Companies in the news

Grynberg Petroleum Co. affiliate RSM Production Corp. inked an exploration agreement with the Société Naciaonale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) to explore a 25,000-sq mi onshore block in the Douala-Kribi-Campo basin in Cameroon. The block has four shut-in gas wells with an estimated recoverable reserve of 80 Bcf and 16 million bbl of condensate.

Abraxas Petroleum Corp. closed its sale of non-core assets in Alberta for C$15.2 million. The sale includes 5.6 Bcfe of net proved reserves and interest in certain gas gathering, gas processing and undeveloped lands.

Kvaerner agreed to acquire Enercon Engineering, Inc., a Houston-based design, engineering and project management company.

Veritas DGC will acquire a non-exclusive, onshore 3-D seismic for Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO).

TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. acquired 100% ownership in about 3,500-sq mi of non-exclusive 3-D data previously owned with WesternGeco. TGS exchanged its interest in four other jointly-held Gulf of Mexico 3-D surveys and paid an undisclosed amount of cash for WesternGeco’s share of eight 3-D surveys located in its Pangaea complex.

WesternGeco signed a letter of intent to purchase Exploration Design Software (EDS), a Houston-based company specializing in proprietary seismic imaging software.

Wolverine Gas & Oil Corp. of Grand Rapids, Michigan, formed a joint venture with Shell Exploration & Production Co. in the Pacific Creek area of southwestern Wyoming.

Conoco Inc. and Gulf Canada Resources’ boards of directors approved the acquisition of Gulf Canada for US$8.02 per ordinary share, or about $4.3 billion in total equity.

Synergy Technologies Corp. and Texas T Resources Inc.’s 50/50 merger joint venture, Carbon Resources Ltd., agreed with a group of Alberta-based petroleum companies to run tests on heavy oil samples provided by the group on Carbon’s low-volume heavy oil upgrading pilot unit.

Keltec Petroleum Services formed a new division focusing on the provision of permanent professional staff to the oil and gas industry. The service will provide permanent professional staff in HR, finance, HSE and commercial.

Tetra Technologies and Bilco Tools, Inc., inked a distribution agreement giving TETRA the exclusive right to globally market Bilco’s casing scraper and casing brush.

Friede Goldman Halter agreed to sell its French subsidiaries Brissoneau et Lotz Marine and BOPP S.A. to Hydralift A.S.A. of Kristiansand, Norway for $33.5 million.

Petroleum Communications, Inc., (PetroCom) and Invsat Ltd., agreed to become cooperative partners in the satellite services industry.

The boards of directors of Patterson Energy and UTI Energy approved a merger between the two companies. The surviving company was renamed Patterson-UTI Energy.

Kawasaki Steel Corp. and NKK Corp. agreed to merge their operations.

Ødegaard is joining with Petrologic Geophysical Services in Germany and Obelisk International in Cairo to expand its services.

Reserves for Nexen Inc.’s Aspen discovery on Green Canyon Block 243 in deepwater Gulf of Mexico, total 150 million boe.

Kerr-McGee Corp. signed a definitive agreement with HS Resources, Inc., to acquire its outstanding shares in a transaction valued at $1.7 billion.

Talisman Energy subsidiary TLM Acquisition Corp. acquired about 98.6% of Petromet Resources Ltd.’s common shares.

Compton Petroleum Corp. agreed to purchase all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Hornet Energy.

Kerr-McGee earned the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association’s 2000 Category B safety award for its drilling operations in Australia.

Syntheseas, an independent company formed by Schlumberger and ABB, offers a broad range of technology and project management services in the offshore industry. Meanwhile, Schlumberger also formed Schlumberger Oil & Gas Information Solutions, a new operating unit of Schlumberger Oilfield Services, providing solutions for real-time reservoir management and business optimization.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Petroleum Technology Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, selected Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) as one of the first six projects in its "Preferred Upstream Management Practices" (PUMP) program.

Morgan Advanced Materials & Technology formed the Compressor Technology Group comprised of Air & Gas Seals, Morris Compressor Supply, International Polymer and Mowll Manufacturing and Engineering, all previously individual companies.

Athabasca Oil Sands Trust and Canadian Oil Sands Trust signed a combination agreement, establishing detailed terms of a proposed merger between the two trusts. Under the agreement, each stockholder of Canadian Oil Sands will receive one unit of Athabasca Oil Sands in exchange for each unit of Canadian Oil Sands held, plus a cash distribution of $0.50 per unit. The combined trust will have a market capitalization in excess of $2 billion and a 21.74% ownership interest in the Syncrude joint venture and will continue to use the Canadian Oil Sands Trust name with a new stock symbol.

Sanyo Chemical Industries will take over Cognis’ holdings completely in their San Nopco Ltd. joint venture, dissolving their 50/50 partnership.

Lundin signed an E&P agreement with the Republic of Sudan. Petronas Carigali Overseas and Sudapet Ltd. were designated joint operators with 41% and 10% respectively. Lundin Muglad Ltd. and OMV Akiengesellschaft each have a 24.5% interest.

Dawson Marine Inc. signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire 51% of Dawson Marine Inc., with the remaining 49% held by Dawson’s management, which will continue with the operations of the business.

The strategic alliance signed between Paradigm Geophysical Ltd. and Sysdrill Ltd., became a Paradigm acquisition of Sysdrill. Sysdrill’s current drilling products will be integrated with Paradigm’s geoscience software application and the first of these new products is slated for release some time this year.