Dresser Industries News

Energy Cranes International Limited, provider of offshore lifting and handling services which includes Sparrows Offshore, Aberdeen Hydraulics and Baricon Systems, announced the appointment of Doug Sedge as chief executive officer (CEO). John Jordan, the incumbent CEO, is standing down from the role and will be leaving the group. Doug Sedge is well known in the oilfield business community, where he was CEO of RBG Group from 2005 to 2008. His most recent assignment was in a European role with Canadian offshore technology group…

Thrustmaster of Texas, Inc., one of the world’s leading manufacturers of marine propulsion systems, announces new personnel additions. Jeff Miller, who joins the company as marketing manager, has over 25 years in marketing communications, including 15 in the oil and gas, manufacturing, and offshore sectors. Miller will be responsible for market research, advertising, public relations, and all other marketing-related activities for Thrustmaster, including setting up a network of international manufacturer’s representatives. Miller attended the University of South Florida and is a member of The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Business Marketing Association (BMA) and serves on the board of directors of several organizations.

Thrustmaster of Texas, Inc., has received ISO 9001 Certification from ABS. The certification was awarded after a series of rigorous quality-control audits, and verification that Thrustmaster is compliant with all phases of the ISO 9001 Quality Control processes and procedures. “We have been working towards ISO certification for well over a year,” said Gene Little, Thrustmaster quality manager. “We revised many of our existing policies and procedures, and refined others to make sure we were above and beyond what ABS was looking for. The certification is just part of an overall program to enhance the overall operations of Thrustmaster.

Sperry-Sun, a Division of Dresser Industries, Inc., participated in drilling a significant crude oil and natural gas discovery in Anadarko Petroleum Corp.'s subsalt exploration program. This discovery - called Tanzanite - is located in the Gulf of Mexico at Eugene Island South Addition Block 346 in 314 feet of water about 75 miles offshore Louisiana. Anadarko believes the Tanzanite field contains at least 140 million boe. Sperry-Sun provided pressure-while-drilling (PWD) services from 11,000 ft. MD to TVD of 14,350 ft. in drilling the exploration well (the OCS-G 14482 No. 1) and provided full "triple combo" services from 11,800 ft. MD to 13,643 MD. In this latter portion of the well, 450 ft.

Halliburton Company and W-H Energy Services, Inc., jointly announced Halliburton has sold its logging-while-drilling (LWD) and related measurement-while-drilling (MWD) business known as PathFinder to W-H. The sale also included certain directional drilling assets in the North Sea. Consideration paid to complete the sale was not disclosed by Halliburton and W-H. Halliburton has completed the sale of the business in order to comply with the consent decree the company entered into with the U.S. Department of Justice on September 29, 1998 to conclude antitrust review of Halliburton's 1998 merger with Dresser Industries, Inc. Halliburton and W-H will cooperate in an orderly transition of the PathFinder business to W-H.

Oilfield service companies were not nearly as lucky as their oil producing counterparts. While net income in the oil producing industry was up over the 1998 third-quarter, oilfield service companies were still feeling the pain of the low oil prices from earlier in the year. While the stock market - the global business measuring stick - has generally been positive on the offshore oilfield sector throughout much of the year, there has been a relapse of sorts in October, as uncertainty surrounding OPEC output quotas has largely dampened the year's progress. In fact, a major tracker of offshore industry stocks, Warburg Dillon Read, in mid-October cut its ratings of four oilfield equipment and services companies.