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Vol. 228 No. 4 |
WorleyParsons and INTEC Engineering announced a strategic alliance to offer offshore oil and gas customers in the Asia-Pacific region a comprehensive solution for large-scale integrated deepwater facilities, and subsea and marine systems projects. The alliance offerings will range from concept studies to full project delivery. The alliance for Australasia is based out of Perth, and out of Singapore for Asia.
Tenaris S.A. has agreed to acquire Hydril Co. for $97 per share of Hydril common stock and $97 per share of Class B common stock, in cash. The acquisition will be financed through a combination of cash on hand and debt. Hydril, a US manufacturer of premium connections and pressure control products for drilling and production, reported 2006 revenues of $503 million, operating income of $132.2 million and net income of $91.3 million under US GAAP. Tenaris is a global manufacturer and supplier of tubular products and services.
Pipe coating and insulation firm Socotherm Americas announced a new joint venture with the LaBarge Pipe & Steel Co. to establish a plant in Channelview, Texas, expected to be completed in 2007. The plant will supply the Socotherm five-layer syntactic polypropylene thermal insulation system, a modified polypropylene matrix filled with hollow glass microspheres, to serve the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
Saudi Aramco and WellDynamics are jointly developing a range of new technologies for multizone, multilateral intelligent completions. The project is part of Saudi Aramco’s strategy to develop extreme reservoir contact (ERC) wells. These are intelligent multilateral wells that do not require individual control lines from the wellhead to each lateral or zone, theoretically allowing an unlimited number of intelligent laterals. The company pioneered intelligent Maximum Reservoir Contact (MRC) wells. These wells attain more than 5 km of contact with the reservoir through intelligent laterals off the main wellbore that can be partially or fully opened and closed from the surface. Saudi Aramco’s most recently developed field, Haradh Increment III, relies on 32 intelligent MRC wells that utilize WellDynamics’ SmartWell intelligent completion technology.
Tudor Capital Partners, LLC, and Pickering Energy Partners, Inc., have agreed to form Tudor, Pickering & Co., LLC. The new firm, headquartered in Houston, will be an integrated energy investment and merchant banking boutique providing advice and services to institutional and corporate clients. Bobby Tudor, formerly a partner with Goldman Sachs, will serve as chairman and CEO, and former World Oil publisher Alexandra Pruner will serve as CFO of the combined entity.
OpenSpirit Corp. announced that Paradigm, a provider of enterprise software solutions to the global E&P industry, has joined Schlumberger, Shell Technology Ventures, Inc., and CTTV Investments LLC, the venture capital arm of Chevron Corp., as an investor. The total investment amount, including cash from existing members, is $4 million.
INTEC Engineering has begun a joint industry study to assess the state of the art for three key deepwater process equipment types: subsea separators, pumps and compressors. It will also assess the respective power and control elements required to deploy them. At least 14 participants have joined the study to date, which is expected to last four to six months.
Travelers, in conjunction with Wild Well Control, Inc., launched an emergency response planning guide for managing onshore well blowouts in the US. It is the first such resource to provide a framework for early intervention, and an emergency response plan to address the catastrophic impact of blowouts. As a supplement to a contractor’s or operator’s oil spill contingency plan, the guide identifies procedures for handling scenarios ranging from routine well control to total loss of well control, requiring immediate mobilization of personnel and equipment. The plan also provides guidance on ways to protect personnel, and it outlines notification steps to alert regulatory agencies. In addition, it defines critical information required for developing response strategies, organizing personnel and pre-selecting mobilization plans.
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| BJ Process and Pipeline Services has opened a new base of operations in Doha, Qatar. The base joins BJ PPS Middle East facilities in Dubai, UAE, and Damman, Saudi Arabia. The 5,000-sq-ft base features offices and a large workshop, and houses technical sales, operations personnel and a comprehensive suite of process and pipeline equipment.
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Oil and gas software firm Ikon Science purchased the Edinburgh-based software and interpretation company, Anitec Ltd, whose co-founders Colin MacBeth and Phil Wild will join Ikon management. Anitec has worked with Ikon since March 2004, developing a seismic anisotropy modeling and database module within the RokDoc software.
CyrusOne, a specialist in high availability and dense computing enterprise data centers, is expanding its Houston data center by an additional 60,000 sq ft, making it the highest density data center in Texas. The expansion will almost double the size of the existing facility. This new campus will offer about 125,000 sq ft of hosted data storage, and is engineered to accommodate dense computing systems at over 250 watts per square foot.
IMV Projects Atlantic, of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, will conduct a study titled Arctic Offshore Technology Assessment of Exploration and Production Options for Cold Regions of the US Outer Continental Shelf for the US Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS). The study is to deliver an assessment of oil and gas technology that may be applied to cold regions of the US OCS, in particular the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering Seas.
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