Companies in the news

Vol. 227 No. 12

Sercel, a subsidiary of Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG) acquired all outstanding shares in Vibration Technologies Ltd (Vibtech) in a private transaction. Based in Scotland and founded in 1996, Vibtech developed advanced wireless technologies for seismic recording. Vibtech will remain as a separate legal entity.

TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. has formed a Russian subsidiary and opened an office in Moscow. TGS NOPEC Geophysical Co. Moscow Ltd will market existing 2D seismic data and well log information in Russia, and will promote the generation of new geoscientific data sets to aid in future exploration of the country. TGS and its partners have over 100,000 km of legacy 2D seismic, more than 30,000 km of modern seismic, and 16 geologic studies available for license.

Allis-Chalmers Energy Inc. has acquired Petro Rentals, Inc., based in Broussard, La., for about $29.8 million in cash, which includes payment of $9.5 million of debt and 246,761 shares of Allis-Chalmers common stock. Established in 1987, Petro Rentals has division offices in Broussard, Houma and Arcadia, Louisiana, and Alvin, Texas.

Grant Prideco, Inc., has acquired Andergauge Drilling Systems (Anderson Group Ltd). Andergauge is a provider of specialized downhole tools, including the AnderReamer and AG-itator, and provides services related to these tools. The company is headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland. This business will be included in Grant Prideco’s ReedHycalog drill bit segment.

Unit Corp. subsidiary Unit Petroleum Co. has acquired Brighton Energy, LLC, a privately owned oil and natural gas company, for about $67 million in cash. The acquisition involves all of Brighton’s oil and natural gas assets outside of the southeastern Arkoma basin and includes 27.0 Bcfe of proved reserves and 5.0 MMcfe per day of current production. The majority of the reserves, 78% natural gas and 67% proved developed, are in the Anadarko and Gulf Coast basins of Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, with additional reserves in Arkansas, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.

Sondex has agreed to acquire Canadian-based Innicor Subsurface Technologies Inc. Sondex will acquire all of Innicor’s outstanding common shares for about US$65.5 million. Innicor, headquartered in Calgary, Alta., is a designer, manufacturer and provider of downhole completions equipment to the oil and gas industry. The acquisition will form the basis for a Completions Division at Sondex.

Independent private equity fund management business Phoenix Equity Partners has acquired Aberdeen-based ASCO, a provider of integrated supply chain and waste management services to the oil and gas industry, for about US$238 million. ASCO has some 900 employees worldwide, and generated turnover of about US$460 million in 2005. ASCO’s US fuels business and its Norwegian logistics subsidiary have been excluded from the transaction.

Schlumberger Ltd. has completed the relocation of its US corporate office to Houston from New York. The company will continue to maintain corporate offices in Paris, France, and The Hague, Netherlands. North American operations have been coordinated from Houston through its US subsidiary since 1934.

Nabors Industries Ltd. has agreed to acquire The Moncla Companies for an undisclosed price. The principal assets consist of workover and well-servicing rigs, truck-mounted swabbing and testing units, rental equipment, various auxiliary equipment and real estate. The land rig fleet is composed of 28 350 – 450-hp and 21 500 – 900-hp heavy workover rigs, while the offshore fleet consists of seven 500 – 1,000-hp barge workover rigs.

Ulterra Drilling Technologies has expanded and relocated its Measurement While Drilling business line. The new 23,000-sq-ft MWD offices are an increase of 500% over the previous building footprint. Located adjacent to the existing Fort Worth, Texas, corporate offices, the facility brings together US operations, repair and maintenance, research and development, and manufacturing teams under one roof.

Polar Tankers, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, has christened the Polar Enterprise, the company’s newest double-hulled crude oil tanker. The vessel is the fifth and final Endeavour Class tanker in the company’s US flag fleet and is specifically designed to carry crude oil from Alaska to the West Coast and Hawaii. The vessel’s sister ships, Polar Endeavour, Polar Resolution, Polar Discovery and Polar Adventure, were commissioned in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, respectively. The vessels have double hulls with 10 ft of space between the inner and outer hulls, two independent engine rooms, redundant propulsion and twin steering systems, a bow thruster and state-of-the-art navigation systems.

Maverick Tube Corp. has completed its merger with a subsidiary of Tenaris S.A., a global manufacturer and supplier of tubular products with plants in Hickman, Ark., Conroe and Houston, Texas, Counce, Tennessee, Calgary, Alta., and Cartagena de las Indias, Colombia. Maverick Tube Corp. is a St. Louis, Missouri-based manufacturer of tubular products in the energy industry for exploration, production and transmission, as well as industrial tubing products used in various applications.

The Marine Group of LeTourneau, Inc. has laid the keel for its first 240-C jackup rig, contracted by Rowan Companies, Inc. The rig is scheduled for delivery in June 2008. This construction milestone was completed at LeTourneau’s shipyard in Vicksburg, Miss. Occupying the same rig footprint as the company’s industry-standard 116-C, the cantilevered 240-C will feature a hull length of 228 ft, a width of 220 ft, and depth of 26 ft. The rig is designed to operate in 350 ft of water.