Schlumberger Ltd.,
Paris, and Petrofac Ltd. in St Helier, Channel Islands, announced Petrofac's Integrated Energy Services (IES) and Schlumberger Production Management (SPM) division signed a cooperation agreement to deliver integrated and high-value production projects in the emerging and growing production services and production enhancement market.
"Schlumberger's subsurface knowledge, production engineering, well construction and project management services coupled with Petrofac's surface facility design, installation and ongoing operational field management create a life-of-field approach coupled with a performance-focused commercial model to optimize asset development and overall value," said Miguel Galuccio, president, SPM. "Schlumberger and Petrofac share a common global culture that promotes the complementary nature of their respective products and services and together will provide a one-stop shop for clients in emerging field development and asset management services."
Andy Inglis, chief executive, Petrofac IES, said, "The creation of this framework will enable us to bid jointly for projects of a scale that we would not pursue independently and to develop them at a much faster pace."
Both companies will deploy their own capital in these production enhancement projects and neither company will seek to book reserves or production. Officials see a market opportunity for this collaboration as major resource holders seek to develop discovered low-risk reserves in an industry environment characterized by a shortage of capability and capacity.
James C. West with Barclays Capital Equity Research in New York reported, "Schlumberger's agreement with Petrofac should make the company more competitive for large integrated projects by adding expertise in above-surface applications, including facility maintenance and construction, while providing Petrofac with downhole expertise and technology. The alliance is also likely to improve operational efficiency and reduce risk on large projects and removes a competitor in certain regions. Over the past several years Petrofac has aggressively built out its integrated services model to include subsurface applications. During 2011 Petrofac was awarded two major integrated project awards from Petroleos Mexicanos in Mexico, and the company has committed to spend between $500 million to $1 billion on its Integrated Services Division through 2015."
West said, "Although initially Schlumberger and Petrofac are likely to focus on brownfield and maintenance opportunities, we believe the synergy of expertise between the companies will ultimately prove valuable for emerging Greenfield opportunities in the North Sea, Caspian, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East (notably Iraq)."
Freudenberg Oil & Gas,
Houston, opened its 14,000 sq ft materials and products testing facility in the Brittmore Industrial Park in northwest Houston. The facility houses five specialty labs with comprehensive testing capabilities for thermal cycling, high pressure and high temperature applications, material properties, products, and sour gas. A sixth lab, for rubber mixing, is slated to open in June.
Company officials said the broad-spectrum facility will do in-house verification testing and analysis for Freudenberg Oil & Gas sealing solutions and for customized specifications upon request. "We are capable of performing standard tests in a complete range of temperatures and pressures, as well as customized tests for our customers' specified requirements," said Richard Schmidt, president and chief executive officer of Freudenberg Oil & Gas.
Freudenberg Oil & Gas is part of the family-owned Freudenberg Group and a global provider of elastomeric and plastic seals and engineer-designed products for the upstream oil and gas industry.
CRC-Evans Pipeline International Inc.,
Houston, entered into a commercial agreement with Tenaris SA, Luxembourg, to offer an integral package of tubular line pipe and welding technologies for offshore operations.
Company officials said this commercial alliance will reduce time, costs, and risk for customers, regardless of the conditions and location of their offshore projects. This includes welding of seamless heavy wall line pipe, high pressure, high temperature, and high sulfur applications, enhanced-fatigue flowlines and risers, as well as welding of corrosion resistant alloys and clad pipes.
This follows the technical cooperation agreement signed by the two companies in January 2011, which included research and development activities using CRC-Evans state-of-the-art welding solutions at the Tenaris R&D Center in Vera Cruz, Mexico. The cooperation agreement allows both companies to develop jointly specialized pipe metal compositions and properties along with welding development and qualifications for the full pipeline catalogue and for critical applications in the offshore pipeline market.
Tenaris is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of steel pipe products and related services for energy and other industrial applications. CRC-Evans is a global group of companies with the infrastructure and resources to support pipeline contractors anywhere in the world. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stanley Black & Decker Inc.
