SERVICES | SUPPLIERS

Oct. 3, 2011

Aker Solutions ASA,

Oslo, expanded its subsea business to Sweden by opening an office in Frölunda outside Gothenburg to tap into that country's engineering market. The office currently includes a team of 13 engineers under managing director Jesper Ericsson but is expected to expand to a staff of 50 by the end of 2012. The company is already considering a new office location closer to the center of Gothenburg.

Aker Solutions sees "plenty of interesting opportunities," with the global subsea oil and gas market, which is expected to grow in coming years, "driven particularly by field developments in deep and ultra-deep waters."

Ericsson noted, "Sweden has not played a big role in the global oil and gas industry in general or in the subsea sector specifically. However, we believe the competence and experience is available."

The Gothenburg office will provide engineering and design services for most subsea production system technologies and products offered by Aker Solutions, including subsea trees, manifolds and structures, tie-in systems, workover systems, pumps and processing systems. Additionally, the office will offer tender and research and development support.

Aker Solutions

received a letter of award from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. to supply two drilling equipment packages to the new 'Cat D' semisubmersible drilling rigs the yard is building for Songa Offshore SE, a Norwegian-Cypriot drilling contractor. The deal includes options for two additional units, but total value was not disclosed.

The first two units will be delivered in 2014, and the main deliveries from Aker Solutions will take place in 2012-2013. The contract includes topside drilling equipment, procurement, and commissioning of the rigs at the DSME yard. The two optional units if exercised are scheduled for completion in 2015.

Work on the project is proceeding in Kristiansand, Norway, and in other Aker Solutions drilling technologies units in Asker, Norway; Erkelenz, Germany; and Houston.

Tracerco Ltd.,

Phillips

Billingham, UK, named Gary Phillips to head its operations in Aberdeen. Phillips has been with the company 13 years and prior to his new appointment was reservoir technical manager. He has more than 20 years experience in the industry, primarily in reservoir operations and characterization.

Schlumberger Ltd,

Paris, brought out a play-to-prospect risk assessment plug-in for the Petrel 2011 E&P software platform it introduced in June. Company officials said the technology provides integrated petroleum-system-based assessment to consistently evaluate key risk elements from play to prospect.

"Statistics show that, on average, two of three frontier exploration wells today are unsuccessful, indicating that we as an industry still fail to properly manage exploration risk," said Tony Bowman, president of Schlumberger Information Solutions. "While seismic technology advances have enabled better evaluation of trap and reservoir risks, almost three-quarters of dry exploration wells are due to an inadequate understanding of charge and seal risk."

The plug-in provides a standardized process that takes geological elements—trap, reservoir, charge, and seal—and converts them into chance maps through a suite of transform methods. Scenarios are compared to determine play limits and identify areas for high grading to support rapid ranking of opportunities, said Schlumberger officials. "The process seamlessly migrates from play-scale to prospect-level assessment that enables refinement of geological scenarios combined with chance of success—to deliver probabilistic hydrocarbon volumes, the company said.

Earlier, Schlumberger combined its fishing and intervention services under its SERVCO services organization, which will provide fishing and pipe recovery, wellbore departure, wellbore abandonment, and through-tubing well intervention tools and services. The move was motivated by growing demand for well intervention and abandonment services as a result of "increased and more challenging industry activity especially in shale plays" and additional government regulation of offshore drilling in the US and the North Sea, said Wesley Heiskell, vice-president of SERVCO services. "With SERVCO services we have a global network of experts dedicated to this important service area."

In other news, Schlumberger signed a collaboration agreement with Visualization Sciences Group (VSG), Bordeaux, France to expand integration of VSG's Open Inventor technology across the whole range of Schlumberger software products. This would provide oil and gas companies with first-class 3D software solutions to fully realize the potential of the digital oil field, officials said. The technology has been used for more than 10 years in various Schlumberger software products. The agreement consolidates the partnership between the two companies so they can collaborate more closely to ensure that all Schlumberger products benefit in the most optimal way from VSG's latest 3D technologies.

VSG's Open Inventor, a 3D graphics toolkit providing powerful 3D visualization and data management components with an object-oriented API (Programming Interface) for C++, .NET and Java. The Open Inventor extensible architecture and large set of advanced components provide developers with a high-level platform for rapid prototyping and development of 3D graphics applications.

