Companies in the news

Kerr-McGee Corp. sets its budget at $170 million exploration and $890 million for capital expenditures. Of the capex budget, $310 million is allocated to the North Sea, $280 million to the Gulf of Mexico, $125 million to U.S. onshore and $65 million to other international projects. A worldwide exploration expense of $170 million will fund drilling of 20 to 30 wildcats, including 10 to 15 in deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

Venoco, Inc., was named Large Business of the Year by the Carpinteria Chamber of Commerce for its employees’ involvement in the community. "Venoco’s employees and management each exemplify what it means to be good corporate citizens," stated Carpinteria’s Chamber of Commerce’s Lin Graf.

Moncla Well Service purchased the assets of Price Well Service, Inc., of Heidelberg, Mississippi, adding a daylight rig to its existing fleet and a presence in Mississippi. In February, the firm purchased the assets of Louisiana Swabbing, Inc., out of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, adding three daylight rigs to its South Louisiana fleet. The firm now works a total of 29 rigs, four out of Sour Lake, Texas, one out of Heidelberg, Mississippi and 24 out of Lafayette, Louisiana.

GlobalSantaFe Corp. sold the Key Bermuda offshore jackup drilling rig to Nabors for about $29 million in an all cash transaction.

Scimitar Hydrocarbons Corp. was awarded a license over Pakistan’s 272,000-acre Safed Koh Block. Plans call for an initial two-year evaluation period, with an option in the third year to drill a new well or re-entry into the existing discovery. Three large suface anticlines are on trend with the adjacent producing Dhodak gas / condensate field.

Esenjay Exploration, Inc. set a capex budget of $26.0 million with about 75% earmarked for exploration and development. Additionally, $4.0 million is allocated for new 3-D seismic and $1.7 million for leasehold acquisition. At least 40 wells are slated for 2002 to test high-potential, 3-D seismic-confirmed prospects and to develop deep gas discoveries made during the last 14 months. The 2002 budget focuses on deep geopressured Frio and Wilcox trends, with a large inventory of high impact, 3-D seismically confirmed prospects. The firm will also develop its recent deep gas discoveries and conduct additional 3-D seismic data to build its project inventory.

McMoRan Exploration Co. completed it sale of three oil and gas properties to a third party for $60 million. Proceeds went to pay the $51.7 million outstanding bank credit facility, with the rest to be used for working capital purposes.

Exploration Consultants Group (ECL) acquired Energy Innovations Ltd. (EIL) and its USA subsidiary, Energy Innovations / Houston Geoscan. ECL provides quality assurance of seismic data acquisition, positioning and processing, survey design and modeling services, in addition to survey engineering, cable laying and HSE services. Its oil and gas consulting division provides geological and geophysical modeling and interpretation, basin studies, production technology and reservoir engineering, field development and project management services. Energy Innovations Ltd. (EIL) provides quality control and quality assurance on seismic crews worldwide. EIL also provides navigation processing QC services, technical audits, seismic data processing QC, survey planning and associated activities.

Tanganyika Oil Co. (TYK) agreed with Drucker Petroleum Inc. to purchase its 20% interest in the West Gharib Block, Egypt, giving TYK 70% interest in the block. Pursuant to the agreement, TYK will acquire 20% interest in the West Gharib Block for $250,000 and the issuance of 1,000,000 common shares of TYK.

Rowan Companies, Inc., subsidiary of Rowan Electric, Inc., completed the purchase of certain assets of Oilfield-Electric-Marine, Inc. and Industrial Logic Systems, Inc., for $8 million in Rowan common stock.

Pioneer Oil and Gas acquired the rights to a 23,000-acre block in the Uinta basin of Utah. It is anticipated this over-pressured region could contain substantial amounts of recoverable natural gas. Estimated recoverable reserves could exceed 4 Tcf. Meanwhile, the firm obtained leases for a new prospect (Yankee Mine West) near the Yankee Mine Oil Seep well drilled by the company in 1992.

PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Ltd., subsidiary of PTTEP Hoan Vu Co., Ltd., and PTTEP Hoang Long Co., Ltd., signed a farm-out agreement with SOCO Vietnam to participate in Blocks 9-2 and 16-1 offshore Vung Tau City, Vietnam.

Allis Chalmers acquired Jens Oilfield Service, Inc. The aggregate purchase of the majority stock interest of $18.3 million was in cash and sellers notes.

Petro-Marine Engineering, Inc., will merge with Barnett & Casbarian, Inc., to form a new company called Petro-Marine / BCI Engineering, which will maintain offices in Houston and New Orleans.