February 2017, Vol. 244, No. 2

Company & Association News

Business

Association News

Rob Beamish is the new executive director of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA), replacing Kim McCaig who has retired. Beamish’s energy ties include two stints with TransCanada, including director, Supply Chain Series, and program manager, Control Centre Development for TransCanada Pipelines. He has a degree in Industrial Design from the University of Calgary , and an MBA and masters in Civil Engineering from Queens University.

Beth Cyr Worrell, an Akin Group lawyer who represented the Pipe Line Contractors Association on the withdrawal liability with Central States Pension Fund, will join the PLCA as chief legal counsel. She will work with Pat Tielborg and Kevin Barrett in the PLCA office in Dallas.

Common Ground Alliance (CGA), named Sarah K. Magruder Lyle as its second president. She replaces Bob Kipp who served as president since the organization’s inception in 2000.

The Houston Pipeliners Young Professionals wants mentors to help close the age gap in the industry and to ensure that knowledge is transferred efficiently and across corporate lines. The mentorship program offers a neutral space to collaborate freely between different disciplines, companies, classes, and other barriers typically discouraging the sharing of knowledge. Among the requirements is calling or meet monthly for one year with an option to renew and agreeing to spend one afternoon with the protégé. If interested send a résumé, brief bio, and contact information to houstonpypmentorprogram@gmail.com.

The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association named Anne C. Blankenship as its new executive director. She has represented oil and gas companies and industry trade associations in environmental regulatory and compliance matters, and as a registered lobbyist in West Virginia. She replaces the late Corky DeMarco.

Personnel Changes

Kirby-Smith Machinery, Inc. appointed Woody Ferrell as account manager for its Pipeline Services Division. Ferrell will focus on developing relationships in the oil and gas pipeline construction industry and represent the company nationally as the company expands its presence in the sector. 

Erica Bowyer-Grason joined Burns & McDonnell in the Northeast as a project manager. She will lead environmental permitting projects – specifically within the natural gas and energy industries – from the firm’s new location in Pennsylvania. She has over 16 years of experience supporting and managing a range of projects including site remediation, air quality, permitting and compliance for commercial and industrial clients. She has spent the past six years focused on permitting and compliance, managing multimillion-dollar large-scale natural gas pipeline siting and licensing projects in the Northeast.

DeWitt Burdeaux joined G2 Integrated Solutions as a Regulatory Subject Matter Expert. He has a 35-year career in the energy industry including compliance oversight, training and research for state and federal agencies, as well as engineering, operations, and compliance consulting. He worked as a Regulatory Compliance Advisor for a pipeline equipment and materials producer. He also spent 18 years at PHMSA and was responsible for training federal, state, and industry personnel on pipeline safety compliance issues. He wrote the agency’s Final Rule for regulating onshore natural gas gathering lines as well as the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for crude oil gathering lines and other low-stress lines transporting petroleum products.

Exterran Corp. named Roger George senior vice president, Global Engineering and Product Lines. He succeeds Steven Muck, who retired after a 41-year career with Exterran and its predecessor companies. George held leadership positions in the oil and gas and power generation sectors for GE, where most recently he was Product Line Leader of their 50Hz utility gas turbine business in Atlanta. Earlier he was General Manager of GE’s Global Sales and Commercial Operations for distributed power. His other positions with GE include head of Global Compression Sales (distributed power) and General Manager of GE Jenbacher Gas Engines for North America.

Austin,-TX-based Aereon, a provider of emission control devices and related services, named Kevin W. Book Vice President – US Upstream Sales & Services with primary responsibility for product and services to shale operators. He was formerly vice president, International Sales & Operations for CSI Compressco LP.

The Williams Companies, Inc.’s Board of Directors named two new independent directors: Charles “Casey” Cogut and Michael A. Creel. Both will stand for election at the annual meeting on May 18.

David H. Sweeney joined the Akin Group as a partner in its Houston energy practice.

Robbie Leffel joined EnLink Midstream as senior vice president of Crude Oil Commercial. He has over 30 years of industry experience, specializing in crude oil. Most recently, he managed his own consulting firm.

Royal Dutch Shell executive Jessica Uhl, formerly of Houston, was named CFO for global operations. Uhl, executive vice president of finance for integrated gas, begins her new post in March and will continue to work at The Hague. Before joining Shell in 2004, Uhl was director of project development and later vice president of corporate development for Enron in Houston and Panama. Uhl also will serve as an executive director of Shell and sit on the executive committee. 

Kimberly Demuth joined TRC Companies Inc. as market director of Environmental Planning. She will lead development of the Pacific Northwest region with the establishment of a Seattle office, as well expanding the environmental planning and permitting services of TRC on a national level. Demuth has managed National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Impact Statements (NEPA EIS) projects and has fully completed federal and state permitting for oil and natural-gas pipeline projects including the Keystone, Keystone XL, and Alberta Clipper EIS pipelines projects.

Christi Craddick was elected chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas.

The National Fuel Gas Company Board of Directors elected Thomas E. Skains as a new independent director. Skains is the former chairman, president, and CEO of Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc.

Richard E. “Rick” Muncrief was elected chairman of WPX Energy. Muncrief also is WPX’s president and CEO, positions he has held since 2014. He succeeds William G. Lowrie, who will become the board’s lead independent director.

Siim A. Vanaselja was named the next chair of the TransCanada Corp. board, succeeding Barry Jackson, who will retire as chair later this year.

Rebecca Kelly was named director of marketing for Skipping Stone, an energy markets consulting and technology services firm. Kelly, formerly with Advanced Control Systems, has over 20 years of energy industry expertise and will help direct the firm’s global branding and marketing efforts.

Company News, Mergers & Acquisitions

Wood Group and Heerema Fabrication Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to offer wellhead platform development, from design to installation, hook-up and commissioning, to clients on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Tulsa, OK-based Sawyer Mfg. Co., a manufacturer of pipeline and welding equipment, was recognized by the Office of the Secretary of Defense as a Patriotic Employer “for contributing to national security and protecting liberty and freedom by supporting employee participation in America’s National Guard and Reserve Force.”

Awarded by Employer Support of the Reserve and Guard, which is a Department of Defense program, the Patriot Award is given to employers who have shown an effort “to support citizen warriors through a wide-range of measures including flexible schedules, time off prior to and after deployment, caring for families, and granting leaves of absence if needed.”

Dave Hembree, president, said Sawyer has always had a commitment to supporting service members and will continue to do so.

Atlas Copco Rental opened a new store at 1023 Hawn Avenue in Shreveport, LA to support customers in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, making equipment and service available for their compressed air rental needs.

Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp. closed the previously announced sale of its 50% interest in its Robinson Lake natural gas processing plant and associated natural gas gathering system located in Mountrail County, ND and its 50% interest in its Belfield natural gas processing plant and associated natural gas, crude oil and water gathering systems located in Stark, Billings and Dunn counties, ND. The purchase price was $375 million.

Oil and gas producer SM Energy Co. plans to sell assets in the Eagle Ford shale of South Texas to a unit of KKR for $800 million. The assets, operated by a third-party, include about 37,500 net acres and related pipeline infrastructure. The assets produced about 27,260 net boed in the third quarter of 2016. The sale to Venado Oil and Gas LLC is expected to close in the first quarter. SM Energy wants to boost its presence in the Permian basin in West Texas and eastern New Mexico while divesting assets elsewhere. The company said it would buy 35,700 net acres in West Texas’s Howard and Martin counties for about $1.6 billion.