SERVICES | SUPPLIERS

Feb. 7, 2011
Subsea Technologies Ltd.,
Aberdeen, has appointed Mark Vorenkamp chairman. His career in the offshore oil and gas industry spans nearly 40 years. Vorenkamp began his UK-based oil and gas career in 1973 and for 7 years managed a fleet of offshore vessels in the North Sea and West Africa for Acadian Shipping in Edinburgh. He also has a 30-year track record in the subsea survey industry and previously was managing director of Brown & Root's international survey division, Subsea Offshore Survey, and Fugro-UDI. Vorenkamp was a founding partner in 2000 of deepwater survey and positioning company Century Subsea Ltd., acquired by DOF Subsea UK in 2006 to become the cornerstone of their operations in the UK and Gulf of Mexico. He is also a nonexecutive director of PanGeo Subsea Inc., a Canadian company developing innovative acoustic 3D and 4D imaging technology.

Subsea Technologies specializes in subsea well intervention and well control.

Bench Tree Group,

Georgetown, Tex., has begun construction of its new 38,000 sq ft facility to house administrative offices and expanded engineering, manufacturing, testing, and repair facilities. The new facility will allow Bench Tree to quadruple production and service capacity and will stand alongside its existing 15,000 sq ft Georgetown campus.

Founded in 2003, Bench Tree is an industry leader in the design, manufacture, repair, and calibration of measurement while drilling systems.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.,

Pasadena, Calif., has agreed to acquire Aker Solutions' procession and construction business in a share purchase agreement valued at $913 million. Slated to close in 1Q 2011, the deal does not include Aker's US engineering, procurement, and construction center (EPC) in Houston and its Union Construction unit, both of which will be part of a new Aker company, Aker Contractors. A streamlined Aker Solutions will be a fully fledged provider of engineering, technologies, solutions, and services for the upstream oil and gas industry. Aker Solutions is also maintaining its presence in Saudi Arabia, through its operation in Al-Khobar. Aker Contractors will focus on EPC work related to the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry.

Jacobs is one of the world's largest and most diverse providers of technical, professional, and construction services.

Aker Solutions ASA is a leading global provider of engineering and construction services, technology products, and integrated solutions to the oil and gas, refining and chemicals, mining and metals, and power generation industries.

Universal Pegasus International,
Houston, has appointed John Harrower COO of its offshore division. With over 24 years of experience in the engineering and construction industry, Harrower has served as senior vice-president of operations, as well as roles on senior project management teams with major energy and consulting firms. He also has extensive construction management experience early in his career. Universal Pegasus also has named Matthew C. Plautz, Marcellus shale client services manager in its Canonsburg, Pa., office. Plautz has more than 27 years of progressive client services experience, including strategic business development, engineering solutions, and project management, with an emphasis on complex environmental and engineering projects, including the oil and gas sector. He has an MS in civil engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a MBA from Robert Morris University.

UniversalPegasus International is a leader in engineering, project management, and construction management for the energy industry.

Seawell Ltd.,

Hamilton, Bermuda, has closed its acquisition of Fort Worth-based Gray Wireline Service Inc. from Centre Partners for $157.5 million. The acquisition will expand Seawell's cased hole wireline and slickline service offering in the US.

Gray Wireline is the largest independent cased hole wireline company in the U.S., with a total of 110 wireline units.

Seawell provides drilling, engineering, and well services to the oil and gas industry.

Chicago Bridge & Iron NV,

The Hague, has acquired Chemical Research & Licensing from Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary CDI/Criterion. The acquisition gives CB&I a 100% stake in Catalytic Distillation Technologies (CDTECH), which develops and licenses advanced refining and petrochemical processes based on its proprietary catalytic distillation technology. Technologies developed by CDTECH include those used to produce low-sulfur and high-octane blendstocks for use in reformulated gasoline. Prior to this acquisition, CB&I held a 50% interest in CDTECH. The acquisition closed on Dec. 31, 2010. Terms were not disclosed.

CB&I designs, engineers and constructs some of the world's largest energy infrastructure projects, providing a full spectrum of EPC solutions and proven process technologies.

Axens North America Inc.,

Houston, has agreed to acquire Criterion Catalysts & Technology LP's catalytic reforming business. The sale entails Criterion's Willow Island, WVa., manufacturing plant for reforming catalyst and appropriate intellectual property rights to pursue such business. Terms weren't disclosed.

