People, Companies & Products
Mark Burns named president of ENSCO Offshore International
Mark Burns has joined ENSCO to serve as president of ENSCO Offshore International Co, an international operating subsidiary of the company.
To be based at ENSCO’s Dallas headquarters, he will replace Paul Mars, who is retiring effective 2 July 2008. Mr Burns was previously vice president and division manager of Noble Drilling, responsible for managing Noble’s offshore units in the US Gulf of Mexico. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business and political science from Sam Houston State University.
Mr Burns served as chairman of IADC’s North Sea Chapter in 2004, and in 2007 he was named IADC Contractor of the Year. He is a SPE member and served as an Advisory Committee member for the SPE/IADC Drilling Conferences in 2003 and 2005.
M-I Swaco opens offshore facility to serve deepwater GOM
M-I Swaco recently opened a new offshore facility in Cameron, La., replacing the long-time facility destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.
The new supply base has been relocated from the previous location it occupied since 1958 at the Calcasieu Ship Channel at the only deepwater port left in Cameron. The new plant, one of the largest that M-I Swaco operates on the Gulf Coast, has total mixing capacity of 4,000 bbl of water-base, synthetic-base and oil-base drilling fluids and storage capacity of 39,000 bbl.
The company has worked to ensure the plant and associated faciliites will remain intact during future storms, such as constructing a deflection wall around the tank farm. Also, the totally electric-powered facility has been upgraded to better prepare for shutdown during hurricane evacuation.
“The new Cameron facility is strategically positioned to service the needs of our customers in the expanding western Gulf of Mexico deepwater market,” said Joe Bacho, senior vice president of the North America Business Unit.
Schlumberger signs deal with Hess
Schlumberger has signed an agreement with Hess Corp to provide geological, geophysical, reservoir engineering, economics, drilling and production software. The agreement also includes data management services and enhanced application and workflow support. Hess will deploy GeoFrame reservoir characterization, Petrel seismic to simulation, ECLIPSE reservoir simulation, Merak project economics, as well as OFM and Drilling Office softwares.
Halliburton to buy WellDynamics
Halliburton has entered into a definitive agreement with Shell Technology Ventures Fund 1 B.V. to acquire its 49% equity interest in WellDynamics. Following completion of the transaction, Halliburton will own 100% of WellDynamics.
Weatherford wins contracts from StatoilHydro
Weatherford International announced it was awarded two separate contracts for reservoir monitoring systems by StatoilHydro. They will be carried out over the next eight years. Technologies covered in the contracts include advanced downhole optical monitoring equipment, including pressure and temperature sensing systems and downhole multiphase flow measurement for platform and subsea wells.
Dickerson promoted to Diamond CEO
Diamond Offshore announced that Lawrence R Dickerson, formerly president and chief operating officer of the company, has been named president and chief executive officer. James S Tisch will remain as chairman. Mr Dickerson has been with the company since 1979 and became president/COO in 1998.
New VPs at Atwood
Atwood Oceanics has promoted Alan Quintero to senior vice president – operations. Barry Smith was promoted to vice president – technical services, and Randal Presley was promoted to vice president – administrative services.
Newman advances to
Transocean president, COO
Transocean has named Steven L Newman as its president and chief operating officer. He replaces Jon A Marshall, who announced plans to retire earlier this year. Mr Newman has served as Transocean’s executive vice president of performance since late 2007. Additionally, Transocean named Rob Saltiel as executive vice president for performance. He previously served as senior vice president of the North and South America unit.
Mody is new BOT VP-technology
Rustom Mody has been promoted to vice president – technology for Baker Oil Tools. He has held several positions with Baker Hughes since joining the company in 1987.
Cameron to supply subsea system
Cameron has been awarded a contract from Stena Drilling for a subsea drilling system to be used on the recently ordered Stena DrillMax IV, an ice class, dynamically positioned drillship. The subsea drilling system includes a subsea BOP stack, subsea controls, drilling riser and choke manifold.
