Companies in the news

Apache closed its acquisition of Canadian properties from Phillips Petroleum’s Canadian affiliate. Proved reserves are about 71.6 million boe.

Nance Petroleum agreed to acquire coalbed methane properties from Caribou Land and Livestock Montana LLC.

Abraxas Petroleum acquired 100% working interest in up to 13,000 acres and 53 mi of 2-D seismic in Pecos County, Texas.

Diaz Resources Ltd. closed its acquisition of Orbit Oil & Gas Inc. for $13 million.

Danoil Energy agreed with Western Facilities’ wholly-owned subsidiary Nevis Ltd. to combine the two firms, resulting in Danoil becoming an oil and gas income trust.

Richland Petroleum Corp. and Ionic Energy completed their joint, $32.9-million acquisition of a 650-bpdoe, natural gas property in the Whitecourt area of west-central Alberta.

Nuevo Energy added Korea National Oil Corp. and SK Corp. to its Accra-Keta Permit partnership, offshore Ghana, with a combined 25% interest. Meanwhile, Nuevo acquired about 2,900 acres previously held by Naftex ARM, LLC in Kern County, California.

R&M Energy systems opened a new subsidiary in Venezuela, named R&M Energy Systems de Venezuela, to provide technical support, sales, installation assistance and maintenance and repair services to the El Tigre and Maracaibo areas.

Newfield Exploration Co. agreed to acquire Lariat Petroleum Inc. for about $333 million.

Stolt Offshore and Paragon Engineering formed a new joint venture, Paragon Engineering Services International. It will operate independently of Stolt, with offices in Houston and Nanterre, France.

ExxonMobil Corp. replaced 1.8 billion boe in 2000 (112% of its production), excluding property sales. With sales included, reserves replacement totaled 111%.

Corrintec joined forces with IEV Technical Services in an alliance to increase their presence in the Far East subsea survey market.

Aker Maritime has completed the transfer of its marine seismic business to French company Compagnie Générale de Géophysique.

Veritas DGC Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Reservoir Characterization Research and Consulting, Inc., in a $33-million deal.

Clough Engineering and Stratos Global Corp. joined forces to market and deliver remote communications solutions throughout Australia and South East Asia, particularly for offshore production.

Expro International Group extended a five-year partnership agreement between subsidiary company, Tronic Ltd. and Transcontrol Ltda. to market and promote both companies’ products in Brazil.

Anadarko Petroleum acquired Pinnacle Gas Treating Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Gas Resources Inc., for $38 million.

China Offshore Oil Northern Drilling Co. sold the jackup drilling rig Bohai 6 to Mike Mullen Energy Equipment Resources, Inc. This is the first time that China has sold an offshore drilling rig.

National Petroleum Construction Co. of Abu Dhabi will design, engineer and install a ZA well platform and three subsea pipelines and associated platform modification works for India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd.

Patina Oil & Gas Corp.’s proved reserves as of December 31, 2000, reached 778 Bcf of gas and equivalents, including 522 Bcf of gas and 42.7 bbl of oil.

Capstone Global Energy opened a European office in London.

Cooper Energy Services plans to close its Springfield, Ohio, engine plant and suspend manufacturing operations for its Superior gas-powered, reciprocating engine product line. At press time, a specific closing date had not been set, but all orders in progress will be honored, and manufacturing equipment for engine parts will be outsourced or transferred to other CES locations.

Mitchell Energy & Development reported record earnings for both fourth-quarter and full-year 2000. Net earnings were $257.1 million, compared to 1999’s $67.3 million.

Kerr-McGee Corp. replaced 225% of its 2000 worldwide production of 108 million boe at an average finding and development cost of $4.81 per boe.

Anadarko Petroleum began production from its Tanzanite and Hickory fields, two sub-salt discoveries made in 1998 off the coast of Louisiana. Output is a combined 14,100 bopd and 85 MMcfgd.

Tanganyika Oil Co. decided to resume drilling operations on the Mbate-1 exploration well in Tanzania, to more fully evaluate the deeper horizons of the Mandawa Block.

Ness Energy will reprocess eight lines of seismic and shoot one new line, to tie together Israel’s Har Sedom 1.

Lundin Oil’s board of directors approved a 2001 capital budget of $108 million, up 46% from the 2000 budget. Of the total, $83 million will be spent on development activities (the majority on En Naga oil project, onshore Libya, and Phase 2 of its project on Block PM3 CAA, offshore Malaysia / Viet Nam) with the balance on exploration and appraisal projects.

Barrett Resources’ proved reserves at December 31, 2000, increased 21%, to 1,372 Bcfge.

OneOffshore developed its RigInsight, a unique Web-based platform designed to increase asset efficiency and utilization. Available in April, the platform will provide oil companies and drilling contractors with global, real-time access to offshore drilling rig market knowledge and tools to improve decision-making, fleet management, and collaborative contracting processes.

Franks Casing Crew & Rental Tools acquired the assets of Okie-Yoke, Inc.