Petrobras Board Approves Committee To Assess Subsalt Transfer Of Rights

On Oct. 24, Petrobras said its board approved the creation of an independent committee to allow minority shareholders to review planned changes to some of the company’s biggest oil and gas leases.

The committee will include two independent board members, Guilherme Affonso Ferreira and Marcelo Mesquita de Siqueira Filho. An independent financial and technical expert also will be appointed, the statement said.

The Brazilian government and Petrobras are negotiating mandatory changes to a contract to exploit up to 5 Bbbl of offshore oil and gas in the so-called Transfer of Rights Areas in the nation’s Santos Basin south of Rio de Janeiro.

The Transfer of Rights Areas are located in the subsalt, a prolific offshore region where billions of barrels of oil and gas are trapped deep beneath the seabed by a layer of mineral salts.

Brazil’s Congress has approved the main text of a bill aimed at boosting private investment in Brazil’s energy industry by allowing companies other than Petrobras to run new oil and gas projects in the subsalt region. Petrobras was expected to pay billions of dollars more for rights to the initial 5 Bbbl and much more for the right to exploit the additional discoveries.

Petrobras bought the rights, known in Portuguese as the “Cessão Onerosa,” for more than $50 billion as part of a more than $70 billion stock sale in 2010. The contract requires renegotiation of the price of the rights and decisions over who will develop additional resources found in the areas since then and their value.

The committee was set up to assure nongovernment investors that discussions between Petrobras and the government are conducted fairly and openly, the company said in a statement.

BP’s General Counsel Will Resign At Year-end 2016

BP’s Group General Counsel Rupert Bondy will step down from the job at year-end 2016, after eight years, during which time he oversaw the legal battles surrounding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, a company spokesman said on Oct. 24.

Bondy, an executive team member, will join health and home products manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser as senior vice president, general counsel and company secretary.

A successor for Bondy has yet be named.

Bondy is a British national who joined BP Plc in 2008. He was at the heart of several huge legal processes with U.S. authorities and claimants following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in April 2010.

Rubicon Oilfield Acquires Tool Supplier Logan International

Downhole products supplier Rubicon Oilfield International said Oct. 24 that it completed the acquisition of the outstanding common shares of oilfield production tool supplier Logan International Inc.

Each share was priced at CA$1.59 (US$1.19), the company said.

Rubicon was backed by private-equity firm Warburg Pincus on the transaction, which will support the growth of all Logan product lines.

Logan employees will leverage Rubicon’s existing worldwide platform for delivering well product solutions to customers.

Logan CEO Dave MacNeill said the merger will provide opportunities for Logan employees and products.

Newly Formed ROV Company M² Subsea Receives Private-equity Funding

Newly formed M² Subsea Ltd. secured private-equity from a fund advised by Alchemy Special Opportunities, a Nov. 1 press release stated. M² Subsea will use the equity to acquire a fleet of 32 best-in-class ROVs.

M² Subsea will provide global ROV inspection, repair, maintenance, decommissioning and construction services. The company plans to create at least 50 onshore jobs and 100 offshore jobs in the North Sea, U.S. Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific by year-end 2017.

The company is led by Mike Arnold, the original founder of Rovtech, who has 35 years’ experience in the subsea industry. He also founded Hallin Marine UK and Bibby Offshore’s ROV services unit. Arnold is joined by a strong management team of other subsea veterans including Mark Wood and Mike Winstanley.

GE Will Merge Oil Unit With Baker Hughes To Create Service Giant

General Electric Co said on Oct. 31 it would merge its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes Inc., creating the world’s second-largest oilfield services provider as competition heats up to supply more-efficient products and services to the energy industry after several years of low crude prices.

The deal to create a company with $32 billion in annual revenue will combine GE’s strengths in making equipment long-prized by oil producers with Baker Hughes’ expertise in drilling and fracking new wells.

“This is a good deal for all of the investors,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, head of GE’s oil and gas business who will lead the new entity, to be called “Baker Hughes, a GE company.”

GE is already the world's largest oilfield equipment maker, supplying blowout preventers, pumps and compressors used in E&P. GE also has invested in subsea services as well as large data processing services just as the oil industry eyes its potential to boost oil recovery.

Baker Hughes, by contrast, is seen as one of the world leaders in horizontal drilling, chemicals used to frack and other services key to oil production.

The new company will vault Baker Hughes's market share ahead of rival Halliburton Co, which tried and failed to buy Baker until the deal collapsed last May, and also compete heavily with Schlumberger NV, the world's largest oilfield service provider, for customers.

GE will own 62.5 percent of the new publicly-traded company. The deal is expected to close in mid-2017. GE will have to pay $1.3 billion to Baker Hughes if the deal does collapse in what would be yet another windfall for Baker Hughes after Halliburton was forced to pay it $3.5 billion earlier this year when those companies’ merger collapsed.

ROV-powered Subsea Piling Hammer Technology Aims To Cut Costs

DeepDriver’s ROV-powered subsea piling hammer technology aims to offer a more cost effective means to install small to medium diameter piles at any water depth with typical savings of 35% to 50% per project, a press release stated.

DeepDriver can be used for conventional driven applications such as anchors, moorings, well conductors, etc., as well as enabling uses not currently undertaken such as pipeline route stabilizations and remediation, deepwater pin piles and next-generation hybrid mud mats. Key elements of the technology were successfully land tested earlier in 2016.

Endeavor Management and DeepDriver LLC announced on Oct. 24 that they have opened industry participation in a Technology Demonstration Project (TDP) for DeepDriver’s ROV-powered subsea piling hammer.

Bruce Crager, executive vice president of Endeavor Management, said, “The subsea industry is facing huge challenges to reduce costs. With this TDP, we expect to deliver an innovative system ready for use by the global industry within 12 months.”

—Staff & Reuters Report