Criterion is a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC's CDI/Criterion unit.

Axens North America parent Axens, Rueil-Malmaison, France, is an international provider of advanced technologies, catalysts, adsorbents, and services with a focus on the conversion of oil, coal, natural gas, and biomass to clean fuels as well as production and purification of major petrochemical intermediates. Axens is a wholly owned subsidiary of IFP New Energy, formerly Institut Francaise du Petrole. IFP is a public-sector research and training center aimed at developing the technologies and materials of the future in the fields of energy, transportation, and the environment.

Intermoor,
Houston, has named Ross Landry subsea operations manager. Working out of InterMoor's Lafayette, La., subsea facility, Landry will manage all activities related to subsea operations, including but not limited to abrasive cutting services, heave compensation services, and all facility-based projects. Landry has served as technical manager and assistant operations manager for InterMoor's subsea facility. He has been responsible for recruiting offshore personnel, implementing a preventative maintenance program to minimize operational downtime, and supervising the design modification of offshore equipment to improve reliability. Landry's 15 years of industry experience also includes subsea positions at Oceaneering International and Stolt Offshore.

InterMoor, an Acteon company, is a leading global mooring, foundations, and subsea services company, providing solutions for rig moves and mooring services, including engineering and design, survey and positioning, fabrication, and subsea installation.

Acteon is a group of specialist engineering companies serving the global oil and gas industry.

Eurecat SA,

La Voulte, France, has announced plans to build a world-class catalyst processing plant in India, to be located in the Jhagadiya industrial estate, Bharuch district, Gujarat state. The plant will be operated by Eurecat India Catalyst Services Pte. Ltd., with commissioning expected in 2Q Quarter 2012. It will be dedicated to the ex situ regeneration of spent catalysts and associated services, such as hydrocarbons stripping or React catalyst rejuvenation facilities, as well as field services tools for industrial reactor turnarounds.

Eurecat, a joint venture of IFP Investissements and Albemarle Corp., provides customized solutions, services, and expertise, for optimal catalyst performance.

CGGVeritas,

Paris, and BG Group have signed a technology cooperation agreement (TCA) that focuses on the development and deployment of advanced seismic solutions across the E&P workflow. Under the terms of the TCA, the partners will collaborate on a number of high-end technology projects within BG Group's global portfolio, such as broadband acquisition and processing, complex subsalt imaging, deep targets, and unconventional gas.

CGGVeritas is a leading international pure-play geophysical company delivering a wide range of technologies, services—and equipment through Sercel—to its broad base of customers mainly throughout the global oil and gas industry.

Wood Group Surface Pumps,

Houston, has realigned its Western Hemisphere sales group to better support its customers and to consolidate US and Canada sales into two new teams. Tony Ford has been promoted to surface pumping systems sales manager, south region, with sales representatives covering 35 states reporting to him in Houston. Casper, Wyo.-based, Todd Vencill has been promoted to sales manager, north region, with responsibility for representatives covering 15 states and Canada. North American distribution sales will be led by Dan Brock. Manuel Alfaro will continue to lead SPS sales activities in Latin America, with Carlos Coronado in Peru and Luiz Mayer in Brazil.

Wood Group is an international energy services company operating in 50 countries. The group has three divisions—engineering and production facilities, well support, and gas turbine services—that provide engineering, production support, maintenance management and industrial gas turbine overhaul and repair services to the oil and gas and power generation industries worldwide.

HB Rentals,

Houston, has opened a new facility in Laredo, Tex., in addition to winning a 1-year contract for onsite accommodations facilities for four rigs working the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas. The Laredo yard is intended to support customers' needs and equipment in the Eagle Ford play. The facility will have accommodations, communications equipment, and auxiliary equipment onsite, as well as the certified technicians and staff to deliver, install, and maintain the equipment provide ongoing service.

HB Rentals, a Superior Energy Services company, is the world's largest supplier of temporary onshore and offshore accommodation modules, operating from major global hubs in Aberdeen, Singapore, and Broussard, La.

Superior, New Orleans, is a leading provider of specialized oil field services and equipment focused on production, intervention, workover, well services, and rental tools.

