Simon Johnson appointed President, CEO of Seadrill

Seadrill has named Simon Johnson as its new President and CEO, effective immediately. Mr Johnson replaces Stuart Jackson in both positions.

Mr Johnson has worked for a number of offshore drilling contractors over the past 25 years, including Diamond Offshore, Seadrill, Noble Corp and Borr Drilling. He previously served as Senior Vice President – Marketing and Contracts at Noble and as CEO of Borr Drilling. 

Mr Johnson holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics & Finance) from Curtin University and has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Noble, Maersk Drilling announce executive management team

Noble Corp and Maersk Drilling recently announced the executive management team that will be effective after the closing of the business combination originally announced in November 2021. The combined company will be led by Robert W. Eifler as President and CEO. Others on the executive management team will include:  

Richard B. Barker – Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer;

William E. Turcotte – Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary;

Joey M. Kawaja – Senior Vice President – Operations;

Caroline Alting – Senior Vice President – Operational Excellence;

Blake A. Denton – Senior Vice President – Marketing and Contracts;

Marika Reis – Chief Innovation Officer;

Mikkel Ipsen – Vice President of Human Resources;

Kirk T. Atkinson – Head of HSE;

Claus Bachmann – Vice President of Operations – North Sea; 

Matthew J. Brodie – Vice President of Operations – Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific; and

Garth Pulkkinen – Vice President of Operations – Americas.

Tungesvik, Stenerud named to new executive roles at Equinor

Equinor announced Geir Tungesvik will take over as Executive VP for the Projects, Drilling and Procurement business area starting 1 May. Aksel Stenerud was named Executive VP for the People and Organization function, effective 1 March. Mr Tungesvik was previously Senior VP responsible for project development, and Mr Stenerud was VP responsible for global employee relations.

Expro acquires fiber optic sensing company SolaSense 

Expro has acquired 100% of distributed fiber optic sensing company SolaSense. SolaSense’s well surveillance technology features portable processing software and enhanced visualization interface for delivering near real-time analysis of distributed acoustic sensing/distributed temperature sensing data at the well site. This allows well characteristics to be readily recognized and evaluated, avoiding shut-ins for extended periods and minimizing lost production.

Henn, Stringer join team at Intelligent Wellhead Systems

Intelligent Wellhead Systems has brought on Bill Henn as Strategic Technical Advisor and Rip Stringer as Director of Industry Affairs. Both have 30-plus years of experience with managing oilfield technologies and will report to CEO William Standifird. Mr Henn will work to streamline the adoption of digital completion technologies, and Mr Stringer is responsible for creating effective connections among operators, service companies and technical societies.

New Industries, Delmar team up for suction piles

New Industries and Delmar Systems have signed an agreement to work in partnership to provide enhanced design and fabrication services for turnkey suction piles. The engineering will take place in Delmar’s Houston office, and the fabrication will be completed in New’s fabrication yard in Morgan City, La. 

Aramco awards gas drilling project to Schlumberger

Schlumberger has won a major contract from Saudi Aramco for integrated drilling and well construction services in a gas drilling project. The scope encompasses drilling rigs and technologies and services, including drill bits, MWD and LWD, drilling fluids, cementing and completing wells.

TSC acquires high-torque thread connection tech

Texas Steel Conversion (TSC) has purchased the intellectual property, patents, associated trademarks, licenses and other thread connection technology known as the PTECH+ thread connection. TSC will manufacture, market and sell the thread connection through various divisions. 

3D printing centers for oil/gas industry certified 

Voestalpine Additive Manufacturing Centers in Canada and US recently became the first such centers in North America to be certified by DNV for the oil & gas industry with the DNV-ST-B203 industry standard. 

Tenaris taps Microsoft for digital transformation

Tenaris and Microsoft have inked a five-year Digital Transformation Alliance. Tenaris aims to fast-track its migration to the cloud by leveraging Microsoft’s Azure solutions to improve accessibility and reliability of information; develop digital tools using real-time data; and optimize performance across its industrial footprint and supply chain through improved management and control processes.

PRODUCTS

Halliburton launches new real-time service for multilayer visualization while drilling

Halliburton has introduced StrataStar, a deep azimuthal resistivity service that provides multilayer visualization to maximize well contact with the reservoir and improve real-time reserves evaluation.

The service is the latest addition to Halliburton’s iStar intelligent drilling and logging platform, which combines deep subsurface insights with artificial intelligence for improved drilling performance and consistent well delivery. For more decisive well placement, the service acquires real-time measurement and visualization of surrounding geology and fluids up to 30 ft around the wellbore.

It applies a sophisticated algorithm to accurately map the position, thickness and resistivity of interbedded rock and fluid layers to stay within targeted boundaries.

Dropsafe expands range of its helideck safety net system

Dropsafe has expanded its Helideck Perimeter Safety Net range, with one version offering a 10-year service life and two-year warranty, and another version offering a 25-year service life with a 10-year warranty. The 316 stainless-steel system attaches to the perimeter frames of helidecks to protect personnel from falling. The system is designed to withstand an impact greater than 2.3 kJ (100 kg at 2.35 m). The system is modular, allowing easy replacement of components if necessary.

Compact well integrity technologies reduce space requirements

Unity has launched a new range of compact technologies to solve industry challenges like working space, component weight and personnel on board restrictions. The new technology range includes a compact dual-bore xmas tree isolation system, a compact valve removal tool and a compact shear-seal valve. The technologies will be used to support Unity’s surface well integrity, shallow intervention and well decommissioning services.

IFS Cloud updated with simpler but more intelligent analytics

IFS has released an update to IFS Cloud, enabling fast-tracked adoption of digital capabilities. The update delivers improved predictive capabilities and simpler, more intelligent analytics for faster time to insight. Enhancements include:

Ready-to-go analytics: pre-built content with advanced analytics reports;

New analysis models for enterprise asset management, customer relationship management, human capital management, and manufacturing, and self-service analytics;

Extended asset performance prediction: Combined sensor data and historical maintenance records can be used to train machine learning models to support the decision-making process of operators.

Data Gumbo launches smart contract marketplace

Data Gumbo recently launched GumboStore, an industry-grade smart contract marketplace. It enables companies to create, deploy, publish or license intuitive smart contract templates to eliminate transactional and informational friction in commercial relationships. Access to GumboStore requires a subscription to Data Gumbo’s smart contract network, GumboNet.

Hammerless valve cover lock for drilling modules

GD Energy Products has launched SafeLock, a hammerless quarter-turn valve cover lock for drilling modules that delivers safe, fast removals without requiring any tools. The tool reduces the multiple revolutions needed to remove the valve cover lock to a quarter-turn. Corrosion-resistant threading and grease zerks keep threads lubricated between service intervals.