Schlumberger, Houston, Tex., has acquired a majority interest in Caspian Geophysical, a provider of marine seismic acquisition services in the Caspian Sea, located in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The company, which will continue to operate under the trade name of Caspian Geophysical, will now offer a substantially expanded array of seismic services, enhanced through the immediate addition to its fleet of the marine seismic vessel M/V Geco Gamma. This advanced multistreamer 3D seismic vessel, equipped with the latest Schlumberger proprietary acquisition technologies, went by transit to the Caspian Sea via the Russian Don-Volga canal system and arrived in Baku in late July. New service activities also being introduced during 1999 to Caspian Geophysical include shallow water and transition zone acquisition, and multicomponent (4C) seismic data acquisition and processing.
Caspian Geophysical is a joint venture company with SOCAR (the State Oil company of Azerbaijan) and is the leader in marine seismic services in the Caspian Sea.
Geco-Prakla, a product line of Schlumberger, provides integrated exploration and reservoir characterization and monitoring services worldwide and provides seismic data acquisition, data processing and nonexclusive data sales.
Schlumberger Oilfield Services is a supplier of services and technology to the international petroleum industry.
Parker Drilling Co., Tulsa, Okla., has closed the transaction with Unit Corp. for the sale of its 13 Lower 48 land drilling rigs.
The company now has 83 marketable rigs of which 34 are U.S. based and 49 are international based.
Parker Drilling is an energy company specializing in barge and offshore drilling and workover services, international land drilling, and specialized oil tool rentals.
Dresser Equipment Group's Waukesha Engine Div. has entered into an agreement with Maestranza Diesel, Ltda., as its new distributor in Chile. Maestranza Diesel will sell and service WaukeshaRegistered natural gas engines, as well as provide total customer support with Waukesha Genuine Parts. Dresser Equipment Group is a business unit of Halliburton Co.
Maestranza Diesel serves the mining, oil and gas, railroad, pulp and paper, and food processing industries. Headquartered in Santiago, Chile, it also has service facilities in Antofagasta and Concepcion.
Waukesha Engine Div. manufactures natural gas engine systems, serving the gas compression, power generation, and mechanical drive markets worldwide. Waukesha Engine's manufacturing and power systems facilities are ISO 9001 certified.
Halliburton Co. is a diversified energy services, engineering, maintenance, construction, and energy equipment company.
Wärtsilä NSD Italia S.p.A is the new name for Grandi Motori Trieste. The company became fully owned subsidiary of Wärtsilä NSD Corp. in March 1999. The Wärtsilä NSD Group has the same corporate image globally and the same corporate name in all the countries in which it operates. Grandi Motori's new name reflects this policy.
Wärtsilä NSD Italia manufactures low-speed Sulzer RTA engines and medium-speed Wärtsilä 64 and Sulzer Z40 engines, and high power density engines for high-speed transportation and naval applications.
Johan Stoor is chairman and president of Wärtsilä NSD Italia S.p.A.
Gas Research Institute and Karl Weiss GmbH & Co., Berlin, Germany, have formed a joint venture to accelerate the transfer and commercialization of trenchless technologies from Europe to North America.
The company-starlineRegistered Trenchless Technology LLC (sTT)-will be based in Piscataway, N.J., and will initially focus on commercializing Karl Weiss' starlineRegistered cured-in-place (CIP) liner technology, a process that requires digging only two holes to rehabilitate natural gas service lines and mains. The process enables utilities to avoid the costly and disruptive nature of trenching and restoring pavement and landscaping-which accounts for about 70 percent of construction costs.
The company will operate three primary lines of business: (1) market assessment and development, (2) material and equipment sales, and (3) installation and licensing services to the natural gas distribution market. Activities will include "no-dig" product demonstrations, training, quality control and technology transfer.
GRI manages cooperative R&D programs for its 329 members and the natural gas industry. GRI conducts R&D that benefits the entire industry and its customers, as well as targeted-benefits R&D in which consortia and individual organizations partner with GRI to develop or apply technologies to improve their competitiveness and benefit customers.
The Karl Weiss Group of Companies is a civil engineering and pipeline construction company. Karl Weiss has developed, patented and successfully used a number of innovative trenchless technologies for the rehabilitation, replacement and renewal of pressure pipelines, including the trenchless starline technologies and the trenchless hydros technology for replacing and laying of new pressure pipelines.
Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG) has founded a fully-owned subsidiary to include all its activities in the field of oil & gas data interpretation software, under the name of The Flagship Group.
CGG is one of the pioneers of this market segment, launching its first products in 1984. These activities saw a considerable growth in 1988, when CGG introduced the Integral(tm) and IntegralPlus(tm) suites of Exploration & Production software, developed and serviced by its Petrosystems division.
1996 witnessed the start of a new offering of add-on software modules incorporating licensed oil company technologies, and connected to common data systems such as OpenWorksRegistered (a product of Halliburton Landmark) and GeoFrameRegistered (a product of Schlumberger GeoQuest). This has spurred a growing market presence, in particular in North America. CGG co-founded in 1998 a specific distribution network in the USA, Flagship Geosciences LLC, Houston, to provide a dedicated support organisation focused on the software business.
The Compagnie Générale de Géophysique group is a global participant in the oilfield services industry, providing a wide range of seismic data acquisition, processing and geoscience services and software to clients in the oil and gas exploration and production business. It is also a global manufacturer of geophysical equipment.
PWI, Beaumont, Tex., has acquired Butch Crain Oilfield Construction division. The acquisition will enable PWI to provide even more extensive services to fulfill the needs of the oil and gas industry. Primarily, the purchase will allow more detailed services pertaining to drill site construction, roustabout and lease maintenance services, matted board roads, location turnarounds, and, heavy equipment needs.
PWI covers East Texas, the Gulf Coast, and Southwestern Louisiana areas and provides services to independent as well as major producers' needs.