Baker Hughes Inc.,

Houston, has consolidated its consulting services into Gaffney, Cline & Associates Ltd., in Alton, UK. Baker Hughes acquired several in 2008-2009, including Gaffney, Cline & Associates; Epic Consulting Services Ltd., and the consulting division of Helix RDS Ltd. Officials said the new organization brings together some 300 consultants, working in all oil and gas industry sectors. GeoMechanics International Inc., acquired in 2008, is now part of the newly organized Baker Hughes subsurface integrity and evaluation group and the former GeoMechanics International consulting operations will remain under that umbrella.

The expanded group under Gaffney, Cline & Associates brings additional technical skills for the complete field lifecycle from exploration to abandonment, along with expertise from Canada's heavy oil sector and in enhanced oil recovery. The consolidated Gaffney, Cline & Associates works for clients ranging from national and international oil companies, governments, financial institutions, and petroleum services and support companies from offices in North America, Latin America, the UK, Asia Pacific, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Middle East.

Brinker Technology Ltd.,

McAllister Aberdeen, named as its chief executive officer Kenny McAllister, vice-president of sales and operations. The company also revealed an aggressive 3-year growth strategy to expand its global reach and exploit potential markets with a particular focus on the Middle East and Far East. Moreover, Brinker is undertaking a recruitment drive as it aims to create at least four new sales positions worldwide before year-end.

McAllister joined Brinker in 2010 from Halliburton where he was a senior account manager. With more than 16 years experience in the oil and gas industry through a variety of roles in sales, operations, and general management, he has worked in Europe, Africa, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East.

Brinker provides an alternative to traditional workover services to find and fix well leaks without removing the wellhead itself.

In other news, Brinker Technology

secured an exclusive distribution deal with Alaskan Energy Resources Inc. that will allow Brinker to expand its global reach into the technically challenging and lucrative Alaskan market.

Darcy Technologies Ltd.,

Presslie

Aberdeen, named industry veteran Mark Presslie as business development manager for the introduction of its Critical Matrix Management technology to optimize oil and gas reservoir inflow through a low-risk, high-value sand management completions method. The technology is an alternative to conventional completion methods such as gravel packing and expandable screens. Officials said it produced better-than-expected results in several recent operator-sponsored projects to provide independent verification of its performance characteristics.

Vam USA,

Houston, opened a new field service office in Oklahoma City to support the growth of activity in regional shale plays. Its 4,000 sq ft facility will warehouse complete sets of VAM service tools and provide office space for local management and service representatives.

DrillScan,

Menand

Montreuil, France, appointed Stephane Menand managing director of its new Houston-based Drillscan US Inc. affiliate. Menand previously was project manager for drilling mechanics activity within the parent company near Paris. He also was a researcher in the geosciences department of the Mines ParisTech university. In addition to his extensive research experience, Menand has led several industrial projects including directional drilling, drillstring dynamics, torque and drag modeling, and drill pipe for deep drilling.

Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA,

Trondheim, Norway, was awarded a $5.5 million contract to acquire and process 3D electromagnetic data offshore Ghana for a new customer partnership. The work will be done by the seismic vessel BOA Galatea starting in early October, officials said.

Global Geophysical Services Inc.,

Houston, signed a letter of intent to acquire Sensor Geophysical Ltd. of Calgary in a move that enhances GGS' multi-component capabilities and provides the company an entry into the Canadian market. GGS maintains one of the largest 3C recording system channel counts in geophysical services and is developing its own next generation autonomous 3C and 4C systems. Sensor has its own proprietary software for advanced multi-component imaging and is involved in development of Canadian shale plays. Details of the agreement were not immediately available.

KBR Inc.,

Houston, appointed Chris Barton as senior vice-president of business development for the KBR Oil & Gas business unit. Before joining KBR, Barton was vice-president for Asia Pacific business acquisition at McDermott International Inc. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Nordic American Tankers Ltd.,

Hamilton, Bermuda, acquired its 20th vessel in a $24.5 million deal, part of its strategy to grow its fleet during the cyclical weakness in the tanker market. The newest vessel is a Suezmax tanker built at Samsung Heavy Industries in 1999 as a sister ship of the Nordic Sprite (147,188 dwt). It's scheduled for delivery by Oct. 5. The company prefers maintaining a homogenous fleet to better manage maintenance costs and increase operational efficiency, said analysts at FBR Capital Markets & Co., Arlington, Va. "We fully expect this to be only the first of many Suezmax acquisitions over the next several quarters, as opportunities arise to take advantage of distress in the market. With the strongest balance sheet of its peers, the company has the greatest ability to snap up assets near the cyclical trough," the analysts said.

