Companies in the news

Apache Corp. closed its acquisition of Repsol YPF assets in Egypt’s Western Desert and with partner Shell Overseas Holdings, the acquisition of Fletcher Challenge Energy subsidiaries with properties in Canada and Argentina.

New Horizon Drilling Co. changed its name to Catfish Drilling LLC.

In Bangladesh’s second licensing round Tullow Oil plc and partners Chevron, Texaco and state-owned Bapex inked a production-sharing contract to explore Block 9. Tullow will operate the exploration with a 30% interest, and Chevron will operate any development. Plans call for three wildcats over a three-year period. Infrastructure already in place will allow a fast-track development.

GeoQuest acquired London-based engineering firm Baker Jardine and Associates.

Petrobank finalized its acquisition of 97.2% of the outstanding shares of Barrington Petroleum Ltd.

Lundin Oil AB, Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd and Petrovietnam E&P concluded an agreement with Fina Exploration Minh Hai B. V. and PTTEP International Ltd. to purchase their combined interest in the Cai Noic Development Area, offshore Viet Nam. The area contains a unitized portion of the Cai Nuoc / Kekwa field, which is currently producing about 18,000 bopd.

Tejas Tubular Processing, Inc. changed its name to Tejas Tubular Products, Inc.

Expro International Group PLC acquired U.S.-based Production Wireline Services Inc. and its sister companies Production Wireline Services of Texas Inc. and Production Wireline Services Marine Inc.

Denbury Resources Inc. acquired nearly 100% of the working interest in the West Mallalieu and Olive fields in Southwestern Mississippi.

Canadian Superior Energy Inc. and Geophysical Service Inc. are proceeding with acquisition of 684 mi of high-resolution seismic coverage over Canadian Superior’s Offshore Nova Scotia Marquis prospects.

King Resources, Inc., acquired an interest in Tract 651P, encompassing about 470,000 acres in northeastern Australia. King will be carried for 50% working interest in the initial two wells and 25% working interest in the next two wells drilled on the tract.

Benton Oil and Gas Co. announced record year-end 2000 reserves of 172 million boe, a 16% increase compared with 148 MMboe on December 31, 1999.

Seven Seas Petroleum Inc. approved the proposed relocation of the firm’s headquarters from the Yukon Territory to the Cayman Islands.

Globe Wireless opened new sales and customer support offices in Hong Kong, SAR and Hamburg, Germany.

St. Mary Land & Exploration is exercising its option for coalbed methane development with Caribou Land & Livestock Montana LLC on its 70,000 acres in the Hanging Woman basin of Montana and Wyoming. St. Mary controls 100% of the working interest in the lease with economic methane production expected from the Anderson, Canyon, Cook and Roberts coal seams.

Northern Border Partners, L.P., completed its two $400 million acquisitions, the Bear Paw Energy, LLC, and the purchase of Canadian midstream assets from Dynegy Inc.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service, Houma, Louisiana District has awarded Noble Drilling U.S., Inc., its Safety Award for Excellence (SAFE) for drilling contractors for its rig, the Noble Eddie Paul. The SAFE award is based on several factors, including safety, environmental awareness, pollution prevention, regulatory compliance and rig maintenance.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service presented Danos & Curole the National Safety Award for Excellence (SAFE) for 2000, for the outstanding manner in which it conducted production operations during the period of January 1 through December 31, 2000.

Kerr-McGee Corp. received the nation’s top safety and environmental award for major offshore oil and gas operations for the third time in the past five years, based on outstanding operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

OneOffshore, Inc., formed the ODS-Petrodata Group, a new brand representing the combined research, publishing and consulting resources of Offshore Data Services and Petrodata.

Venoco, Inc., consolidated three Santa Barbara offices into one 23,000-sq-ft office in Carpinteria, California.

HRI Oilfield, L.P., agreed with Parker Drilling Co. to market and manufacture the intellectual property of Parker Drilling’s research and development and fabrication subsidiary, Parker Technology, LLC.

Expro International Group PLC established a partnership arrangement with global training provider RGIT Montrose to support further development and implementation of competency-based training for its 1,100 operational staff based worldwide.

FMC Corp., Energy Systems unit expanded its Middle East operations with the opening of a wellhead equipment service center in Saudi Arabia. It will provide a complete range of aftermarket services for wellhead equipment to customers throughout Saudi Arabia.

Aurion Technologies, Inc., and FW Murphy formed an alliance combining the FW Murphy instrumentation products with Aurion’s communications hardware and Web-based data service solutions, in exchange for an equity position in Aurion Technologies.

Enron Energy Capital purchased a majority interest in NuTech Energy Alliance, Ltd., of Humble, Texas.

Pacson Ltd. opened a 6,000 sq-ft sales office in Houston, Texas and completed a 6,000 sq ft extension to its test and assembly facilities.

Weatherford International, Inc., acquired the assets of CAC Inc., a subsidiary of Thermo Electron Corp.