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Vol. 227 No. 1 |
Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc., has agreed to acquire the hydraulic well control business of Oil States International, Inc. With 2004 revenues of around $34 million, HWC is one of the largest hydraulic workover contractors in the world. With the addition of HWC, Boots & Coots’ services will encompass well blowouts and fires, hydraulic workover/ snubbing and hot tapping services, as well as engineering and comprehensive pre-event risk management services. Under the agreement, Boots & Coots will issue Oil States 26.5 million shares of common stock and promissory notes with an aggregate balance of $15 million.
The first Arabic translation of International Energy Outlook 2005 has been introduced. IEO 2005 is the flagship publication of the Energy Information Administration at the US Energy Department and is produced by the Gulf Research Center (GRC). Prepared by the EIA, it covers international energy projections through 2025 and provides outlook for major energy fuels and associated carbon dioxide emissions.
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EIA administrator Guy Caruso, left, and Abdulaziz Sager, GRC chairman. Sager said “The main objective of this program is to promote research in the fields of energy economics and policies, taking into consideration the vested interests of both the producers and consumers. . . . Translating the IEO 2005 into Arabic is part of GRC’s first step into energy research.”
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Total E&P USA, Inc., has entered into an agreement with Shell Exploration & Production in which Total will convey its interests in four onshore fields in South Texas for Shell’s 17% interest in the deepwater Tahiti field in the Gulf of Mexico. Tahiti field is operated by Chevron and located in Green Canyon Blocks 596, 597, 640 and 641 in 1,250 m of water, about 190 mi southwest of New Orleans. First production is planned for mid-2008. In the exchange, Shell acquires four natural gas fields in South Texas with net production of 107 MMcfde.
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Sonoran Energy, Inc., signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) with the Natural Resources Authority of the Kingdom of Jordan. The Agreement is the first PSA signed by Jordan in over eight years. Jordan imports 97% of its energy needs. Sonoran Energy will explore and develop the 11,250-sq-km Azraq Block located directly east of Jordan’s capital city of Amman, and will take over operation of existing production in the block’s Hamzah oil field.
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Baker Hughes Inc. has acquired all of the outstanding share capital of Zeroth Technology Ltd (Zertech), a privately owned company based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Zertech developed and patented a non-elastomer, expandable metal sealing element for well intervention applications, for which the company was awarded the International Coiled Tubing Association European Chapter Award for Innovation and Technology.
The Cameron Highway Oil Pipeline System (CHOPS) website has been launched (www.cameronhighwayoil.com). CHOPS is a joint venture between Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and Valero Energy Corp. The system is a relatively new 30- and 24-in., 380-mile pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico which follows the outer continental shelf and delivers oil to the Texas Gulf Coast at Texas City and Port Arthur. Customers have requested a public, central source of CHOPS-related information. The site provides general information and news, and updates the industry on the recent and historic quality of the pipeline’s crude blend.
The European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE) will open a regional office in the Middle East. The new office in Dubai, UAE, will be operational mid-2006. The regional office will handle existing EAGE events and further develop the activities of the organization in this important region. Focus will be on regional conferences, workshops and education.
Mechdyne Corporation will acquire VRCO Inc., a developer of interactive 3D visualization software. VRCO’s software toolkits, end-user applications, and professional services are a synergistic fit with Fakespace, which Mechdyne acquired in 2003. VRCO and Fakespace have been strategic partners for almost a decade, and this merger is seen as the logical next step for enhanced growth of the companies. The Fakespace division will focus on large-scale visualization systems, and VRCO will focus on software products and services.
North Sea Communications AS, a TeliaSonera subsidiary, has made interconnection agreements with both TampNett AS and Central North Sea Fibre Telecommunications Company Ltd (CNSFTC), thereby linking all companies’ fiber optical networks in the North Sea. NSC is also establishing a new node in Houston to serve the oil and gas industry. More than 1 billion NOK has been invested in the three major optical networks in the North Sea. This enables direct, low-latency communications between offshore facilities and onshore offices and operation centres, independent of country. A number of installations can be supplied with end-to-end communications by a single telecom operator.
Schlumberger has opened a new 53,000-sq-ft building at its Global Drilling Technology Center in Stonehouse, Stroud District, Gloucestershire, UK. The new center is responsible for the manufacturing and assembly of all Schlumberger drilling tools used worldwide. The new building houses the center’s product development engineering, commercial product support, manufacturing and management teams. At the center, new drilling system prototypes for oil exploration and production drilling are taken from the drawing board and built into functional tools for field testing.
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