Key Energy Services Inc.,
Houston, has named Newton W. “Trey” Wilson III executive vice-president and chief operating officer (COO). Wilson has served as general counsel since joining the company in 2005. He has also served as senior vice-president and secretary and is a member of Key’s executive management committee. Naming him COO is part of a new executive structure designed to bolster top management’s ability to execute more effectively and yield more efficient operating results. Wilson holds a BBA from Southern Methodist University and a JD from the University of Texas.
Key is the world’s largest rig-based well service company. It provides oil field services including well servicing, pressure pumping, fishing and rental tools, electric wireline, and other oil field services. The company has operations in all major US onshore regions and in Argentina.
Knight Oil Tools,
Broussard, Carnes and Keller
Lafayette, La., has promoted three employees to new vice-president positions. Knight named Mickey Broussard vice-president of operations for Knight Oil Tools. He will be responsible for capital expenditures, overseeing all physical stores and facilities, equipment inventory and equipment maintenance. Broussard has held various positions with Knight since joining the company in 1980. He studied engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and civil engineering at TH Harris Technical College. Clark Carnes was promoted to vice-president of Knight Fishing Services, where he will be responsible for the company’s continued growth as an industry leader in fishing tools and services. Carnes has served with Knight for 20 years, most recently directing the sales force for Knight. He has a BBA from Auburn University. Knight promoted Doug Keller to vice-president of sales. Previously, he was vice-president of marketing and business development at Knight after having worked on Knight’s sales and sales management team for 22 years. He has a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech University.
Knight Oil Tools is the largest privately held rental tool business in the oil and gas industry.
Bourbon,
Paris, will sell its interest in Rigdon Marine Corp. under a recently announced merger proposal between offshore service fleet operators Rigdon, New Orleans, and Gulfmark Offshore, Houston. Bourbon’s sale is expected to occur in third quarter 2008 and generate a capital gain of about €60 million, as well as repayment by Rigdon of loans totaling €110 million. Bourbon has contributed to Rigdon’s finances since January 2006.
Bourbon offers a broad range of offshore oil and gas services with a fleet of 236 owned vessels and 204 units on order.
The combined company resulting from Gulfmark’s acquisition of Rigdon will initially operate 90 vessels, with another 16 vessels under construction for delivery through 2010. The deal gives Gulfmark its first significant presence in the US Gulf of Mexico, as well as the North Sea, Brazil, and Southeast Asia, to complement smaller but growing operating areas in Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, West Africa, and India.
GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms,
Charlottesville, Va., has completed the acquisition of assets of the MTL Open System Technologies product linesincluding the MTL8000 general purpose I/O, intrinsically safe I/O, SafetyNet system, and process control technologiesfrom MTL Instruments Group. Addition of these product lines will help GE Fanuc better address process and safety needs of the petroleum industry, among other process industries.
A unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a joint venture of General Electric and Fanuc Ltd. of Japan. It provides hardware, software, services, expertise, and experience in automation and embedded computing, with products employed in virtually every industry.
Institut Français du Pétrole
(IFP), Rueil-Malmaison, France, has appointed Rémi Eschard director of IFP’s Geology-Geochemistry-Geophysics Division. He has taken over from Bernard Coletta, who is to be assigned new responsibilities. Eschard joined IFP in 1989 in the Geology-Geochemistry Division. In 1997, he was appointed project manager in reservoir geology before taking over the helm of the Sedimentology-Stratigraphy Department of the Geology-Geochemistry-Geophysics Division in 2001. Since 2005, he led the reservoir characterization area in the Exploration-Production Technology Business Unit. Eschard graduated as an engineer at the IFP School and holds a doctorate in sedimentary geology from Louis Pasteur University.
IFP is a world-class public-sector research and training center focused on developing the technologies and materials of the future in the fields of energy, transport, and the environment.
Transocean Inc.,
Houston, shareholders elected Jon A. Marshall, Martin B. McNamara, Robert E. Rose, and Ian C. Strachan as Class III directors to serve 3-year terms expiring in 2011. Marshall is the former president and COO of Transocean; McNamara is a partner of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Rose is the non-executive chairman of Transocean’s board and previously served as the non-executive chairman of GlobalSantaFe Corp.; and Strachan is on the boards of several public companies.
Transocean Inc. is the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and a leading provider of drilling management services worldwide.