Companies in the news

Anadarko Petroleum agreed to acquire Canada-based Berkley Petroleum for C$11.40/share in cash for an equity value of US$777 million, plus the assumption of debt estimated at US$250 million. Berkley’s Canadian assets will become part of Anadarko’s existing Canadian company, Anadarko Canada Corp., headquartered in Calgary. Meanwhile, Anadarko plans to invest C$380 million in 2001 to drill 600 wells in Western Canada.

Noble Drilling acquired Maurer Engineering Inc. (MEI), which will remain a standalone company. All of MEI’s employees will remain with the company.

The partners in the North Caspian Sea project’s joint venture (JV) appointed Eni, through its affiliate Agip Caspian Sea B.V., single operator of the production-sharing agreement. Until Eni’s selection, the project was conducted by a joint operating company (OKIOC) comprising all the JV companies.

Aker Maritime and Redinertrsen AS formed a JV to work offshore Norway, targeting upgrade and maintenance work on offshore installations in the area.

C & C Technologies, Inc., was recently awarded the Marine Technology Society’s ROV Committee Corporate Excellence award at the Underwater Intervention 2001 Conference in Tampa, Florida, for its forethought and motivation to invest energy and capital in new technology that could reduce deepwater E&P cost.

Veritas DGC Inc. completed its acquisition of Reservoir Characterization Research and Consulting, Inc., a Denver-based provider of technology and services for reservoir modeling.

In a 20-year gas sale agreement, Devon Energy Corp. will export and sell Indonesian natural gas from its Jabong Block in South Sumatra to Singapore via Indonesia’s state oil company Pertamina. Peak production of 350 MMcfgd is slated for 2009. Meanwhile, Devon also increased its ownership in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field to 5.6%. Purchase price was $58.3 million.

Technip and Yukos agreed to jointly explore and develop selected projects on an exclusive basis.

In a deal with a market value of about $2.6 billion, Patterson Energy, Inc., and UTI Energy Corp. agreed to merge, forming Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc.

Integrated Production Services, Ltd. created a new project management and engineering division to provide engineering, technical and field support services.

Venture Production Co. agreed to acquire TotalFinaElf Exploration UK PLC’s interests in eight UKCS Central and Southern North Sea blocks, including interests in Tiffany, Toni, Thelma / SE Thelma and Mallard oil fields, and the Audrey, Ann and Alison gas fields, plus a number of undeveloped discoveries.

PetroCosm Corp. and Brazil’s Petrobrás entered into a JV to create a Brazilian digital marketplace for procurement, with a second-quarter 2001, launch date.

Liquid Controls was purchased by IDEX Corp. The new name is Liquid Controls, Inc., a unit of IDEX Corp.

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. agreed to purchase 100% working interest in three producing platforms located in less than 100 ft of water on the Gulf of Mexico’s OCS. An aggressive development program is slated to begin in the third quarter of this year.

Using the framework of the 1991 Vietsovpetro JV, Russia’s and Viet Nam’s governments agreed on a draft protocol to explore Block 04-3 in Southern Viet Nam. The first stage of the agreement calls for three wildcats and seismic exploration within four years from signing.

The Canoro Resources-led Amguri Development production-sharing contract was signed in New Delhi. The block contains a producing gas well and three shut-in oil wells, which will be reactivated soon. Existing surface facilities and pipelines will be used to handle output.

Exco Resources, Inc., agreed to acquire the oil and gas assets of Hilton Petroleum subsidiary STB Energy, Inc., for $15 million.

BP joined Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Alberta Energy Co. on a three million-acre natural gas exploration venture in the foothills of Alaska’s North Slope.

R&M Energy, a unit of Robbins & Myers, Inc., acquired Campbell Industries, Ltd.

RADARSAT International was officially approved as a USGS business partner, allowing it to commercially distribute North American and International data from the LANDSAT 7 satellite archived at the Eros Data Center.

Spectrum Energy and Information Technology Ltd. entered into a JV with Samit Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., offering geophysical services to oil companies in India.

Habanero Resources Inc. entered into negotiations to acquire a working interest in a natural gas project in Fresno County, California.

Trendec is a new technology company providing premier consulting and development services to companies seeking to enter a new business paradigm with e-solutions.

ABB Soimi SpA has changed its name to ABB Lummus Global S.pA.

Transocean Sedco Forex closed its merger with R&B Falcon Corp.

Apache Corp. completed its acquisition of Canadian properties with proved reserves of about 71.6 million boe (about 59% natural gas), including producing and undeveloped acreage. Meanwhile, Apache acquired Repsol YPF’S Egyptian concession interests for US$410 million.

St. Mary Land & Exploration agreed to acquire 70,000 acres of coalbed methane properties in Montana and Wyoming’s Hanging Woman basin.

Kerr-McGee Corp. replaced 225% of its 2000 worldwide production of 108 million boe at an average finding and development cost of $4.81 per boe.

Anadarko Petroleum began production from its Tanzanite and Hickory fields, two sub-salt discoveries made in 1998 off the coast of Louisiana. Output is a combined 14,100 bopd and 85 MMcfgd.

Lundin Oil’s board of directors approved a 2001 capital budget of $108 million, up 46% from the 2000 budget. Of the total, $83 million will be spent on development activities (the majority on En Naga oil project, onshore Libya, and Phase 2 of its project on Block PM3 CAA, offshore Malaysia / Viet Nam) with the balance on exploration and appraisal projects.