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Vol. 225 No. 6 |
Targa Resources, Inc., has signed a definitive agreement to acquire major midstream assets owned by ConocoPhillips in Texas and Louisiana. Targa and ConocoPhillips have received all necessary regulatory and other approvals. Warburg Pincus LLC, a private equity investor in the energy sector, and Targa Resources' management will fund the transaction.
Grey Wolf acquired all of the outstanding capital stock and stock equivalents of New Patriot Drilling Corp. by merger in exchange for $15.8 million in cash and 4,610,480 shares of Grey Wolf common stock. In addition, Grey Wolf made payments of $14.7 million to retire the Patriot's outstanding debt. Patriot's estimated working capital at closing was $1.7 million (including $1.2 million in cash) excluding the current portion of the debt repaid at closing by Grey Wolf. Of the 10 drilling rigs acquired, eight are currently working and two are expected to begin work in Wyoming soon.
ExxonMobil is donating over $22.5 million to 921 colleges and universities across the US through the ExxonMobil Foundation's 2003 Educational Matching Gift Program. ExxonMobil employees, retirees, surviving spouses and directors made more than 8,000 individual contributions totaling $6.4 million to institutions of higher education in 2003, which was matched by the ExxonMobil Foundation with more than $16.1 million in unrestricted educational grants. Included is more than $4,796,700 to 74 Texas colleges, including The University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University. Earmarked for 33 North Carolina Colleges and Universities is $493,000. Among them is Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Also, $673,800 is slated for 33 Virginia Institutions. Initiated in 1962, the ExxonMobil Foundation's Educational Matching Gift program matches gifts to higher education on a 3-to-1 basis and has provided more than $282.95 million to higher education in the US.
Joint venturers in the Woodside-operated Otway Gas Project have approved development of the A$1.1 billion Thylacine and Geographe gas fields off Victoria in southern Australia. Over the project's life, the gas fields are expected to supply 950 Bcf of raw gas, 12.2 million bbl of condensate and 1.7 million metric tons of LPG at the probable (including proved) level.
Well engineering and construction company The Peak Group continues its worldwide expansion with the opening of an office in Dubai. The new office joins the company's growing list of international bases in Aberdeen, Perth, Houston and Jakarta. The Dubai office will offer well engineering and operations management services, as well as the provision of the company's performance management software to the upstream industry.
Paradigm, a provider of advanced petroleum geoscience and drilling technologies to the oil and gas industry, acquired the assets of the Reservoir Technologies Division (RTD) of Core Laboratories N.V. RTD is a provider of seismic data processing and depth imaging services to the E&P industry with many years of experience in both land and marine time and depth processing throughout the US, Canada and Mexico. The acquisition will complement Paradigm's integrated product portfolio of processing, imaging and reservoir characterization software.
Workstrings LLC, a subsidiary of Superior Energy Services, provided the tubulars for ChevronTexaco's Toledo world record well, which was spudded by Transocean's drillship Discoverer Deep Seas in 10,011 ft of water in Alaminos Canyon Block 951 in the Gulf of Mexico. This feat marks the first time that a rig has drilled in more than 10,000 ft of water. The previous record was 9,727 ft.
Titan Consolidated Inc. will develop an oil and gas area in Wilson County, Texas, that has a long history of oil exploration and production. The company estimates a minimum of 2,000,000 bbl of recoverable oil in place. Titan has also negotiated prospect and operating agreements, reflecting 100% ownership in the project after initial payouts. Income will be realized from natural gas production in the initial stages of drilling. Existing infrastructure will reduce costs – the property currently has a gas line to the field, and the 20 existing abandoned vertical well bores will be used to launch horizontal laterals.
Weatherford International Ltd. acquired Edinburgh Petroleum Services Ltd. (EPS), a producer of intelligent asset management software. EPS products allow networks of wells and production facilities to be configured to deliver maximum hydrocarbon value. Additionally, the company has well test analysis, material balance and well performance modeling tools.
International energy research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie acquired the business operations of Oil Price Assessments Limited (OPAL), from Metal Bulletin PLC. For almost 30 years, OPAL has provided assessments of oil product prices and margins across European markets. The business comprises a range of downstream industry subscription products and has about a hundred clients in the oil and gas sector as well as financial institutions and industry associations.
Galaxy Energy Corporation's wholly owned subsidiary Dolphin Energy has acquired working interests in approximately 27,900 net acres of coalbed natural gas interests in the vicinity of its Leiter Estate, Horse Hill, Buffalo Run East, and Pipeline Ridge properties in Sheridan County, Wyoming. The acquisition price for these new interests was $739,550. Galaxy is currently acquiring and developing coalbed methane and other unconventional and conventional natural gas properties in Wyoming, Montana, Texas and Europe.
Burlington Resources bid $22,500 an acre on a single parcel in the San Juan basin of New Mexico, bringing the 1,242-acre parcel sale price to $27.9 million, the largest single parcel bid in the lower 48 states since the Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act of 1987. The parcel will have the standard 10-year lease plus length of production, and may produce up to 50 Bcf of natural gas over lease life, according to the Bureau of Land Management. All but 100 acres of the parcel are restricted from surface occupancy.
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