June 2017, Vol. 244, No. 6

Company & Association News

Business News

People in the News

Flow Management Devices

Phoenix, AZ-based Flow Management Devices (FMD), a manufacturer of unidirectional captive displacement provers, has hiring Michael Cords as director of Applications Engineering. Cords has over 19 years of engineering experience in the oil and gas industry. His responsibilities include synergizing the design, engineering and manufacturing processes. Cords has specialized in design and engineering of cryogenic submerged motor pumps and liquid turbine/expanders while working for Ebara International Corp. and most recently as senior engineering manager for Nikkiso Cryo Inc. He helped develop a low-temperature, marine-based Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) waste heat-to-electricity module. He holds a patent for the design of liquefied gas expanders.

Blank Rome LLP

Elizabeth E. Klingensmith joined Blank Rome LLP as a partner in the corporate litigation group and member of the energy industry team. She is based in the Houston office and was formerly with Haynes and Boone, LLP. Her primary focus is oil and gas litigation.

PureHM

Michael McGee and Robert Zmud were hired as part of PureHM’s expansion in the pipeline industry. McGee has over 15 years of oil and gas pipeline experience. Joining PureHM’s Houston office, he will support U.S. business development and focus on expansion into the inspection of non-piggable pipelines. For the last eight years, McGee worked as a senior technical advisor at Quest Integrity, specializing in unconventional inspection. He spent seven years with ROSEN as advanced area manager of Technical Services.

Zmud will be based in PureHM’s Edmonton, Canada office and lead the Pipeline Integrity Division. In the late 1990s Zmud began his professional career at RTD as a pipeline non-destructive testing technician. He later moved to Colonial Pipeline Co., becoming a manager of the ILI department.

Caldwell Boudreaux Lefler

Houston-based oil and gas pipeline law firm Caldwell Boudreaux Lefler hired energy regulatory partner Sabina Walia. She specializes in natural gas/liquids and midstream project development and has represented natural gas pipeline operators in FERC proceedings.

Wood Group

Wood Group announced changes to its executive leadership team. Andrew Stewart was appointed CEO of the Asset Life Cycle Solutions (ALCS) business in the Western region, and Michele McNichol was appointed to the new role of executive president – integration. Stewart succeeds McNichol. He was most recently president of the Construction, Maintenance & Operations (CMO) business. He led Wood Group’s brownfield production services operations in Australia and Asia Pacific. With Wood Group’s potential acquisition of Amec Foster Wheeler (AFW), McNichol will lead the global integration of that business. She was previously CEO of Wood Group Mustang.

DENSO Products and Services Americas

DENSO Products and Services Americas, Inc. named Norihito “Jack” Tanahashi as senior vice president of Original Equipment Supplier Sales. Tanahashi will be based in the company’s new office in Plano, TX and its headquarters in Long Beach, CA.

Athos Group

The Athos Group named Tim Foley, former Secret Service Special Agent in Charge and Director of Security for Spectra Energy, as director of Security Risk Management. Foley has 30 years of experience in law enforcement, special event and major security project management, executive/brand protection and corporate security services. At Spectra Energy, he developed and led programs for the protection of critical operations and personnel in one of North America’s premier pipeline and midstream companies. Among his responsibilities will be oil and gas construction, facility security, executive protection and protest safety and response.

Apache

Apache Corp. appointed two new executives to its midstream and marketing team in the Houston office. Brian W. Freed was named senior vice president, Midstream and Marketing, and Robert W. (“Bob”) Bourne was named vice president, Business Development, Midstream and Marketing. Freed will have oversight of all of Apache’s midstream and marketing strategies, activities and business opportunities in North America and internationally. Bourne will be lead in generating and developing new business opportunities for Apache’s Alpine High discovery.

Freed comes from Crestwood Equity Partners LP, where he was senior vice president of commercial operations, western U.S. from 2015-17 and was vice president of crude logistics for Inergy, which merged with Crestwood, from 2012-15. Bourne has been responsible for commercial transactions covering thousands of miles of pipe and associated infrastructure across the Gulf Coast region. From 1984 to 2003, he held positions of increasing responsibility with Shell Trading (formerly Coral Energy).

Targa Resources

Houston-based Targa Resources Corp. appointed Robert Muraro as executive vice, Commercial. Muraro joined Targa in August 2004 as a director of Business Development and has since served in roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as senior vice president of Commercial and Business Development. Prior to joining Targa, Muraro was with ABN Amro in the energy investment banking group.

Northwest Natural Gas

Northwest Natural Gas Co. named Frank Burkhartsmeyer as its new CFO. He was president and CEO for Iberdola Renewables and also held various director-level positions at PPM Energy (a subsidiary of ScottishPower), ScottishPower and PacificCorp (a subsidiary of ScottishPower).

Henkels & McCoy

Henkels & McCoy, Inc. appointed Duke Horan to senior director of Telecom for its West region.

Companies in the News

TRC Companies

TRC Companies, Inc. purchased all of the outstanding stock of Caltrop Corp. in an all-cash transaction. Headquartered in Riverside, CA, Caltrop brings 170 employees providing engineering, construction management and inspection services to customers in the transportation infrastructure market.

