2004.05.28
Reuters:
Input/Output launches stock offering to fund acquisition.
"Input/Output on Friday said it would offer publicly 20 million shares of stock and use the net proceeds to pay for its proposed acquisition of GX Technology Corp."
Business Wire:
Veritas DGC Inc. Announces Third Fiscal Quarter Results.
"Thierry Pilenko, Chairman and CEO of Veritas commented, ‘... we are still in a period of significant uncertainty, so I do not believe that the excellent results of our last two quarters necessarily represent the beginning of a trend. These quarters demonstrate that sales of completed multi-client surveys generate a substantial portion of our profit and these sales are always difficult to predict.’"
2004.05.27
Oil Online:
PGS opens new seismic data processing center in Brazil.
"The center is comprised of 1024 Intel Xeon processors that deliver 6 tflops of compute capacity, a holoSeis visualization system and a dedicated link to all of PGS' R&D and support resources at our Houston Hub Center."
> Oops, someone forgot to change that ‘our’ when they were cutting and pasting from the press release.
Forbes:
Statoil awards $44 mln seismic deals.
"Norwegian oil and gas group Statoil said on Wednesday that it awarded contracts worth 300 million Norwegian crowns ($44.23 million) for seismic surveys in
the Norwegian Sea and North Sea to several firms."
The Edge Daily, Malaysia:
Petra Perdana JV co secures North Sea seismic job.
"Petra Perdana Bhd's new tripartite joint venture company Geoseas Technologies Ltd has been conditionally awarded a US$3.75 million project to acquire about 10,000km to 15,000km of 2D seismic data in the North Sea."
Oil Online:
C & C Technologies recently completes multichannel high-resolution seismic survey.
"The survey was successfully completed with C&C's new SeaMUX fully digital streamer system, which incorporates 96 channels at 6.25 meter group spacing."
2004.05.22
Reuters:
OPEC: No Quick Fix for Oil Price Scare.
"Leading producer Saudi Arabia has called for output quotas to go up by at least 1.5 million barrels daily from OPEC's official 23.5 million bpd limit. But the group freely admits it is already pumping more than two million bpd in excess of formal quotas and says spare capacity is severely limited."
The Salt Lake Tribune:
Greens drop protest; natural-gas exploration to begin.
"Mark Ward, an assistant Utah attorney general, said he believes SUWA, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council dropped their motion for an injunction after realizing that [U.S. District Judge] Sullivan was not buying their arguments."
2004.05.14
BBC:
Oil prices set new record highs.
"A barrel of US light crude was selling for $41.50 in early New York trading on Friday, an all-time high. In London, Brent Crude climbed to $38.40, reaching levels last seen following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990."
PR Newswire:
Compagnie Generale de Geophysique First Quarter 2004 Results.
"The Land activity saw its total sales for the first quarter 2004 decreased
by 52% in Euros and 44% in dollars ... compared to ... the first quarter of 2003. On average, 9 crews were in operation across the period, compared to 14 last year.... The Offshore revenues ... for the first quarter 2004, were down 25% in Euros and 12% in dollars compared ... the first quarter of 2003, reflecting in particular a low level of prices in the exclusive offshore acquisition market."
Houston Business Journal:
Chesapeake Energy snaps up Greystone for $425M.
"In connection with the deal, Chesapeake acquires an estimated 214 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent proved reserves ... in Northern Louisiana."
> I visited Chesapeake in OKC last week. They have a beautiful campus that's much larger than I would have imagined.
Press Release:
I/O Launches Next Generation Land Acquisition System.
"The latest version of System Four includes hybrid functionality to support the acquisition of single component or multicomponent data, or a combination of both, on any survey."
And now, the news from academia --
Press Release:
Jackson School of Geosciences proposed as separate school at The University of Texas at Austin.
"The John A. and Katherine Jackson School of Geosciences was created in 2001 as a part of the College of Natural Sciences. The school resulted from a $25 million endowment funded by John Jackson, a 1940 geology graduate. John A. Jackson also bequeathed the remainder of his estate, valued at about $232 million, to the Jackson School for geosciences research and education."
Press Release:
Physics professor at UH called to testify on ultradeep water exploration. Arthur B. Weglein offers expert testimony before Congress.
2004.05.11
Houston Business Journal:
Input/Output to buy GX Technology.
"Stafford-based Input/Output Inc. announced Monday that it plans to purchase GX Technology Corp., a Houston-based company, in a deal valued at $150 million."
Press Release:
Seitel Announces First Quarter 2004 Results.
"Revenues for the first quarter increased 36 percent to $41,264,000, compared with $30,324,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2003, while income from operations increased 168 percent to $8,568,000 for the quarter, compared to $3,202,000 for the same period in 2003."
Vereinigte Wirtschaftsdienste:
TGS-NOPEC - 1st Quarter 2004 Results.
"Consolidated Net Revenues were USD 28.7 million, a decrease of 6% compared to Q1 2003; Operating Profit of USD 6.6 million ... down 39% from USD 10.9 million in Q1 2003." ...
"The Company added approximately 9,000 kilometers of new 2D and 2,000 square kilometers of new 3D data to its library of marketed seismic surveys during the 1st quarter. A total of six different seismic vessels contributed to this effort. Most of the new acquisition was located in the US Gulf of Mexico, where the Company employed for the full quarter a two-vessel streamer crew and an OBC (ocean bottom cable) crew to accelerate and further expand its ‘Deep Resolve’ long offset 3D project."
Press Release:
Kelman Announces Operating Results for Q1.
"Kelman Technologies Inc. today announced a net loss of $136 thousand for the first quarter of 2004. This number represents an improvement of $800 thousand over the comparable period last year."
The Age, Australia:
A deep mystery unfolds.
"A key concern over seismic testing is that the sonic pulses might keep the whales out of their key feeding grounds (as well as inflict possible acoustic injury).
"Mr Gill's initial research on the whale behaviour around seismic vessels seemed to bear this out. In 2000 Mr Gill recorded whales 95 kilometres from the guns, despite krill in the survey area. In 2002 they were seen 60 kilometres away, and recently they were seen a mere three kilometres away.
"So what do these findings mean?"
The Bismarck Tribune:
Explosives found at 'Desert'.
"A dirt biker had driven over something numerous times, not knowing what it was, but on Saturday he saw the words "highly explosive" on what would turn out to be partially buried seismic explosives, said Burleigh County Sheriff's Capt. Collin Rixen."
2004.05.06
Houston Business Journal:
Oil and gas execs see increased capital spending.
"Over half the respondents also expect mergers and acquisitions to increase in North America among both small independents and large independents and majors acquiring smaller independents."
O&GJ:
UK Energy Minister discusses investment opportunities for independents.
Houston Chronicle:
Foreign drilling stealing Gulf's thunder.
"A report released Wednesday shows a dropoff in drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico -- even as oil prices soar."
Reuters:
Pioneer to buy Evergreen Resources for $1.7 billion.
"Dallas-based Pioneer is a middle-tier independent that in recent years has bolstered its mainstay fields in Texas and Oklahoma with high-potential exploration projects in West Africa, Alaska and Argentina.
"Evergreen of Denver brings low-cost, coal-bed methane reserves [in Colorado] that can produce gas for at least eight years."