KBR Inc.,
Houston, appointed Karl Roberts senior vice-president of Canadian operations, based in Edmonton. Roberts is a 25-year veteran of KBR and has more than 28 years in the engineering and construction industry. He has been employed in a number of positions both domestically and internationally including operations, business development, and strategy. He previously was senior vice-president of sales at KBR Services.
KBR is a global engineering, construction and services company supporting the energy, hydrocarbon, government services, minerals, civil infrastructure, power, industrial, and commercial markets.
Environmental Drilling Solutions LLC (EDS),
Girouard is a graduate of the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants.
EDS specializes in zero discharge, reuse, and reclamation of oil-base drilling fluids and cuttings for land and offshore applications.
Shaw Group Inc.,
Baton Rouge, La., announced Timothy J. Poché joined the company as its chief accounting officer. Poché has more than 20 years of experience and was most recently an audit partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP, where he was office managing partner and professional practices director in the New Orleans office. He previously worked within the US Securities and Exchange Commission services group of the Deloitte national office.
Poché holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Louisiana State University. He also is a licensed certified public accountant in Louisiana and Texas and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as the Louisiana Society of Certified Public Accountants.
The Shaw Group Inc. is a leading global provider of engineering, construction, technology, fabrication, remediation and support services for clients in the energy, chemicals, environmental, infrastructure, and emergency response industries.
Crosco Integrated Drilling & Well Services Co. Ltd.,
Tadic joined Crosco from Dioki PLC where he was CFO and board member from 2010. He previously served as CFO of CCS Investments Ltd., preceded by his 2-year managing director position at Proventus Strategije Ltd. He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree as well as a Master's in Economics from the University of Zagreb.
Crosco is an integrated onshore and offshore drilling and well services contractor with a fleet of 66 drilling, workover, and geoservices rigs as well as one semisubmersible and one jack up rig. The company wholly owns Hungarian-based Rotary Drilling Co. with a fleet of eight drilling rigs. The subsidiary also provides workover and other well services.
Tesoro Corp.,
San Antonio, Tex., has decided after lengthy review to put its Hawaiian refining operations on the block, including its 94,000 b/d Kapolei refinery, 32 retail stations, and associated logistical assets. A sale isn't anticipated before the second half of this year. However, analysts in the Houston office of Raymond James & Associates Inc. predicted, "The company could have difficulty finding suitors in terms of keeping the refinery running (though a terminal buyer would be more likely). The Hawaiian refinery earned $30 million over the first three quarters of 2011, although much of this was likely to be erased in the fourth quarter by a difficult operating environment. Management has been vocal in the past about the challenges of the refinery, both from a crude sourcing and product yield standpoint. The Mid-Pacific region represents less than 5% of our operating income estimate for [Tesoro in] 2012 and 14% of companywide capacity."
Expro International Group Ltd.,
Reading, UK, recently secured a £3.2 million contract from global oil and gas company Maersk Oil, Copenhagen, part of the Maersk Group, to provide surface well testing, clean-up services, and large bore subsea safety systems for Maersk Oil UK's contracted mobile offshore drilling units in the UK North Sea. The contract is for 3 years with a possible 2- year extension.
"Over the past few years, our team has built up a strong relationship with Maersk Oil," said Tim Horsfall, Expro's UK business development manager. The contract continues Expro's support of Maersk Oil in the UK sector of the North Sea.
Expro is a leader in providing services and products that measure, improve, control, and process flow from high-value oil and gas wells, through its Well Testing & Commissioning; Production Systems; Wireline Intervention; Connectors & Measurements; and Deepwater Intervention marketing segments. It employs 4,500 people in 50 countries.
Kværner ASA,
Oslo, was awarded through its fully owned Kværner Verdal AS subsidiary an engineering, procurement, and construction contract from Lundin Norway AS, Stavanger, for a steel platform jacket for the Luno field in North Sea.
The contract will be executed by Kvaerner's yard in Verdal and includes load-out and sea-fastening of the 14,500-tonne jacket and associated piles. Detailed engineering is to start immediately with fabrication in Verdal, Norway, to commence in the fourth quarter. The project is expected to reach its peak manpower of more than 400 workers in the first quarter of 2013, company officials said. The Luno jacket is scheduled for delivery in the spring of 2014. It will be the 41st in the series of oil and gas jackets delivered by Kvaerner, officials said.
