Serimer Dasa
Mitry-Mory, France, has announced the opening of its North America operation based in Houston. Serimer Dasa North America will provide mechanized welding equipment and technical services for both onshore and offshore pipeline construction projects in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Alain Hersent will serve as CEO from France, and Francois Pesme has been appointed general manager in Houston.
Tokheim Corp.
Fort Wayne, Ind., has appointed John S. Hamilton as president and chief executive officer, replacing George A. Helland Jr., who was appointed chairman of the board of directors.
Prior to joining Tokheim, Hamilton served as group president at Harbour Group, and had served as senior vice-president and COO of Fairchild Corp. Hamilton holds a BSE in electrical engineering/computer science from Princeton University and an MBA in economics and marketing from the University of Chicago.
Tokheim Corp. manufactures and services electronic and mechanical petroleum dispensing systems.
Driver Pipeline Co.
Dallas, has appointed Douglas W. Williams as vice-president. Williams, who holds a BS in natural gas engineering from Texas A&I University, has over 35 years of engineering and operations management experience. He had previously served in senior level management positions with Lone Star Gas Co. and Cabot Gas Supply Corp.
Established in 1971, Driver Pipeline Co. is involved in transmission line construction, distribution line con-struction, horizontal directional drills, and facilities installation. The company specializes in work involving congested urban and industrial areas and corridors.
H. J. Gruy & Associates, Inc.
Houston, has announced the appointment of Rudy C. Wildenstein as a senior vice-president. Wildenstein holds BS and MS degrees in engineering from Rice University, and has 25 years of industry experience.
H.J. Gruy & Associates is a consulting group serving the international oil and gas industry.
International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC)
Houston, has appointed G. C. (Chip) Gill as its new full-time president, succeeding Charles F. Darden, who is retiring after nearly 27 years in the position.
Gill most recently has served as vice-president of membership and strategic planning for the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA). He has more than 25 years of industry experience, starting as a rig hand and including a degree in petroleum land management from the University of Texas.
Kellogg Brown & Root
Dallas, has announced signing of an engineering services agreement with Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. (CNI) for the commercialization of single-wall carbon nanotubes, a new technology called buckytubes. Kellogg Brown & Root will provide design, fabrication, construction, and operation support to CNI. Pilot plants for testing and producing buckytubes will be built at the KBR Technology Center in Houston.
CNI's technology is based on fullerene chemistry that originated with Professor Richard Smalley's discovery of C60, buckyballs, at Rice University in 1985. Fullerenes are hollow carbon molecules: the third form of pure carbon, distinct from graphite and diamond. Buckytubes are fullerenes: perfect, hollow molecules of pure carbon linked together to form the strongest molecular network that can exist.
CNI was founded in early 2000 to commercialize technology developed by Dr. Smalley, 1996 Nobel Prize winner; Dr. Bob Gower, former CEO of Lyondell Petrochemical; Drs. Ken Smith and Daniel Colbert, Rice faculty and senior members of the CNI technical team.
Kellogg Brown & Root, a business unit of Halliburton Company, is an international technology-based engineering and construction company.
Halliburton Company, founded in 1919, is a provider of a broad range of products and services to the worldwide petroleum and energy industries.
Propane Resources
Shawnee Mission, Kan., has named Bob Cochlan as marketing representative in Canada and northern US. Cochlan has 30 years of industry experience, having served with Dome Petroleum, CanStates Energy, Gibson Petroleum, Mapco Canada, and PetroSource Canada.
Propane Resources provides propane industry expertise through business consulting, marketing communications, certified propane training, supply management, and transportation logistics.
Tidewater Inc.
New Orleans, has announced the election of R. A. (Rich) Pattarozzi to its board of directors. Pattarozzi retired in January 2001 from Shell Oil Co., where his responsibilities included Shell Deepwater Development Inc., Shell Deepwater Production Inc., and Shell's shallow water Gulf of Mexico E&P business.
Tidewater Inc. owns and operates nearly 570 vessels serving the global offshore energy industry.
Unifab International Inc.
New Iberia, La., has named J. E. (Joe) Chojnacki as president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of directors. He replaces Dailey J. Berard, founder of Unifab, who has retired after more than 20 years of service with the company. Chojnacki previously owned a management consulting firm in Houston.
Unifab International Inc. is involved in custom fabrication of topside facilities, decks, jackets, equipment modules, and other structures used in the development and production of oil and gas reserves. Additionally, the company designs and manufactures specialized process systems, refurbishes and retrofits existing jackets and decks, provides design, repair, refurbishment, and conversion services for oil and gas drilling rigs, and performs offshore piping hookup and platform maintenance services.