Sparrows Group,
Aberdeen, has appointed Leigh Howarth CFO and director. Howarth joins Sparrows from North Sea operator EnQuest, where in 2010 he assisted with the company's IPO to the London Stock Exchange. A graduate of the University of Sheffield and qualified chartered accountant, Howarth entered the oil and gas industry in 1996 with PGS Production, initially as financial controller until 1999 when he was promoted to group finance director. Following the acquisition of PGS by Petrofac in 2002, he was named Petrofac's group financial controller based in the UAE. Howarth returned to Aberdeen in 2006, taking up the role of managing director, Petrofac training, a position he held until 2009.

Sparrows provides offshore crane services, lifting engineering, fluid power, and pipe/cable lay technology.

Aviation, Power & Marine Inc.,

Boynton Beach, Fla., has named Melody Manning director of industrial gas turbine sales. Last fall AP&M made a significant investment in parts for heavy industrial gas turbines. Concurrent with that acquisition, Mike Elliott joined the AP&M team as vice-president.

AP&M is the largest worldwide independent distributor of gas turbine engine parts to the oil and gas exploration and transmission, electrical utility and power generation, and naval propulsion markets. AP&M also supplies parts to a variety of gas turbine repair facilities.

Pfingsten Partners LLC, a private equity firm based in Chicago, is the majority shareholder of AP&M.

Knight Well Services,
Lafayette, La., has named Don Parks engineering manager. Parks will oversee the plug and abandonment procedures for Knight Well Services and be actively involved in submitting bid proposals for the company. He will be based out of Knight's Houston office. Parks has more than 33 years of experience as a production engineer, working both onshore and offshore. He has a bachelor's degree in industrial technology from Southeastern Louisiana University and attended Tulane University, where he pursued graduate studies in petroleum engineering.

Knight is the largest privately held rental and fishing tools business in the oil and gas industry. It includes Knight Fishing Services, Knight Well Services, and Knight Manufacturing.

Greene's Energy Group,

Houston, has launched services for third-party testing of blowout preventers and associated equipment for the purpose of certification in compliance with the new regulations issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE). In addition, Greene's can provide services to certify the entire pressure containing system, as required by BOEMRE regulations.

Greene's serves customers globally in drilling, production, pipeline, rig/platform construction, and process industries by offering tools and services to improve productivity and ensure safety, both onshore and offshore. Greene's operations headquarters are in Lafayette, La.

Viking Moorings,

Stavanger, has entered into a partnership with Ghana's Seaweld Engineering to provide total mooring solutions off West Africa. The partnership will give Viking Moorings a strategic presence along the entire coast of West Africa from Senegal to Congo, with a particular focus on offshore mooring operations in the Gulf of Guinea. In addition, the partnership has established Seaweld Viking Global Link Nigeria Ltd. as a separate trading entity in Nigeria. In December 2010, Viking Moorings conducted the first offshore mooring operation under the new agreement, providing equipment and supervising the installation of a single taut leg prelaid mooring system on behalf of Dallas-based Kosmos Energy LLC for the drilling unit Atwood Hunter at the Teak prospect off Ghana. The relationship between Viking Moorings and Seaweld began in 2008, when the two companies cooperated in supporting Tullow Oil PLC during a deepwater exploration program off Ghana.

Established in 1979, Seaweld provides inspection, repair, and maintenance services to the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries.

Viking Moorings provides total mooring solutions to operators and drilling contractors, consisting of initial mooring design and analysis, rig move procedures, risk assessments and safety approvals, equipment rental, installation and support, chain inspection, spooling services and logistics services, marine sales, repair, and maintenance

SNC-Lavalin,
Montreal, has appointed Dominick Trupia senior vice-president and general manager for the Houston operations of its chemicals and petroleum business unit. Trupia has almost 4 decades of experience, including various executive-level positions at Foster Wheeler, KBR, and ABB Lummus Global Inc. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and a master's in business.

SNC-Lavalin is a leading engineering and construction group and a major player in the ownership of infrastructure and in the provision of operations and maintenance services.

Artesys International,

Rennes, France, has won a contract from a joint venture of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Algeria's state-owned Sonatrach to provide its OPIDIS technical document management software package for the JV's El Merk oil field development project currently under way in Algiera's Illizi-Ghadames basin. The software package is intended to create a unified document database and to give users and administrators at the El Merk operations site a portal providing access to data and technical documents. El Merk is expected to produce 108,000 b/d of oil, 55,000 b/d of condensate, and 75,000 b/d of LPG.

Founded in 1994, Artesys provides electronic technical document management software to the oil and gas, energy, chemical, and other industries.

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