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Vol. 225 No. 10 |
First Reserve Corp., a private equity firm specializing in energy industry investments, agreed to acquire the Dresser-Rand Co., a business unit of Ingersoll-Rand, for about $1.2 billion. This is First Reserve's third acquisition from a major multinational corporation in 2004 and its second billion-dollar transaction in the past six months. Dresser-Rand is a leading supplier of infrastructure equipment, including compressors, gas and steam turbines, to the worldwide energy industry.
Market analysis firm Frost & Sullivan presented ABB Inc. with a Customer Value Enhancement Award for its pressure and flow transmitter and sensor product line. Frost & Sullivan gave the award to ABB's Instrumentation Business Unit, recognizing the overall performance of its instrumentation transmitter and sensor products and its continued commitment to the design and development of solutions. ABB's multi-variable transmitters can withstand static pressures up to 6,000 psi, for use in conjunction with gas injection at wellheads.
St. Paul Travelers Insurance and Blowouts Limited Inc. announced a new partnership to offer the St. Paul Travelers clients a well control prevention program and well control event management services. Brian Krause, president of Blowouts Ltd, has 25 years of well control experience with the Red Adair Co. and Boots & Coots, experience that will assist operators in implementing prevention standards and monitor blowout performances.
Roxar Software Solutions will donate over $1 million of its Irap RMS reservoir modeling software to the Australian School of Petroleum at The University of Adelaide, Australia. The School of Petroleum, formed from a merger of the University's School of Petroleum Engineering & Management and the National Centre for Petroleum Geology & Geophysics, is one of the world's leading teaching and research schools into petroleum engineering and geoscience. The new partnership with Roxar will enable students to build detailed reservoir models in a real-time environment. The Irap RMS software consists of a suite of integrated software modules including mapping, modelling, flow simulation, well planning and workflow management tools.
Al Jaber Group, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, acquired a 70% equity interest in Global Process Systems Inc. Group (GPS). The acquisition provides Al Jaber Group with greater reach into the oil and gas construction sector, through GPS' involvement in upstream and mid-stream oil and gas processing equipment, and electrical and instrumentation installation. GPS will be strengthened by Al Jaber's construction experience and financial capacity.
The International Petroleum Technology Institute (IPTI) has agreed to co-sponsor a series of workshops with the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). ASME-IPTI and SPE will co-sponsor up to six seminars annually at locations convenient to oil and gas industry engineers and other technical professionals in related industries. Members of either organization will be offered reduced registration fees. The joint conferences will range from one-day gatherings to broader, multi-level conferences held over three days. The first workshop is slated for the first quarter of 2005 in Europe and will focus on composites and non-traditional materials. Subsequent workshops will include downhole tools and equipment to be held in Houston, rotating machinery and system reliability to be held internationally, and subsea processing to be held in Houston.
Denver-based Bass-Trigon, a provider of oil and gas pipeline integrity engineering and software solutions, has opened an office in Calgary, Alberta. The new Canadian office will support ongoing work in Western Canada and will be managed by Colin Gagne. Gagne brings more than 10 years of experience in integrity management, pipeline geotechnical issues, stress corrosion cracking, GIS implementation and risk assessment programs.
Enterra Energy Trust will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Rocky Mountain Energy Corp. Shareholders of the acquired company will receive either cash, a trust unit of Enterra, or an exchangeable share. The transaction, including assumption of debt, has been valued at approximately C$55 million.
Clarksons and Normarine Offshore Consultants agreed to join forces and create Clarkson Normarine Offshore (CNO). Normarine is a leading broker in the sale, purchase, order and chartering of mobile offshore drilling units. In addition to brokering services, Clarksons publishes the “Offshore Register.” CNO will offer a range of services to owners and end-users in the offshore industry, and will operate from the Houston offices of Clarkson Shipping Services USA and the London office of Clarksons.
Varel International announced the opening of its office in Pau, France. This location will serve as Varel's primary office for the sale and service of polycrystalline diamond compact drill bits in the Eastern Hemisphere. The company currently has a PDC manufacturing facility in Tarbes, France, about 40 km away.
Basic Energy Services L.P. has acquired Energy Air Drilling Service Co. of Grand Junction, Colorado, expanding BASiC's operations into the San Juan basin of the Rocky Mountains. The newly created Four Corners Division will be headquartered in Farmington, New Mexico. With 288 well-servicing rigs, BASiC is the third largest well-servicing contractor in the US.
Dover Corp. has acquired US Synthetic, a major supplier of polycrystalline diamond cutters used in drill bits for oil and gas exploration. The firm also manufactures downhole bearings for oilfield applications. US Synthetic will join the Energy Products Group of companies in the Dover Resources subsidiary.
Petrol Oil and Gas Inc., an oil and gas exploration and production company, acquired a 640-acre oil field, currently producing about 10,000 bbl per year, from RWJ Oil LC. This oil field, located in Franklin County, Kansas, is close to Petrol's coalbed methane gas fields, and is part of the company's commercialization of reserves in eastern Kansas and western Missouri. Petrol will retain a 20% net revenue interest from production.
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