News

Exxon Mobil and the workers’ union at the company's Baytown, Texas, refinery reached a tentative agreement over contract language on safety — a dispute that the union said could lead to a strike if not resolved. A spokesperson for the United Steelworkers local at Baytown said Exxon agreed to implement a fatigue management system regulating the number of days in a row an employee could work, and to accept a process safety representative position in the new three-year contract.

Speaking at the "Global Deepwater Technology Development" panel in Houston, USA, Petrobras' executive manager for production engineering in Exploration & Production, Solange da Silva Guedes highlighted the importance of integrating companies that operate in deepwater oil and gas fields with universities and suppliers for the development of offshore production technology. The panel, with more than 250 attendees, opened the first day of the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), the world's biggest event devoted to offshore oil exploration and production.

Rotork Valvekits, the specialist valve mounting kit company in the Rotork group of flow control businesses, is now the official stockist and distributor for the industry-leading Pneumatrol Namur range of solenoid valves. The Pneumatrol range, formerly known as RGS Davis, has a long history and excellent reputation for providing pneumatic solenoid valve solutions within hazardous and non-hazardous environments.

Val-Matic have been recently been extolling the virtues of their American-BFV Butterly Valve. They state that thousands of field installations throughout the world have demonstrated the strong, reliable, and proven dependability of the product in recent months. Features such as standard epoxy interior, continuous uninterrupted seating, and the Tri-Loc™ seat retention system allows for field adjustment/replacement without the need for special tools or epoxies.

Flowserve announced the launch of the newly developed Flowserve Limitorque UEX electronic control package for L120 series actuators.

At the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Total was honoured with the Distinguished Achievement Award for Companies for its Pazflor deep offshore development.

Exxon Mobil Corporation has begun development of the Julia oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. Capital cost for the project is estimated to be more than $4 billion.

Flexlife, a specialist provider of flexible pipe integrity and engineering services, is expanding into a new facility in Houston and targeting U.S.

CIRCOR International, a leading provider of valves and other highly engineered products for energy, oil & gas, power generation and aerospace markets, announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013.

Mechanical engineering group EnerMech announced at OTC in Houston that it has invested more than USD 20.2M as it steps up its drive to cement its presence in the US and Mexico. A recent move to a new 50,000 sq ft workshop, office and storage facility near to Houston’s Energy Corridor has been followed with a USD 14 million investment in new Process, Pipeline and Umbilical (PPU) equipment and in opening a base at Villahermosa, Mexico. For the Aberdeen headquartered company, the lure of the Gulf of Mexico and its deepwater projects is strong and the strategic investment is already paying off with confirmation of a number of PPU contracts in 2014 worth up to USD 9.3M. The headcount stands at 40 but Vince Kouns, president of EnerMech’s US operation, expects that to grow to 120 by the end of 2013 with turnover more than trebling from USD 6.2M – USD 23.3M, and trebling again to USD 78M in 2015. The company has a lengthy connection to Houston through respected hydraulics specialist Norson Power which was acquired in 2010 and Kouns, along with VP Alan Sweeney is focussed on replicating that success in PPU, cranes and lifting, equipment rental, valves and training services.