Flotek Industries Inc.,
Houston, named Marc K. "Kevin" Fisher as executive vice-president of global business development. He will have a variety of responsibilities including coordination of the company's global sales force, oversight of product development and innovation, and a host of growth initiatives.
Fisher most recently was general manager of Halliburton Co.'s Pinnacle division, a premier oil field completion and consulting business. He previously was president and chief executive of Pinnacle Technologies and executive vice-president of the parent Carbo Ceramics, among other executive positions.
He also spent 7 years as director of sales at ProTechnics where he first worked with Flotek President John Chisholm in building the sales force and client base for ProTechnics' radioactive well tracing technologies. That company is now a division of Core Laboratories. Fisher began his oil field career in 1979 as a field engineer at Halliburton and had several positions with that company.
Fisher is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts. He holds three US patents and is author of numerous professional monographs. He holds a bachelor's degree in natural sciences from Cameron University and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Managers Program.
Baker Hughes Inc.,
Houston, named President Martin Craighead to the additional office of chief executive of the company, succeeding Chad Deaton, who will remain chairman of the board of directors.
He has a bachelor of science degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a master of business administration from Vanderbilt University. He was recipient of the 2010 C. Drew Stahl Distinguished Achievement Award at Penn State and serves in a variety of charitable organizations.
In other news, the Iraqi government said Baker Hughes received a 3-year, $640 million contract to drill 60 wells in the southern Zubair oil field. It's the company's second integrated drilling project in Iraq following a contract in August with Lukoil to drill 23 wells in the West Qurna field. "Management expects operations with the Lukoil project to ramp up in the first quarter; using the same timeframe, we expect the Zubair contract to positively impact financials in the third quarter," said analysts in the Houston office of Raymond James & Associates Inc. "It will likely enable Baker Hughes to gain addition scale in the region."
This is the most recent in a series of key international contracts Baker Hughes obtained in 2011. The company earlier announced awards for a major high-pressure, high-temperature project in Malaysia and a 2-year directional drilling project offshore Mexico.
Baker Hughes also announced a noncash impairment charge of $300 million, or 47¢/share, related to the value of the BJ Services trade name. The nonrecurring charge was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Cameron International Corp.,
Houston, announced in late December a new $500 million stock buyback program following its $250 million settlement with BP PLC over the Macondo blowout in 2010. Cameron constructed the blowout preventer that government investigators claimed played a role in that blowout and spill. Analysts with Barclays Capital Equity Research described the buyback move as a "positive catalyst" for Cameron's shares.
Qatar's minister of energy and Industry,
Doha, signed a heads of agreement with Royal Dutch Shell PLC setting the scope and commercial principles for development of a world-scale petrochemicals complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City, following a joint feasibility study by the partners, Qatar Petroleum and Shell.
The project includes a world-scale steam cracker with feedstock coming from natural gas projects in Qatar; a mono-ethylene glycol plant of up to 1.5 million tonnes/year using Shell's proprietary OMEGA technology; 300 kilotonnes/year of linear alpha olefins using Shell's proprietary Shell Higher Olefin Process; and another olefin derivative. The complex is to produce cost-competitive petrochemical products primarily for Asian growth markets. Qatar Petroleum will have an 80% equity interest in the project and Shell 20%.
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