Kvaerner's Verdal yard is one of the few in Europe specializing in EPC jacket deliveries. It currently is building four jackets under contracts for ConocoPhillips in Norway and for BP PLC in the UK. It also is building 49 jackets for the offshore wind farm project Nordsee Ost for RWE Innogy in Germany.
FMC Technologies Inc.,
Houston, signed an agreement with Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to provide subsea systems and life-of-field services for the Lucius field located 275 miles southeast of Galveston, Tex., in 7,100 ft of water in Keathley Canyon Block 875. FMC's scope of supply includes five subsea production trees and two manifolds. Deliveries are expected to begin in the fourth quarter. No details were given on the terms of the deal.
FMC earlier announced its Australian subsidiary signed a $150 million agreement with Woodside Energy Ltd. for design, manufacture, and supply of subsea production systems to support the Greater Western Flank (GWF) Phase 1 Project to develop the Goodwyn GH and Tidepole fields. The project represents the next major development for the Woodside-operated Northwest Shelf Project. The GWF fields are located in water depths of 230-425 ft. FMC's scope of supply includes six subsea production trees, six wellheads, two manifolds, subsea and topside controls, and flowline connection systems. Deliveries are expected to commence in the second half of 2012 and continue through 2013.
Transocean Ltd.,
Zug, Switzerland, announced the resignation of Robert S. Shaw as vice-president, controller, and principal accounting officer to pursue other opportunities. However, Shaw will remain with the company for a while to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities. His resignation "is not related to any disagreements with the company's accounting, financial reporting, or internal control over financial reporting," Transocean officials said.
Ricardo Rosa stepped down as Transocean's executive vice-president and chief financial officer effective Jan. 9 but will stay on with the company for a transition period until his official retirement on Apr. 30. At the time, analysts in the Houston office of Raymond James & Associates Inc. reported, "While the details of Rosa's departure are thin, we wouldn't be surprised if the recent lackluster financial performance played a role in the decision. We note that our recent buy-side conversations have centered around poor decision making at the top, and accordingly, the stock may react positively as it could bring in some money off the sidelines."
Former CFO Gregory L. Cauthen, who retired from Transocean in August 2009, returned to the company as interim CFO as a result of Rosa's move, and an executive search firm was retained to find a permanent replacement. With Shaw's resignation, Cauthen also assumed responsibilities of controller and principal accounting officer pending Shaw's replacement.
Aker Solutions ASA,
Oslo, was awarded a $48 million contract by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. (DSME), Seoul, South Korea, for delivery of a deepwater drilling riser system to the DSME shipyard for installation on Atwood Oceanics Inc.'s ultra-deepwater drillship, the Atwood Advantage. The 10,000 ft deepwater drilling riser system will be manufactured and delivered out of Aker Solutions' manufacturing plant in Port Klang, Malaysia. Delivery of the drilling riser system is scheduled for March 2014. The delivery is related to the first of two options included in a drilling riser contract announced in July 2011, officials said.
Aker Solutions has delivered a total of 16 drilling riser systems in the past 16 months. The company offers complete drilling equipment packages, including project management, conceptual design, detailed engineering and procurement. Aker Solutions provides the full range of topside drilling equipment and systems, and worldwide customer support through a global drilling lifecycle services organization.
Meanwhile, Aker Subsea AS signed a 210 million Norwegian krone (NOK) contract with Marathon Oil Norge AS to supply a subsea production system for the operator's Boyla project on the Norwegian continental shelf. Scope of work includes engineering, procurement, construction, and delivery of four subsea trees, four over-trawlable subsea structures, and control systems.
The Bøyla field is located in 120 m of water southwest of the Alvheim field and will be tied back to the Alvheim FPSO.
Engineering and manufacturing of the subsea trees will be primarily at Aker Solutions' technology center at Tranby, Norway. Engineering of the over-trawlable structures will be carried out at Aker Solutions headquarters in Fornebu, Norway. The subsea control systems will be delivered out of Aberdeen. Installation and commissioning will be handled by Aker Solutions' service base at Aagotnes, Norway. Final deliveries are scheduled for the first quarter of 2013.
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