technology known as Texaco Energy and Environmental Multispectral Imaging Spectrometer (TEEMS).

Arlington Ventures Ltd. and Nahama Natural Gas will jointly develop proven reserves and explore undeveloped acreage adjacent to the East Coalinga Nose and Pleasant Valley fields in Fresno County, California.

Richland Petroleum Corp. completed its acquisition of Moxie Petroleum Ltd.

Renaissance Energy Ltd. completed its sale of non-strategic natural gas assets to Conoco Inc.

Unocal’s Spirit Energy 76 agreed to acquire the Gulf of Mexico shelf assets of Tana Oil and Gas.

Schlumberger Ltd. purchased all the worldwide assets of Secure Oil Tools from Stellarton Corp.

Bandera Petroleum, Inc., purchased all of J. M. Mineral & Land Co., Inc.’s, properties including over 187,000 gross acres in the Permian basin of West Texas and New Mexico and about 350 producing wells with royalty interest or working interests.

Pure Energy Resources is the resulting firm from the merging of Titan Exploration, Inc.’s, and Unocal’s assets in the Permian and San Juan basins.

AgipPetroli, Snam and Italgas will acquire a 33.34% shareholding in GALP (Petróleos e Gás de Portugal. An 11% stake will come from the State of Portugal and 22.34% from Petrocontrol, a Portuguese firm assembling a group of leading Portuguese investors.

In an agreement with ABA Energy Corp., Solana Petroleum Corp. can earn a 100% working interest and a 74.575% revenue interest before payout, with a 73.625% working interest and a 58.9% revenue interest after payout by drilling an exploration well to a specified depth within the Miocene Temblor formation below 14,500 ft, with established paying production. This 40-acre tract held by ABA is on the "Cal Canal Anticline" in the San Joaquin basin of Kern County, California. ABA will remain operator and retain the option to take a 5% working interest in the tract prior to any drilling.

Kinder Morgan, Inc., agreed to transfer operations and sell natural gas gathering and transmission assets in the Wattenberg field area of the Denver-Julesberg basin in northeast Colorado to HS Resources, Inc.

GX Technology Corp. and TGS-NOPEC formed a joint venture to create a state-of-the-art, non-exclusive library of depth-imaged seismic data over a highly prospective area in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

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