People, Companies & Products

Hoffman named Seahawk senior VP, COO

William C (Kurt) Hoffman has been appointed senior vice president and chief operating officer of Seahawk Drilling, whose spin-off from Pride International was completed in late August. Since 2004, Mr Hoffman has been VP worldwide marketing at Noble Corp, where he was also VP Western Hemisphere operations from 2000 to 2004. Prior to Noble, Mr. Hoffman held several management positions with Triton Engineering Services, including president and VP international operations. He started his career in the drilling industry with Zapata Offshore Company.

Baker Hughes to open chemicals plant, operations center

Baker Hughes will open two facilities in Canada this fall to serve operators in the oil sands and other northern Canadian fields: an oilfield chemicals plant in Leduc and a multi-discipline operations center in Fort McMurray.

The 41,000-sq-foot chemical plant houses an oil sands laboratory, a water-based blending vessel, a mixer for sensitive chemicals, an 18-tank storage farm and rail access and warehouse space. The facility will have water treating and fluid separation chemical production capabilities to support heavy oil and oil sands mining and steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) projects.

The operations center in Fort McMurray will provide dedicated warehouse and staging areas to support oil sands projects in the area. It will house a full range of Baker Hughes products and services, including oilfield chemicals, artificial lift systems and formation evaluation services.

Canrig names vice president services, rentals

John Meckert has assumed the role of vice president of services & rentals of Canrig Drilling Technology. Mr Meckert has been with the Nabors group of business units for more than 16 years, most recently as senior VP of Peak USA. He will be responsible for all of the services that accompany Canrig’s technology, as well as the company’s rental business.

Boots & Coots to buy abrasive jet cutting systems

Boots & Coots has agreed to purchase Halliburton’s external abrasive jet cutting systems, developed in 1991 to assist firefighting crews in Kuwait battle more than 700 fires. It can be easily positioned on a burning well; the system utilizes sand and water to abrade the wellhead or surface equipment, thus allowing the well to flow in a vertical direction, making it possible to extinguish the fire with water. Once the fire is out, the well can then be capped.

Balmoral boosts capacity

Balmoral Offshore Engineering is expanding its buoyancy manufacturing facility and is seeking to recruit upwards of 40 people. It is investing £2 million in a new 30,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility at its Aberdeen HQ. The plant will increase production capacity, especially for marine drilling riser modules. The company also said that it is actively recruiting due to “an increase in orders for drill riser buoyancy and elastomer products.”

Denney joins Scorpion as VP operations

Scorpion Offshore has announced that VP operations George Bruce Brumley will retire in Q4 2009; he will be succeeded by James Harold Denney, who joined the company on 1 September 2009. Mr Denney has over 35 years of experience in the contract drilling business, the majority of which was with Nabors Industries. He has served as the operations manager for Nabors in the North Sea, president of Nabors Alaska and recently as chairman of Nabors Well Services.

VAM looks to Middle East with new acquisition

VAM Drilling has acquired Dubai-based drill pipe supplier DPAL FZCO, formerly owned by the Soconord Group. VAM expects that the acquisition will strengthen its position in the Middle East, where DPAL FZCO offers a large range of drill pipes.

Caledus to market completion solutions in North Sea

Caledus will be the North Sea and Europe representative for Cannon Services’ range of control lines and cable clamps, which are used in the completions phase, particularly in artificial lift. Cannon supplies protection systems for downhole completion control lines and cables.

Halliburton signs 2-year contract with Talisman

Halliburton’s product service line Baroid has been awarded a two-year contract, with multiple extension options, to provide drilling fluids and associated services to Talisman Energy Norge AS. The $229 million contract began in Q3 2009 and encompasses all Talisman-operated fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

InterMoor Brazil facility is ISO 9001:2008 certified

InterMoor do Brasil Serviços Offshore de Instalação, an Acteon company, has received its ISO 9001:2008 certification for its Rio de Janeiro facility. This certifies the company to perform a full range of services, including engineering, design, installation and servicing of mooring equipment and subsea structures.

FMC opens technology center

FMC Technologies is adding a global technology center in Houston to enhance its development of innovative equipment and services. The building will house product management teams and core technology groups, including mechanical and electrical engineers, designers, metallurgists, material scientists, chemists, welding engineers, and other specialists.

New PDC bits, packer system from Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes has introduced its Hughes Christensen Quantec Force line of PDC bits and its Baker Oil Tools MPas packer system. The bit line features new stabilization technology and next-generation cutters that can significantly reduce bit whirl. The bit also uses highly wear-resistant cutters that are selected based on the drilling application. The packer system provides open-hole annular isolation, eliminating many problems associated with cement jobs. Run on production casing or liner string, the packer – plus the uniform production profile created by the BOT EQUALIZER inflow-control devices – enables flow in the annulus to be efficiently managed without the limits or risks associated with no isolation or more complex isolation methods. The packer provides improved time-to-seal control and a wider hole-size range than swelling rubber technology. The packer is electronically activated using the eTrigger controller technology.

GE subsea tree reduces weight and height

GE Oil & Gas has launched the VetcoGray S-Series SVXT subsea tree, which merges horizontal and vertical tree technology, reduces weight by 20% and decreases height. Low-cost installation is enabled through deployment using standard jackups. New features include smaller tree and fisher-friendly wellhead protection structures, as well as an innovative barrier approach that removes the need for a separate tree cap.

Water-based mud used on Fayetteville shales

The Mud Masters Group’s (MMG) Master Clear Fluid and Non-Damaging Reservoir Technology (NDRT) has been used successfully on several Fayetteville shale wells in Arkansas.  Master Clear Fluid is a hybrid water-based drilling mud process that technically rivals the lubrication and inhibitive properties of an oil-based drilling mud system. The NDRT Process uses the Master Clear Fluid to reduce the cost of finding reserves in difficult drilling regions and to reduce overall project costs.

New technology for deepwater platforms

VersaBuoy International’s VersaBuoy Deepwater Platform System comprises four spar-like self-stable hulls supporting the platform topside through articulated redundant pin-in-pin connection. The unique application of the articulated joint between the columns and the topside allows the column rotation relative to the deck and consequently results in a dramatically reduced topside rotation. The connection allows each hull to pitch and roll independently from the topsides. Each hull is sized and ballasted such that it is stable and requires no other constraint or connection. Mooring is by either conventional catenary lines or a taut leg system attached to fairleads located on each hull.

Gas compression driver meets EPA 2011 standards

Cummins has launched the QSL9G gas compression driver, rated 175 hp at 1800 rpm, as its latest offering to meet the US EPA’s New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) 2011 regulations for stationary spark-ignited engines below 500 hp.

Rod guides extend life of rods, tubing

R&M Energy Systems recently launched a new line of rod guides for progressing cavity downhole pumping applications. The New Era Pathfinder High Performance Rod Guides extend the life of the rods and tubing, reduce pressure drop and premature wear from sand, increase production and reduce costs. The spin-thru design allows fluid to easily flow through four distinct channels that are molded directly into the rod guide sleeve. This flow path reduces pressure drop by allowing fluid to flow through the rod guide rather than limiting flow to the space around it. It also reduces the torque that is generated by the mechanical and hydraulic friction of conventional rod guides that are fixed to the rotating rod string.