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Vol. 225 No. 7 |
For its 30-year commitment to the organization, ExxonMobil was presented with NACME's (National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering) 2004 Corporate Leadership Award. ExxonMobil is the all-time largest contributor to NACME, having given more than $9 million over the past 30 years.
Input-Output (I/O) will acquire 100% of outstanding capital stock of GX Technology Corp. (GXT), pending the securing of necessary funding. GXT will remain as a separate entity, retaining the company name, and will be run as a subsidiary of I/O. The acquisition will reorient I/O from primarily manufacturing seismic equipment to offering a full range of seismic imaging services.
Schlumberger Oilfield Services opened the second phase of expansion of its Reservoir Completions Center (SRC) in Rosharon, Texas, near Houston. The 460-acre site contains three new buildings housing an advanced perforating research laboratory, an integrated completions testing facility and custom- engineering capacity. The well completion engineering building houses the majority of the engineering design teams who focus on core completions, flow management, perforating, and subsea and artificial lift systems. Each team has a light-duty lab and a heavy bay to assemble prototype systems. The reliability-testing center expands the Center's capacity to perform tests under downhole conditions, and features four test bays, 10 test cells, five pressure vessels and small test wells. A control room is equipped with six computer-controlled consoles for point-and-click operation, where clients can witness testing on their own equipment.
VSFusion and Magnitude announced a service agreement to bring together a company offering borehole seismic application design, data processing, interpretation and integration with a leading earth-science company offering microseismic monitoring services. VSFusion is a joint venture company formed from the borehole seismic groups of Baker Atlas and Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG). Magnitude provides microseismic monitoring services to industry worldwide. Working with Baker Atlas, which offers high fidelity SST-500, Geochain and MSR-600 tools with fast data transmission rates and the ability to record high frequencies, this collaboration allows the partners to offer acquisition, processing and interpretation of microseismic data recorded during hydraulic fracture monitoring and semi-permanent deployment of receivers to monitor gas, water or steam injection.
TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. and NuTec Sciences, Inc., have signed a letter of intent, whereby TGS-NOPEC will acquire substantially all of the assets of NuTec's energy division for $11.25 million in cash. NuTec Energy is a seismic data processing and software company based in Houston. In 2003, NuTec Energy generated an operating profit of about $2.5 million. The company operates one of the world's fastest supercomputers, and specializes in finite difference time and depth domain imaging of seismic data using its own proprietary technology and techniques. TGS-NOPEC will continue NuTec Energy's third-party seismic processing services and software licensing business, while also applying NuTec's pre-stack time and depth imaging technology to TGS-NOPEC's own seismic database.
Subsea 7 has been given responsibility for inspection, repair and maintenance of all of Shell Exploration and Production Europe's subsea oil and gas infrastructure. This is the first time that a major operator has brought together its European subsea operations, with an anticipated utilization of 350 to 400 vessel days per year. The operations will involve air and saturation diving, as well as remotely operated vehicle and survey services. Subsea 7 will use its primary diving support vessels Polaris, Pelican and Rockwater 1, its survey support vessels Seisranger and Kommandor Subsea, as well as a significant program of drilling rig ROVs and tooling services.
Oil Search Ltd formed a strategic alliance with Halliburton and its KBR subsidiary, representing a unique arrangement between an independent operator and a major oil and gas contractor. Halliburton and KBR will offer subsurface oilfield services, development planning, engineering, construction, production and maintenance support to Oil Search's operations in Papua, New Guinea. The concept of the alliance developed out of Halliburton's long participation in the country as a traditional oilfield service provider through its Energy Services Group.
The Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin has opened its new Houston Research Center (HRC). The HRC houses about 500,000 boxes of core samples and rock cuttings and a technical library containing more than 50,000 items about geoscience and petroleum engineering. The samples were taken from as deep as 20,000 ft. The HRC is open to the public and is expected to be a valuable resource in teaching earth science to middle-school and high school students, as well as in the research of advanced students and scientists. The HRC was created in late 2002, when BP donated the 110,000-sq-ft building, 12 surrounding acres and 400,000 boxes of core samples and cuttings samples. Occidental Petroleum added nearly 50,000 additional boxes of rock material, and Unocal donated its technical library pertaining to the geosciences and petroleum engineering.
Independent gas production company CH4 Energy Ltd has acquired assets from Eni that include a 37.5% interest in Markham field, which straddles the UK/Dutch border, a 4% non-operated interest in the J3C field of the Dutch sector, and a 12.5% non-operated interest in UK Block 43/20d, an exploration license. CH4 will take over Eni's office in the Netherlands, and the 60 onshore and offshore staff currently responsible for Markham operations. The company has been re-named CH4 Nederland BV, and will continue to operate Markham field with current staff.
Sondex, an international oilfield technology company, will acquire Geolink International for £31.5 million. The acquisition will bring together two large independent suppliers of downhole technology. Both Sondex and Geolink specialize in products and technologies targeted to improve the efficiency and ultimate recovery of oil and gas. Sondex products are predominantly used in producing wells, while Geolink is a specialist designer, manufacturer and supplier of Measurement While Drilling (MWD) technology, and Logging While Drilling (LWD) products.
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