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Vol. 226 No. 5 |
Zy-Tech Global Industries has acquired a majority stake in South Africa’s Valvestock (Pty) Ltd, a valve distributor based in Vereeniging, Gauteng. The new entity will be known as Zy-Tech Valvestock Africa (Pty) Ltd. Zy-Tech’s product brands, DSI and Fairbanks gate, globe, and check valves, and PBV floating and trunnion ball valves, are used in the worldwide petrochemical and oil and gas production markets.
Paradigm has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas against Techsia S.A. for copyright infringement and other causes of action. Paradigm claims that Techsia misappropriated code from Paradigm’s Geolog software program and is marketing and selling the infringing code in Techsia’s product, Techlog. The suit seeks damages and an injunction to prevent Techsia from marketing and selling any product infringing copyright.
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Wiess Energy Hall, part of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, is re-opening to the public after extensive renovation. The museum highlights advancements in the energy industry over the past decade, using the newest display technology. The exhibit includes high-resolution giant screens, upgraded touch-screen computer interactives using computer animation technology and hands-on displays.
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The exhibits explore energy through 11 sections: Energy Explorations Theater is an animated musical overview of energy; Formation is a 3-minute film that takes visitors on a high-speed journey from the Big Bang to the formation of hydrocarbons; Geology features the dynamic layers of rock that hold oil and gas reservoirs; Geography uses satellite data to highlight the locations of potential oil and natural gas deposits; Exploration features the latest in energy-discovery technologies; Drilling highlights the numerous methods of reaching oil, and includes a simulated 7,285-ft ride to the bottom of a modern oil well; Reservoir and Production presents a subsea oil-production facility; Processing and Products details the workings of an oil refinery; The Energy Excursions Theater is a 160° wrap-around movie exploring the major sources of energy in the United States; Transportation and Distribution investigates energy delivery systems; and Alternative Energy Sources explores other ways energy is generated.
Renovation of the Wiess Energy Hall was supported and funded by major international oil companies, and individuals.
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Wooster Hydrostatics has purchased Fluid Power Solutions, which represents several manufacturers within the hydraulic pump, motor, valve and accessories market, including Denison Hydraulics, Ortman Fluid Power, Stauff, Schrupp Industries, American Industrial, Gaumer and Rotary Power. Wooster Hydrostatics Inc. services and rebuilds hydraulic pumps, motors and accessories. Fluid Power Solutions of Hilliard, Ohio, is a full service distribution company that designs and builds hydraulic power systems.
Sondex, the British oilfield technology group, signed an agreement covering rechargeable, high-temperature battery technology with Beta Research & Development Ltd of Derby, England. The agreement gives Sondex exclusive rights to advanced battery technology, currently under development, for use in downhole oil, gas and geothermal wells. The technology is based on the existing automotive Zebra Cell, and is being developed as an alternative to the lithium batteries currently used for memory tools by downhole operators.
Landmark, a part of Halliburton’s Energy Services Group, announced that its Global Technical Assistance Centers have achieved global certification for the third consecutive year under the Support Center Practices (SCP) program, which establishes the service quality benchmark for all IT service support centers and help desks. SCP certification is an internationally recognized standard that defines best practices for delivering world-class technology support. In addition to quantifying effectiveness of customer support, it establishes a foundation to build on existing quality processes and provides a focus on measurable results.
Dubai Techno Park, one of the first technology parks of its kind in the Middle East serving the high-technology sector, entered into an agreement with Omni Oil Technologies to establish a dedicated facility for the design, engineering and manufacturing of drilling and well-completion tools for the oil and gas industry. The agreement is aimed at establishing the first entity of this kind in the Middle East.
J. Ray McDermott Engineering’s Operations Center in Houston has been recommended for certification of conformance to the requirements of ISO 9001-2000 in the areas of project management, engineering and procurement operations and management systems. DNV Certification, a division of Det Norske Veritas, an accredited specialist in independent assessment and certification of quality management systems, has completed the audit of McDermott’s business processes and management systems with this positive result.
CARBO Ceramics Inc., a manufacturer of ceramic proppants for hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells, announced the intended construction of a new ceramic proppant manufacturing facility in the Russian Federation. It will be located in the city of Kopeysk, in Chelyabinsk oblast of the Russian Federation, about 1,000 miles east of Moscow. The facility has been designed to produce 100 million lb per year and is expected to be completed by the end of 2006. Groundbreaking on the plant is dependent on receiving certain permits from the Russian government.
Earth Search Sciences, Inc., announced a memo of understanding for a merger between its subsidiary company Petro Probe, Inc., and General Petroleum Inc. (GPI), a privately held company. The MOU establishes Petro Probe as the surviving company with all rights to access and develop a patented oil shale gasification technology held by GPI, as well as the oil shale properties GPI has submitted proposals for. Petro Probe is a development-stage oil and gas company using advanced technologies in its exploration package, including hyperspectral remote sensing, transient electromagnetic surveying, 3D seismic and chemical enzyme leaching.
Aberdeen-based geology specialists HRH Geological Services is the first UK company to achieve ATEX European certification for Drilgas, its gas monitoring system. Drilgas provides an early warning system of continuous concentrations of both combustible and toxic gases. The new ATEX directive applies to equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres, such as drilling installations. Any equipment manufactured after July 2003 must have this European certification of safety if it is to be used or sold in the EC, including the North Sea oil industry.
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping (OHM) won the Scottish Offshore Achievement Award for Innovative Technology. The awards, now in their 20th year, are led by the Scottish Enterprise Energy Team with support from the industry. They recognize outstanding achievements and contribution to the economy made by businesses in the offshore energy sector.
Roxar announced that it has joined POSC (Petrotechnical Open Standards Consortium), an international membership consortium of energy and energy service companies focused on leveraging e-business and internet technology for the upstream industry. The consortium encourages total interoperability, connectivity and real-time information exchange within the oil and gas industry and support for industry-wide application interoperability standards for transferring data between suppliers, operators and regulatory bodies.
Schlumberger Information Solutions contributed a $6-million package of advanced subsurface evaluation and petroleum engineering software technologies to the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) in Tronoh, Malaysia. The SIS software includes the Petrel workflow tools, and will provide students, researchers and faculty with a suite of integrated tools to enhance petroleum engineering capabilities.
Dynisco LLC, of the Audax Group, acquired Viatran Corp. from Invensys plc. Viatran is a supplier of pressure transducers and transmitters to the oil and gas industry. Dynisco supplies pressure instrumentation, extrusion auxiliary equipment and polymer testing instruments to the processing industries, and also supplies industrial pressure transducers to the oil-recovery industry.
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