MOVES AND PROMOTIONS
American Gas Association, Washington, D.C., has named Lori Traweek senior vice president, operations and engineering management.
Traweek joined AGA in 1989 as manager of engineering services, and was promoted two years later to director of engineering services. In 1996, she was appointed vice president of operations and engineering. During Traweek's tenure, AGA's popular best practices program for natural gas utilities and pipelines was expanded significantly and AGA achieved several negotiated rulemakings with the U.S. Department of Transportation, including those involving excess flow valves and the qualification of personnel involved in certain industry operations.
Traweek's previous experience includes work as a safety engineer and as a facilities engineer for ARCO Oil and Gas Co. in Houston.
AGA's operations and engineering management department supports members' efforts to improve safety and reliability through coordination of best practices programs, involvement in regulatory affairs, technology assessment, sponsorship for an annual Operations Conference, promotion of building codes and standards and preparation of a wide range of materials on corrosion, measurement, environmental matters and other topics.
Noble Drilling Corp., Houston, Tex., has named Williams C. (Kurt) Hoffman vice president of Western Hemisphere operations. Hoffman succeeds William F. Jennings, who is retiring from Noble after 11 years of service. Hoffman, who has been with the company since 1991, has over 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and has served as president of Triton Engineering Services Co. since 1998. Triton is a wholly owned subsidiary of Noble, providing turnkey drilling, engineering and consulting services worldwide.
Glen D. Hale has been named president of Triton Engineering Services Co. from vice president of operations at Triton. Hale, who has been with Triton since 1993, has over 26 years of experience in the oil and gas industry.
Jimmy L. Puckett has been named division manager of the Gulf Coast Marine operation. Puckett succeeds Kenneth N. Delaney, who is retiring after 34 years with Noble Drilling. Puckett has been with Noble Drilling for 26 years in various domestic and international operational capacities and most recently has been instrumental in the EVA-4000trademark semisubmersible conversion projects. He will be responsible for the division's fleet of 20 offshore drilling rigs located along the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Mexico.
Bryon L. Welliver, senior vice president-finance, controller and treasurer, is retiring from the company after 18 years of service. On an interim basis, Steven A. Manz, director of accounting and investor relations, will assume the responsibilities with respect to accounting and tax, and Mark L. Mey, director of internal audit and special projects, will assume the responsibilities with respect to treasury, risk management and information technology.
Bernie G. Wolford has been named division manager of Brazil. Wolford, who has 18 years experience with Noble Drilling, most recently served as division manager of the Middle East region, consisting of operations in Qatar and India. Leo W. Segerious, formerly division manager of Brazil, has been named vice president of business development for Latin America.
William C. (Charlie) Yester will succeed Wolford as division manager of the Middle East region. Yester, who has been in the Middle East for the past three years as drilling superintendent, has over 20 years of service with Noble Drilling.
William W. (Bill) Rhone has been named director of materials management. Rhone, who has been with Noble since 1990 and has over 25 years of industry experience, succeeds Gerald W. Smith, who is retiring from the company after 27 years of service.
The company is in the process of relocating its Gulf Coast Marine division office to Houston from Lafayette, La. This consolidation, coupled with the relocation of Triton Engineering Services Co. to the centralized Houston office, will be completed by July 2000.
Noble Drilling Corp. is a provider of diversified services for the oil and gas industry. Contract drilling services are performed with the company's fleet of 47 offshore drilling units located in key markets worldwide. The company's fleet of floating deepwater units consists of nine semisubmersibles and three dynamically positioned drillships, seven of which are designed to operate in water depths greater than 5,000 feet. The company's fleet of 32 jackup rigs includes 19 premium units that operate in water depths of 300 feet and greater, four of which operate in water depths of 360 feet and greater. In addition, the company's fleet includes three submersible units. Ten of the company's units are capable of operating in harsh environments. Over 60 percent of the fleet is currently deployed in international markets, principally including the North Sea, Africa, Brazil, the Middle East and Mexico. The company also provides engineering and production management services and turnkey drilling services.
Pace Global Energy Services, LLC, Fairfax, Va., has opened a new regional office in Houston to better serve the growing needs of its clients. The opening of the new office is in response to increased demand for Pace services in Texas fuel, power, finance, and industrial energy management markets. Carmen Andreoli, vice president of strategic projects, and Mike Robinson, vice president of strategic accounts, will lead the initiatives of the regional office.
Andreoli has over 26 years of energy experience, specializing in fuel and power infrastructure projects. He will be responsible for helping industrial and project developer clients optimize the value of their energy assets and transactions.
Robinson will play a key role in the development and continued growth of Pace's energy management practice in Texas. Robinson has over 20 years of experience in the energy industry.
Pace is an independent energy management and consulting firm that helps companies buy, sell, transport, finance, and invest in energy. Pace provides strategic, transactional, and tactical support across the fuels, electric power, finance, and risk management sectors.
TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS
Milton Roy, a division of Hamilton Sundstrand and a manufacturer of controlled volume (metering) pumps, has acquired YZ Industries, Conroe, Tex. YZ is a manufacturer of sampling and odorization equipment. This purchase complements Milton Roy's 1998 acquisition of Williams Instrument Co., Inc., a designer and manufacturer of pneumatic metering pumps and further strengthens Milton Roy's product offerings for oil and gas applications.
With the purchase of YZ, Milton Roy expands its product line to include sampling systems for natural gas, crude oil, and refinery products. YZ also engineers, manufactures, and markets its patented NJEX odorization systems for odorant injection along with a full line of Linc precision pneumatic and electric metering pumps and level switches.
Milton Roy's parent company, Hamilton Sundstrand, is a supplier of technologically advanced aerospace and industrial products. The company is headquartered in Windsor Locks, Conn.
Applied Terravision Systems (ATS), Dallas, Tex., has signed a joint marketing agreement with TransZap, Inc., Denver, that provides end-to-end e-business solutions to the oil and gas industry.
TransZap is an application service provider, and is providing a business-to-business platform for oil and gas operators, partners and vendors. This platform will host the Oildex.com Community, an online trading group of oil and gas companies that exchange documents electronically. The product line, Oildex Connect, automates business-to-business workflows, which deliver secure Internet transactions operated through a graphical user interface accessible from a Web browser
TransZap recently announced the PetroXML solution, which provides the first-ever standardized eXtensible Markup Language (XML) tag set for vendor invoicing for oil and gas field operations. The revolutionary XML tag set creates standardized statements for Internet transactions that were previously unavailable. Operating companies and vendors will be able to transport detailed invoicing between each other despite having incompatible accounting systems.
ATS will embed the product into its market-leading petroleum enterprise solutions. PetroXML has been integrated with the Artesia System, the dominant e-business solution for mid-size to large oil and gas companies. TransZap will bring ATS customers the means to ensure correct and efficient processing of invoices in a fraction of the time it takes today
Applied Terravision Systems provides mission-critical e-business information solutions that effectively manage the complex ownership of revenue-producing assets for government organizations, blue-chip companies and small businesses around the globe.
TransZap, an application service provider (ASP), provides a business-to-business e-commerce platform to the oil industry. The XML-based application, Oildex Connect, automates oil industry B2B workflows and delivers secure Internet transactions, and is operated from a Web browser. Oildex Connect interconnects and interoperates with popular oil industry back office systems via the PetroXML standard.
Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG, and Moore Products Co. (operating as Moore Process Automation Solutions) have entered into a definitive agreement providing for the acquisition of Moore by Siemens Energy & Automation.
Under the terms of the agreement, a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens Energy & Automation will commence an all-cash tender offer for all of Moore's outstanding common stock and all of its outstanding preferred stock. Following successful completion of the tender offer, any remaining shares of common and preferred stock of Moore will be acquired in a cash merger.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Siemens Energy & Automation manufactures and markets a range of electrical and electronic products, systems and services to industrial and construction market customers. Its technologies range from circuit protection and energy management systems to process control, industrial software and totally integrated automation solutions. The company also has expertise in electronic placement equipment, systems integration, technical services and turnkey industrial systems.
Siemens AG, the parent of Siemens Energy & Automation, is based in Munich, Germany. It designs, develops, manufactures and markets a wide range of electrical and electronic parts and systems.
Founded in 1940, Moore Products Co. operates under the name Moore Process Automation Solutions. The company provides innovative solutions to process measurement and control applications. Its instruments and control systems help to increase plant safety and productivity, reduce time to market and improve product quality in industries such as chemical and hydrocarbon processing, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, power generation, and pulp and paper.
Western Geophysical has opened the Western VIEWtrademark (Virtual Immersive Environment Workroom) facility at its Isleworth office in London. Equipped with a variety of industry-standard seismic interpretation software, the facility is expected to offer a creative environment for geophysicists, geologists and reservoir engineers to interact and develop optimum exploration and field development strategies.
Western Geophysical, a division of Baker Hughes Incorporated, is an oilfield information services company, providing seismic and reservoir solutions from initial prospect assessment through fully integrated reservoir evaluation.
Baker Hughes is a supplier of reservoir-centered products, services, and systems to the worldwide oil and gas industry and a supplier of separation technologies to the worldwide process industries.
sparesFinder.com offers a database for high-value engineering spares, into which subscriubing companies upload their surplus spares inventory. The unique aspect of their B2B service is that it links subscribing companies together horizontally. Most procurement services are vertical. So when you dial up the database through the Internet, not only do you get a list of locations holding the spare (with contact details) but you are searching the inventories of all the surplus spares of all the companies subscribing.
This is a huge pool, and gives companies confidence that they can find what they want, when they want it.
Companies can sell surplus or obsolete spares instead of paying to have them taken away. Again the pool of searchers is very large. sparesFinder.com also provide peripheral services to help organise stock records, ensure the quality of spares and so on.
