January 2010 Vol. 237 No. 1

Business Meetings & Events

January Company News, Mergers and Acquisitions

MichCon Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of DTE Energy, has completed its sale of natural gas gathering and treating assets to DCP Midstream Partners LP. The assets are in northern Michigan and provide gas gathering and treating services for gas produced in the Antrim shale formation. The price was $45.1 million.

Red Wing Shoe Company opened its third global operations hub in Houston to serve as its North American operations headquarters supporting its global contracts for oil and gas personal protection equipment. The expansion allows the company to supply a full line of Red Wing industrial workwear directly to the oil and gas industry and select distributors.

URS Corporation has acquired ForeRunner Corporation in Lakewood, CO. ForeRunner is an engineering and construction management company specializing in projects for the oil and gas industry.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently joined Morgan City Mayor Tim Matte and InterMoor Inc. President Tom Fulton to announce InterMoor’s expansion plans in Morgan City, LA. The $17.2 million capital investment will allow the company to retain 250 jobs and create 320 jobs in the next five to seven years at an average annual salary of $60,000, plus benefits. A subsidiary of Acteon, InterMoor designs, supplies and deploys technically advanced mooring systems and provides rig-moves and back-of-the-boat installation services worldwide.

GE Oil & Gas, Kazakhstan’s National Welfare Fund JSC NWF Samruk-Kazyna and JSC ZKMK, a precision engineering plant operator, plan to establish a new joint venture to produce, assemble and supply gas turbines for gas transmission and transportation projects in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Central Asia. Mid-2010 has been set as the target date for the formation of the JV that could include localized production of GE’s 11-plus MW range of GE10 gas turbines to localize the production and servicing of gas turbines in Kazakhstan.

L.B. Foster Company of Pittsburgh, PA, has announced a joint venture between three partners, Kentucky-based Lally Pipe & Tube, L.B. Foster and industry veteran, Jim Legg. Together the three partners have formed LB Pipe & Coupling Products, LLC, to manufacture couplings and accessories for the water well, oil country tubular goods and American Petroleum Institute markets. LB Pipe & Coupling Products will occupy a new manufacturing facility in Magnolia, TX.

UP Holdings, Inc, parent company of Universal Ensco, Inc., Pegasus International, Inc., UP International Inc., and Peak Power Engineering, Inc., has rebranded its name to UniversalPegasus International to emphasize the global nature of its businesses. UniversalPegasus International delivers services through four operating companies which will keep their current trade names.

RedHawk Energy Corporation has acquired 100% of the membership interests of Texas-based Xxtreme Pipe Services, LLC, Xxtreme Pipe Storage, LLC, Xxtreme Tubular Processors, LLC and Wolf Pack Rentals, L.L.C. (collectively, the Extreme Group) for $66 million. Headquartered in Houston, Xxtreme Group is a provider of oilfield services including ultrasonic inspection, storage and API threading and processing of oil country tubular goods. RedHawk announced the addition of Thomas J. Concannon as its senior vice president.

BJ Services Company has opened two operations bases in Canada dedicated to delivering process and pipeline services to customers throughout the area. The new process and pipeline services headquarters is located at: 9010 – 34th St., Edmonton, Alberta T6B 2V1, Canada; 780-465-6495 Office; 888-349-9902 Toll Free in North America; and 780-440-0539 Fax.

In conjunction with its local partner, Abdulla Fouad Holding Co., GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies has opened a $1 million non-destructive testing application center in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The center will provide customers with non-destructive testing expertise and training and allow them to explore new technologies and learn about innovative application developments, such as corrosion monitoring.

Technip and SaudConsult have signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a 50/50 joint venture company aimed at developing a new engineering center in Saudi Arabia. The planned Engineering Center of Excellence will be located in Al Khobar. It will offer a broad execution capability and focus on front end engineering design (FEED), detailed engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services serving Saudi Arabia’s oil, gas, petrochemical and other industries. The company is expected to begin operations by mid-2010 with 500 employees.

Dutch-based Mourik and Petrogas have joined forces to provide turnkey projects. The collaboration offers clients the opportunity to contract out engineering, manufacturing, erection and maintenance work to one party. Mourik’s expertise and experience in project management and civil, environmental and mechanical work will combine with Petrogas’ expertise in engineering and manufacturing.

AW-Lake Company recently signed a distribution agreement with Peacock, a division of Kinecor, to stock, distribute and support flow measurement systems from the AW-Lake brands AW gear meters and SABRE flow turbines. The two companies plan to target oil and gas and other markets. Although this is an exclusive distribution agreement, it is non-exclusive for the province of Quebec. Peacock will offer both of AW-Lake’s new products, the TW series turbine flow meter specifically designed for the oil and gas market, and the MicroFlow PD gear meter, for low flow rate applications, such as chemical injection.

Aker Solutions opened a subsea facility at its yard in Egersund, west Norway. The first project to be undertaken in the subsea hall is the assembly and testing of the Ormen Lange subsea compression station pilot that Aker Solutions is developing for Statoil.

Norway-based Sensorlink has entered into an agent agreement that will allow Kentron Systems Inc. in Calgary to sell and distribute Sensorlink’s products for corrosion monitoring of pipelines and processing plants throughout Canada. Kentron is the first agent Sensorlink has appointed to sell its products overseas.

Certification
Drill String Services Inc. received ISO 9001:2008 certification for its Louisiana facility. Drill String Services Inc. is an API Q1- and ISO 9001:2008-certified full-service pipe inspection company that has been serving the oil and gas industry for 20 years. With facilities in Morgan City, LA and Victoria, TX, Drill String Services works at onshore and offshore locations in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arkansas and across the United States.

Abdul Munim Saif Al Kindy, general manger of Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operators was named chairman of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference scheduled for Nov. 1–4, 2010 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center.

McDermott plans to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies: Babcock & Wilcox and J. Ray McDermott.