People & Company News

Offshore Mischief gets LOI for offshore Brazil drilling

Scorpion International, a subsidiary of Scorpion Offshore, has received a letter of intent for a drilling program offshore Brazil utilizing the Offshore Mischief. The program has an estimated duration between 165 and 240 days. Additionally, the operator has the right to an optional period to include up to an additional 240 days. The contract is expected to begin on or before 1 July 2010 and has an estimated value of between US$24-33 million. The Offshore Mischief is Scorpion’s seventh ultra-premium jackup and is scheduled for delivery from the Lamprell shipyard in Sharjah in April 2010.

Maersk Drilling takes on restructuring

With a major newbuild program behind them, Maersk Drilling will now concentrate on a corporate restructure to meet the challenges of new priorities, the company announced. “Over the past five years, we have ordered and taken delivery of a major newbuilding programme encompassing nine drilling rigs, which required an organisation structured for growth. We are now entering a new phase. It is time to demonstrate the superiority of our equipment and to consolidate. We need a simpler organisation with fewer layers and operational responsibility anchored with the rig teams. This will facilitate a more efficient decision-making process and an improved service to our customers,” said Claus V Hemmingsen, Maersk Drilling CEO. The new organisational setup will be built around rigs teams, with a rig manager being responsible for the overall operation of the drilling rig and reporting directly to an asset manager in the head office. The structure of the head office will be reorganised to support the rig teams. The management structure of the head office will change as well, with six leaders on the senior management team instead of the previous nine. Onshore positions will also be reduced by 100.

Apache names new VP – business development

Apache Corp announced that David French has been named vice president – business development. Mr French, currently region production manager – west for Apache Canada in Calgary, joined Apache in 2005 as director of purchasing, EH&S and general services. He transferred to Calgary in 2007 to be production engineering manager. Prior to joining Apache, he was an associate principal at McKinsey & Co and held planning and operations engineering roles at Amoco. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.