NOV showcases technical college in Houston
National Oilwell Varco held a customer open house to showcase its new technical college and training center for the Rig Solutions division on 2 June in Houston. The center is part of the NOV Technical College program, intended to grow NOV’s capability to meet demand from the new rig construction backlog.
Locations for the Technical College have been established in Kristiansand, Norway, and Houston, with an additional center in Singapore planned for later this year. Students are being sourced from area technical colleges, university graduates, mechanical and electrical technicians from other industries and returning servicemen from the military. The curriculum duration and scope for these students runs from 6-12 months based on the specific competency of the discipline. NOV plans to double its service, installation and commissioning technicians over the next 24 months.
The 33,600-sq-ft Houston facility also will house NOV’s customer training courses for production operations and maintenance classes, which trained more than 2,000 customers in 2007 and is expected to train more than 3,000 customers in 2008.
Helix begins building new spoolbase in Texas
Helix Energy Solutions Group has broken ground on construction of a new spoolbase facility and service complex to support its Gulf of Mexico operations. The facility will be constructed on the La Quinta Channel in Ingleside, Texas, 15 miles east of Corpus Christi. The 120-acre base is expected to be completed in mid-2009.
Enventure adds technical sales members
Enventure International has added two senior technical sales advisers, Richard Craig and Mervyn Newberry, to its European sales team in Aberdeen, UK. They will be responsible for optimizing applications of Enventure’s SET technology, with Mr Craig in the Danish and Norwegian markets and Mr Newberry in Continental Europe and the UK.
Doyle’s Valves hires national sales manager
Doyle’s Valves has hired Jeff Chaapel Jr as national sales manager. He has more than 11 years of experience in drilling/environmental solutions and waste management industry. At Doyle, he will be responsible for developing and managing the company’s sales force and securing strategic alliances with drilling contractors and suppliers.
waySmart aims to improve driver behavior, safety
To improve driver safety, inthinc has introduced waySmart 820 RTS (Real Time Safety), a solution designed to create immediate improvements in driving behavior of commercial fleet drivers. Real-time, in-cab alerts are delivered to drivers to let them know when they are conducting unsafe driving behavior; these alerts prompt them to discontinue actions such as seat belt violations, aggressive driving and speeding. Management can streamline business with access to the fleet’s latest data through the GAIN (Global Access Information Network) web interface. In heavy commercial trucks, waySmart has helped to reduce crashes from 2.63 per million miles to .23, according to inthinc.
Well Control School releases web-based training program
Well Control School has released its IADC-certified SYSTEM 21 Web-Based Well Control Training Program. This emerging technology allows well control training to be online 24/7/365, with global access. It offers competency-based courses in drilling, workover/completion, well servicing (coiled tubing, snubbing and wireline) in surface and subsea stack.
Landmark’s R5000 offers new levels of integration
Landmark, a product service line of Halliburton, has launched R5000, a synchronous software release including upgrades to more than 70 products spanning all disciplines within the E&P lifecycle. The launch offers operators unprecedented levels of integration, the potential to customize workflows and the opportunity to make more informed field development decisions. “We listened to our customers when creating these technology solutions, ensuring that they directly address the complex challenges exploration and production companies face,” said Chris Usher, Landmark’s senior director of technology.
GE Energy launches Sondex Ultrawire Formation Logging Tools
GE Energy’s Oilfield Technology business, which incorporates the recent Sondex acquisition portfolio, has launched its new Sondex Ultrawire Formation Logging Tools (U-FLT). It is the only industry-accepted open hole system available for direct purchase to customers worldwide. The system offers the integration of high-end formation evaluation sensors into turnkey systems.
Thern offers new air tugger with TA10 Big Red Series air winch
Thern has developed its next-generation air tugger with the new TA10 Big Red Series air winch. The TA10 includes a high-capacity air motor to provide higher line pull capacity while maintaining faster line speeds. Performance ratings include 1st layer and full drum load capacities of 37,000 lbs and 21,800 lbs, along with a maximum line speed of 34 fpm. The new series also incorporates reversible band brake and disc brake assemblies and an innovative revolving cable anchor, among other design changes.