Continental Fabrication

Continental Fabrication Services (CFS), a leader in pipeline fabrication, has achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification for the quality management system implemented by CFS at its Carrollton, MO facility. The scope of CFS’ certification includes oil and gas pipeline prefabrication work for compressor and pumps stations, mainline valve, metering facilities and a multitude of other pipeline-related facilities. CFS is a division of Michels Corp.

Lincoln Electric Holdings

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will acquire Air Liquide Welding, a subsidiary of Air Liquide. Lincoln said the deal will enhance its global specialty consumables portfolio by extending its channel reach for equipment systems and Harris Product Group solutions in Europe. The combination would also offer European customers more comprehensive welding and cutting solutions, greater technical application expertise and improved service levels. The purchase price was $125 million. Both will continue to operate as independent companies.

Stress Engineering Services

Stress Engineering Services, Inc., a Houston-based consulting engineering services company, was awarded the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Spotlight on New Technology Award for its Real-time Fatigue Monitoring System (RFMS). The RFMS was developed to provide field measurements of stress and fatigue on drilling risers, wellheads and other subsea systems in near real-time. The RFMS significantly improves riser integrity management by using measured data and advanced algorithms at strategic locations to reconstruct stress and fatigue damage along the entire riser. It integrates this approach into a fully automated, real-time environment.

KMG

Fort Worth-based KMG, a provider of specialty chemicals, will acquire Flowchem, a leading manufacturer of pipeline performance products, from Arsenal Capital Partners (Arsenal), for $495 million. Founded in 2001 and based in Waller, TX, Flowchem produces drag-reducing agents, related support services and equipment to midstream crude oil and refined fuel pipeline operators. Flowchem serves over 50 pipeline operators worldwide as well as midstream service providers and distributors.

Cenergy Solutions

Fremont, CA-based Cenergy Solutions has an exclusive agreement with Jacobi Carbons to develop and distribute Jacobi’s activated carbon to Cenergy Solutions’ customers worldwide. Adsorbent Natural Gas or ANG can be used for capture and storage of natural and biogas, and for use in vehicles, power/manufacturing plants, heating and cooking appliances, and is expected to significantly reduce the cost of using natural and biogas as a replacement for gasoline, diesel and propane.

Associations in the News

API

The American Petroleum Institute (API) awarded its 2016 Distinguished Safety and Environmental Award to Chevron Pipe Line Co. and Portland Pipe Line Corp. The award was presented at API’s 68th annual pipeline conference in San Antonio on April 25.

Chevron Pipe Line won in the large-operator category for the second year in a row, and Portland Pipe Line won in the small-operator category for the second time in four years. In other awards, BP Pipelines (North America) Inc. won the Occupational Safety Performance Award for large operators. In the small-operator category, five companies shared that honor, including CITGO Pipeline Company, Crimson Pipeline LLC, MIPC LLC, Portland Pipe Line, and Running Horse Pipeline LLC, all reporting no OSHA recordable incidents for employees and contractors.

The Environmental Performance Award in the small-operator category, with each recipient reporting no releases, went to MIPC LLC and Portland Pipe Line. Chevron Pipe Line and Spectra Energy Liquids won the award in the large-operator category, also reporting no releases.

NARUC

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) established a new Presidential Natural Gas Access and Expansion Task Force with Pennsylvania Commissioner John Coleman and Mississippi Commissioner Brandon Presley named co-chairs, with North Dakota Commissioner Julie Fedorchak as vice-chair. The task force’s focus is on developing best practices and recommendations regarding natural gas service for underserved and unserved areas of the country, including, but not limited to rural communities.

During its eight-month term, the group will prepare an analytical report that will:

• Study current access, expansion and service extension policies for underserved and unserved areas.
• Examine the need for access and expansion including case studies and review of the barriers and obstacles to such access.
• Recommend potential mechanisms to address the benefits and opportunities for access and expansion and identifies alternative or unconventional approaches to reaching unserved and underserved areas.
• Compile a national best practices collection on natural gas access and expansion to underserved and unserved areas.

FOSA 

The Fiber Optic Sensing Association (FOSA), the nation’s first trade association dedicated to fiber-optic sensing, has been launched with a focus on educating industry, government and the public on the benefits of the technology. Fiber-optic sensing uses deviations of light in fiber-optic cables to remotely measure acoustics, temperature and strain. This enables an individual to detect pipeline leaks, vehicle traffic, foot traffic, digging, tunneling, seismic activity, unsafe temperatures, crumbling infrastructure and other conditions from miles away.

IOGCC

Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian was appointed as the official representative of Texas to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC). The IOGCC was formed 80 years ago when several states joined together to resolve common issues in the industry without federal intervention. It acts as the governors’ collective voice on oil and gas issues and advocates states’ rights to govern the petroleum resources within their borders.

Obituaries

Norris Anders, 86, died on April 9 in Naples, FL. He was president of the Pipe Line Contractors Association in 1994 and was elected an honorary member in 2005. Anders spent his 43-year career (1957-2000) with Henkels & McCoy, retiring as senior vice president of Gas. He was the father of Dale Anders, who died in 2015 after 44 years with Henkels & McCoy. He leaves his wife, Arlene. Services were held in Marlton, NJ.