Ensco International announced a corporate restructuring that includes a proposal to relocate its headquarters from Delaware to the UK. The plan, announced in early November and unanimously endorsed by Ensco’s board of directors, must be approved by a majority of shareholders at a scheduled 22 December meeting.
The company said in a statement that the plan would ‘provide many benefits’, including better access to operations in time zones closer to the UK, closer proximity to key customers and the benefits of the UK’s extensive tax treaty network. It would also serve to enhance its image among investors and customers ‘that Ensco is a truly global offshore drilling contractor with expanding deepwater operations’.
Chairman, president and CEO Dan Rabun said that the relocation of ‘most of our senior executives to a new corporate office in the UK, where we currently have substantial operations, is a logical next step in Ensco’s evolution as a global offshore drilling contractor’
Pictured is the ENSCO 8500, the first rig in the company’s $3 billion ultra-deepwater expansion program, now drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (OE October 2009).
Shell is acquiring a 33% interest in the Guyane Maritime Permit, around 150km off the coast of French Guiana, from an affiliate of Tullow Oil. The permit area covers some 32,000km2 with 2000-3000m water depths. ‘This purchase adds quality acreage to our deepwater portfolio in the Americas,’ said David Lawrence, Shell EVP exploration & commercial.
Foster Wheeler Global Engineering & Construction Group has acquired the majority of the assets of Houston-based Atlas Engineering. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. ‘This acquisition represents yet another building block in our ongoing objective to increase our technical capabilities in the upstream oil and gas business – and to develop a stronger and expanded global platform to serve this market,’ said Umberto della Sala, president and chief operating officer of Foster Wheeler AG. ‘With its focus on topside design and engineering, Atlas offers a natural complement to the subsea/pipeline expertise we gained with the first-quarter 2009 acquisition of the offshore engineering division of OPE Holdings.’ Atlas president Chris Vrakas joins Foster Wheeler in a leadership role.
M-I Swaco and Rice University in Houston have signed an agreement to fund a two-year joint research program to investigate the potential uses of nanotechnology in the oilfield and drilling fluids industry. M-I Swaco will invest $460,000 for the sponsorship of graduate and post-doctoral students; a portion of the funds will be used for collaborative research with Dr James Tour, Rice’s Chao professor of chemistry, mechanical engineering, materials science and computer science and leader of the Rice team. Dr Jim Friedheim, director of corporate fluids, will lead the M-I Swaco R&D group.
Global Industries has become the ninth International Contractor Member (ICO) of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA). Other ICOs – a membership category established in 1996 – are Acergy, Allseas, Heerema Marine Contractors, Helix Energy Solutions Group, J Ray McDermott, Saipem, Subsea 7 and Technip. Italian specialist Prysmian has opened a new Extra High Voltage cable plant in Abbeville, South Carolina, hailed as the first of its kind to produce such power cables in North America. Prysmian said the €32 million plant, which features a 373ft tower for vertical continuous vulcanisation, represented a further step in its planned substantial investments in the high-tech, high-voltage submarine and underground cables sector.
Halliburton has acquired Geo-Logic Systems, a provider of advanced structural interpretation, analysis and restoration software for complex geological environments. Citing ‘increasingly difficult exploration and drilling scenarios’, Halliburton said the integration of Geo-Logic Systems offers geoscientists ‘advanced modeling solutions to address the technical challenges of exploring in complex petroleum regimes such as overthrust belts and the pre-, syn- (including sub-salt) and post-rift portions of extensional basins. In these complicated, poorly imaged plays risk reduction is of paramount importance’.
Dril-Quip is pushing ahead with plans to build a manufacturing facility on an 11.2-acre site in Singapore. The company’s Asia-Pacific subsidiary recently placed a $33.5 million contract with a local construction company and the work is expected to take about 16 months.
BREAKING GROUND: InterMoor recently broke ground on its new state-of-the-art facility in Morgan City, Louisiana, a $17.2 million capital investment that when complete will include more than 30,000ft2 of fabrication space; mooring equipment and storage capabilities; a 7500-wire doping area to inspect, protect and prepare wire rope for offshore jobs; a state-of-the-art 20,000ft2 blasting and painting facility, and a 300 ton crane to enhance docking services. InterMoor, an Acteon company, will move its current operations in Amelia, La, to this new facility being developed on 24 acres.
Subsea construction services firm Seamar has acquired SeaQuest Diving, including the company’s 180ft dive support vessel SeaQuest I, now renamed the Seadiver. Houston-based Seamar also picked up life support equipment and dive spreads for a range of activities, from shallow water to deep gas. ‘The purchase of SeaQuest Diving further demonstrates our commitment to becoming the premier shallow water subsea construction service provider in the Gulf of Mexico,’ declared Seamar president and CEO Eloy Anaya.
On-line partial discharge monitoring specialist HVPD has launched a new division, HVPD Offshore, in Aberdeen. Headed by John Milne, HVPD Offshore is launched as a joint venture with electrical maintenance company Petrolec.
Three leading E&P learning companies, IHRDC, Nautilus and NExT, have created the Plato Alliance, a new venture delivering an unprecedented range of integrated learning solutions to the E&P industry. ‘Plato Alliance combines the talents of the most experienced learning providers in the business to offer programs worldwide – customized to client needs and managed from start to finish,’ said the alliance’s founder Henry Edmundson. ‘We are offering a one-stop shop for the complete planning, implementation and management of a client’s professional development program.’
Issue: December 2009