October 2009 Vol. 236 No. 10

Business Meetings & Events

October Business: Company News, Mergers & Acquisitions

Deepwater Corrosion Services Inc. and FORCE Technology Norway AS are cooperating to bring new technologies into the offshore corrosion and integrity monitoring markets in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

For information, visit www.forcetechnology.com.

Oceaneering International, Inc. won a corrosion and inspection management services contract from BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Ltd. (BP) estimated at $45 million over an initial three-year term. At the end of the initial term, BP has two consecutive options to extend the contract for a period of one year each. The assets covered by the contract include BP’s onshore Sangachal Terminal and offshore production facilities in Azerbaijan, and export pipelines in both Azerbaijan and Georgia. Oceaneering will provide risk-based inspection plans derived from detailed corrosion assessments.

Dresser Inc., a designer and manufacturer of process control and safety relief valve solutions under the brand names Dresser Masoneilan and Dresser Consolidated, has expanded with the opening of an Export Oriented Unit (EOU) in Coimbatore, India. The EOU will provide Dresser with another manufacturing option for Dresser’s Masoneilan® and Consolidated® products, in addition to Dresser’s established facilities in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Japan and China.

The Mississippi State Port Authority at Gulfport has retained the team of Mississippi Engineering Group, Inc., Geospatial Mapping Gulf Coast, LLC (a wholly owned subsidiary of Geospatial Holdings, Inc.), and Pickering Engineers to provide a program to locate, verify and map all above-ground and below-ground utilities throughout the entire port area prior to its rebuilding. Area utilities were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Honeywell has completed the acquisition of the RMG Group (RMG Regel + Messtechnik GmbH and all of its subsidiaries) for $400 million. The acquisition strengthens Honeywell’s position in the high-growth clean energy industry, specifically natural gas. Based in Kassel, Germany, RMG is a leader in natural gas measuring and control products, services and integrated solutions. RMG will be part of Honeywell Process Solutions, a business within Honeywell’s Automation and Control Solutions group.

In the Pipeline Demo Center in Fürth, recently opened by Siemens, participants will be able to simulate the state-of-the-art technologies, as well as emergency scenarios, on a model pipeline system. For information, visit www.pipeline-seminar.com.

Weatherford’s Pipeline & Specialty Services group announced the expansion of its inspection services bases to include new facilities in Villahermosa, Mexico and Larnaca, Cyprus. In addition, Weatherford has upgraded and expanded existing facilities in Houston, Lukhovitsy, Russia and Lingen, Germany to meet the increasing demand for pipeline inspection services. These new facilities, complemented by the existing ones, will better enable Weatherford to provide the following technologies: multichannel caliper, magnetic flux leakage (MFL), transverse field inspection (TFI), ultrasonic wall measurement (UTWM) and ultrasonic crack detection (UTCD) inspection technologies.

New tools that have been developed incorporate all of the latest technology needed for the accurate detection and characterization of corrosion, metal-loss, SSC, SCC and manufacturing anomalies. As a part of the continued commitment to R&D, Weatherford announced development of a comprehensive and automated assessment software solution, i-Viewsm inline inspection software, which provides a new way of dealing with different inspection data sets.

American Innovations’ Integrity Management Division (IMD) received the Above and Beyond award from the United States Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (EGSR) organization. The award recognizes employers at a local level that have gone beyond the legal requirements for granting leave and providing support for military duty for their employees.

IMD was nominated by Chris Kobilan, an IMD engineer who is a member of the U.S. reserves. Kobilan was recently called to duty, deployed to Iraq and a short time later transferred to Afghanistan. He was granted a leave of absence to complete his tour and will regain employment with IMD when he returns home. American Innovations provides reservists and guardsmen continued salary and benefits as well as extra military leave beyond the typical two weeks.

John Crane Power Transmission has moved into a new power transmission manufacturing facility in Deer Park, TX at 1800 West 13th St. The site replaces the existing facility in Houston.

Meridian Systems has a new Value Added Reseller (VAR) agreement with Alliance Solutions Group (ASG). ASG will provide software sales and professional services for Meridian’s Prolog® solution in Florida, California, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Islands.

Lloyd’s Register Group has created a new energy business by merging its Oil & Gas and Chemicals & Power divisions. The combined business brings together the Group’s capability in the upstream, downstream, power and manufacturing sectors. The new entity will operate with a staff of 1,900 from several key office hub locations including Houston, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Mumbai, Perth, Rio de Janeiro, Rotterdam, Aberdeen, Coventry and London in the UK.