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Vol. 226 No. 7 |
Roxar opened a new office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in response to its growing customer base in the region. The new office will initially be home to five Vietnamese staff, and will provide sales and technical support for the company’s reservoir interpretation, modeling, simulation, well and completion, production and process solutions.
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 Semco Salvage & Marine Pte Ltd successfully completed tow-to-location, positioning and associated deck operations for the FPSO Kizomba B offshore Luanda, Angola. This project follows the earlier tow and positioning of FPSO Kizomba A, completed in 2004. Kizomba B was towed from Ulsan, Korea, by three large ocean-going tugs, the sister vessels Salvanguard and Salviscount and the Salvigour. The engineering for Kizomba B positioning and deck operations began in September 2004, involving a team mobilized in a working alliance with Offshore Dynamics Ltd (ODL).
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Schlumberger has acquired the assets of Diamould Ltd, an oil and gas industry firm specializing in electrical, hydraulic and fiber-optic connector solutions, based in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, UK. Diamould, which employs more than 70 staff, and designs and manufactures all types of connectors from its UK facility. Schlumberger will provide a network of sales and marketing personnel in the field to support the sales and services of the Diamould product line.
FMC Technologies, Inc., has signed a technology advancement agreement with NATCO Group Inc. for development of a next-generation, compact liquid/ liquid separation system. The agreement will combine FMC Technologies’ cyclonic separation technology with NATCO’s electrostatic coalescer technology to develop a compact separation system for subsea and surface processing applications. Initial application will be in subsea separation and processing studies conducted for Petrobras by FMC Technologies.
Tenaris S.A. has acquired a 97% share in Donasid S.A, a Romanian steel producer, for €37 million (US$48 million). Tenaris is also assuming €16.8 million ($22 million) in long-term debt held by Donasid with AVAS, the Romanian state privatization agency and expects to spend an additional €25 million ($32 million) to adapt the steel shop to produce round steel bars and other improvements. Donasid’s assets include a steel shop with an annual capacity of 470,000 tons.
Scan Tech UK signed a strategic agreement with Perry Slingsby Systems, a provider of remote intervention technologies and equipment systems. Aberdeen-based Scan Tech, which provides subsea rental tools in Europe, will be the exclusive rental supplier for Perry Slingsby Systems’ range of ROV tools in the North Sea.
Independent oil and gas specialist Vienco and AGT Energy, an oilfield technology company, have formed a new, jointly owned firm, OilFlow Solutions Ltd. The new company will market a portfolio of product systems targeted at the flow optimization of viscous oils. These systems are based on a patented core chemistry that was originally discovered by scientists at Bradford University and developed for oilfield application by AGT Energy Ltd. The first two product systems to be commercialized are Proflux 200 and Proflux 300. Both are designed to unlock marginal fields and stranded assets. Proflux 200 reduces the viscosity of low-specific-gravity, heavy oil from a thick and slow-flowing liquid to a free-flowing state. Proflux 300 stabilizes waxy crudes, allowing them to be pumped well below their original pour point temperature.
Ivanhoe Energy Inc. completed its merger with Ensyn Group, Inc., and has full control of that company’s Rapid Thermal Process (RTP) upgrading technology for the development of heavy oil deposits. Ivanhoe Energy acquired all outstanding shares of Ensyn for $10 million in cash and 30 million Ivanhoe Energy common shares.
Optima Integrated Energy Services, Aberdeen, Scotland, has formed a joint venture with Energy Sea & Land Projects (ESLP) of Houston and SLP Engineering of Lowestoft to offer engineering, construction and line-of-field maintenance services for oil and gas field developments in Mexico. The joint venture will operate from offices in Villahermosa, in Tabasco state. Optima brings along its experience in the North Sea in maximizing the operational efficiency of platforms. SLP has expertise in offshore platform engineering and construction and has licenses for the Sea Horse, Sea Pony and other minimal-facility platform designs. ESLP will be the business development arm of the joint venture, providing cost analysis, and technical and commercial bid preparation.
Drill bit supplier Varel International was acquired by KRG Capital Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm. The transaction was financed with equity from the $450-million KRG Capital Fund II, in conjunction with debt provided by Royal Bank of Scotland, Freeport Financial and Ares Capital Management. Varel’s world headquarters will remain in Carrollton, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Manufacturing facilities in Carrollton and Matamoros, Mexico, will continue to support the roller cone products manufactured for global oil and gas, and mining.
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