January 2018, Vol. 245, No. 1

Company & Association News

Companies in the News

NDT Global was named in the Kimberlite International Oilfield Research 2017 Pipeline report as the industry leader in ultrasonic tool technology. The worldwide survey of the market for inline inspection (ILI), showed operators saw NDT Global rating ahead of all other suppliers in seven of 11 criteria, including field personnel and defect sizing and accuracy.

American Midstream Partners closed on an additional 17% equity interest in the Destin Pipeline from affiliates of ArcLight Capital Partners, which controls the general partner of the partnership, for a total consideration of $30 million. Post-closing, the partnership will own a 66.67% interest in Destin. The partnership expects strong returns from Destin, driven by continued development in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

T.D. Williamson (TDW) received the Global Pipeline Award, presented by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) on Oct. 25 at Rio Pipeline in Brazil. ASME honored TDW for its ground-breaking mechanical damage prioritization via the Multiple Dataset (MDS) Platform. By integrating multiple inline inspection (ILI) technologies on a single platform and synchronizing the data, MDS provides information about features previously undetected by other ILI tools.

Enterprise Products Partners was among the most honored companies as recognized by Institutional Investor magazine’s 2018 All-America Executive Team rankings, and was one of only five companies that swept their respective sectors. In the Natural Gas Pipeline and Master Limited Partnership sector, Enterprise was the top-ranked investor relations company by both the sell-side and buy-side analyst communities. Individual honors went to top CEO Jim Teague, top CFO Bryan F. Bulawayo, and top investor relations professional Randy Burkhalter.

John Deere completed its global rollout of a new company website that is mobile responsive and works on a variety of screen sizes, from smart phones and tablets to traditional desktop computers. The launch included 33 John Deere sites in 16 languages and about 2,300 product pages. About 2.5 million visitors view information each month at www.JohnDeere.com, the company said.

Unit Corporation named Les Austin as senior vice president and CFO.  The position had been held by David T. Merrill, who was promoted to COO in August. Austin has 23 years of energy finance and leadership experience, most recently serving as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Cypress Energy Partners.

Deere & Company completed its acquisition of road construction equipment manufacturer Wirtgen Group. The Wirtgen Group has a global footprint with about 8,200 employees and sells products in more than 100 countries through company-owned and independent dealers. Deere said the acquisition is par of its long-term strategy to expand in both agriculture and construction.

ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Mauritania Deepwater signed production sharing contracts with the government of Mauritania for three deepwater offshore blocks. Blocks C22, C17 and C14 are located an average of 124 mile s(200 km) offshore of Mauritania. Together they measure nearly 8.4 million acres in water depths ranging from 3,300 feet to 11,500 feet. Following government approval of the contracts, ExxonMobil will begin exploration activities, including acquisition of seismic data and analysis.

Bibby Offshore’s Houston-based division, Bibby Subsea, completed a subsea decommissioning contract with Shell Pipeline, a subsidiary of Shell Oil US. The 16-day campaign in the Gulf of Mexico relied on diving vessel support from the vessel, Bibby Sapphire, and U.S. diving company Aqueos Corporation. The vessel was equipped with an SMD Quasar work class ROV to disconnect an 8-inch oil export pipeline from a hot tap tee installed on the Amberjack Pipeline and removal of the connecting subsea tie-in assembly, 353 feet below sea level.

EagleClaw Midstream Ventures will use Honeywell’s UOP Russell modular cryogenic equipment to process 200 MMcf/d of natural gas at its gas processing facility in the Permian Basin in Reeves County, TX. The plant is designed to accommodate the NGL-rich gas in the Permian’s Delaware Basin.

LiquidPower Specialty Products (LSPI), a Berkshire Hathaway company, is commissioning of a new drag reducing agent manufacturing plant. This second facility, located within LSPI’s manufacturing complex in Bryan, TX doubles the company’s capacity and ensures that LSPI continues to meet growing global demand and maintain its global leadership position.

Sparrows Group secured a five-year contract with Premier Oil for the provision of crane operations and maintenance across two of its North Sea assets. The company will provide offshore crane operations and maintenance, including major component change out and overhaul, to the Balmoral floating production vessel (FPV) and the Solan installation.

CATS Management Limited (CML), an Antin Infrastructure Partners company, acquired a 65% interest in the Esmond Transportation System (ETS), a key piece of United Kingdom Southern North Sea midstream infrastructure. ETS comprises a 103-mile (165 km) pipeline that transports gas from fields in the Southern North Sea to the Bacton gas terminal on the North Sea coast in North Norfolk. The pipeline is operated by Perenco, as operator of the Trent and Tyne fields.