John Wood Group PLC has signed the agreement to acquire Mustang Engineering Inc. of Houston. Wood Group is initially buying 80% of Mustang for $112 million, with the remaining 20% being acquired over the next 6 years (OGJ Online, July 21, 2000). The acquisition is subject to the approval of US regulatory authorities and final approval from Wood Group shareholders. An extraordinary general meeting of shareholders has been arranged for Aug. 29, and completion of the deal is expected to follow soon thereafter.
Sweden's Lundin Oil AB has entered a joint bidding agreement with Edison Gas�the exploration and production, utilities, and natural gas unit of Italy's Montedison Group�to bid on new areas being offered by Libyan National Oil Corp. The new round covers 70% of the country. It includes 112 onshore blocks and 20 offshore blocks in mature areas such as the Sirte and Ghadames basins, less explored areas such as the Murzuk and Cyrenaica basins, and frontier areas such as the Kufra basin of southern Libya.
Halliburton Energy Services Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 15% equity position in Petroleum Place Inc., an internet company focused on the oil and gas property acquisition and divestiture market. The deal is valued at $55.15 million, including cash and other considerations. The agreement must be approved by Petroleum Place shareholders. Under the agreement, Halliburton's wholly-owned subsidiary Landmark Graphics Corp. would form a strategic alliance with Petroleum Place to provide online access to relevant Landmark software and will participate in joint software development for internet-based property evaluations.
Enterprise Products Partners LP announced that Coral Energy LLC, an affiliate of Shell Oil Co., has earned 3 million convertible special contingency units (SCUs) through the delivery of certain quantities of natural gas to Enterprise for processing during 2000. Coral had the ability to earn these units under the terms of the purchase agreement whereby Enterprise acquired Tejas Natural Gas Liquids LLC from Coral in September 1999. These 3 million SCUs, issued effective Aug. 1, do not participate in cash distributions until they are converted to common units. One million of these units will convert to common units on Aug. 1, 2002. The remaining 2 million units convert to common units on Aug. 1, 2003. The conversion ratio is 1:1.
Vermilion Resources Ltd. has announced that 16,527,762 shares of Big Sky Resources Inc. have been tendered to its takeover offer (OGJ Online, July 3, 2000). This equals 93.2% of the outstanding common shares of Big Sky. Vermilion says it will take steps "as soon as possible" to replace the board of Big Sky with Vermilion nominees. Within a week, Vermilion will initiate steps to complete the acquisition of the remaining outstanding Big Sky shares.