RBG Ltd.,

Henderson

Aberdeen, named Ian Henderson as president of its Kazakhstan business unit to operate from RBG's base in Aktau City, Kazakhstan. Henderson joined RBG in March as commercial manager. He has more than 20 years experience in the oil and gas industry and has worked in a wide range of senior project, contract, and commercial positions for companies such as Statoil, FosterWheeler, and Halliburton in North Africa, the Middle East, and the North Sea.

PanAmerican Geophysical Co. Ltd.,

Glasgow, established a new company PanAmerican GeoExchange Inc. in Houston to offer multi-client seismic surveys in the US. The new firm is planning a number of surveys targeting hydrocarbon bearing shale plays. Tony Clark, a 27-year veteran of the seismic data industry, was named president of the new operation.

Platform Management LLC,

Sugar Land, Tex., a privately owned company, acquired the stock and general partner control interest in Cooper Valves LP from Newco Valve, a joint venture of Cameron International and M&N Management Systems, a privately owned corporation. The acquisition specializes in exotic alloys valves for the downstream and mid-stream chemical, petrochemical, oil and gas, water, and refining industries.

Reflex Marine Ltd.,

Aberdeen, developed the Arctic Thermal Pod for use with its existing Frog device to protect passengers from extreme cold during crane-assisted personnel transfers offshore. The new safety device is designed to protect against exposure to wind chill "in the unlikely event of a crane stoppage mid-transfer," company officials said. The 2-man pod, is made from heat-retaining Kevlar and flame-retardant PVC and is stored in the seat of the Frog 6 transport unit for quick deployment.

HSB Solomon Associates LLC ,

Dallas, a privately owned consulting firm, has partnered with Reza Investment Co. Ltd., a Saudi Arabia-based firm, to expand Solomon Associates' benchmarking and consulting services in the Middle East. Company officials said they will help improve Middle Eastern operations at new and existing refineries, chemical plants, and power plants.

Summit Midstream Partners LLC.,

Dallas, named Matthew Harrison as senior vice-president and chief financial officer with primary responsibility for planning, implementing, managing, and controlling all financial-related activities of the company. He has 15 years of energy and finance experience, most recently as executive vice-president and CFO of Hiland Partners LP.

Swagelok Co.,

Solon, Ohio, a major developer and provider of fluid system solutions, introduced its new calibration and switching module (CSM) for final conditioning of fluid or gas samples prior to analysis. Built on a modular platform, it connects with a process analyzer and selects process streams or a calibration stream for analysis. The standard model accepts up to 10 process and 2 calibration fluids, either all liquid or all gas. By verifying that the sample is at the appropriate pressure, temperature, flow, and filtration level, the CSM helps protect downstream analyzer equipment for maximum uptime.

Tendeka BV,

he Netherlands-registered provider of completions and reservoir monitoring products and services to the upstream oil and gas industry, sold the industrial monitoring business of its London-based fiber optic monitoring subsidiary Sensornet Ltd. to Nova Metrix LLC of Woburn, Mass., but will retain exclusive access to Sensornet products within the upstream market. Other details of the deal were not available. The sale allows Tendeka to focus on the growth of its core upstream business. The acquisition enables Nova Metrix to enhance its range of asset monitoring products and services by strengthening and consolidating common technologies with existing portfolio companies such as Roctest Ltd. and Durham Geo Enterprises Inc., company officials said. Tendeka's reservoir monitoring operations include digital and wireless monitoring solutions for water injection, oil production, and gas lift optimization in both permanent completions and intervention campaigns.

Swire Oilfield Services Ltd.,

Aberdeen, a global provider of offshore cargo carrying units, named David Rae as sales director in line with its significant investment plans. Rae is an experienced veteran of a variety of senior commercial and finance roles in both the oil and gas and manufacturing industries. He was most recently business development director for Canada-based CHC Helicopters.

National Oilwell Varco,

Houston, got a $1.5 billion contract from Estaleiro Atlantico Sul to supply drilling risers, blowout preventers, and other equipment for seven drillships to be built for Petrobras. These will be the first of 28 rigs scheduled to be built in Brazil over the next several years, officials said. The other 21 rigs are in the shipyard bidding process.

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