ARMCO WINS $30 MILLION SOVIET OIL TECHNOLOGY CONTRACT

A “multi-year” agreement with the U.S.S.R. to provide subsea oil and gas production technology and manufacturing equipment has been concluded by the primary contractor, Armco International Inc., a subsidiary of Armco Steel Corporation. Mr. Harry Holiday, Armco president, said the value of the project is almost $30 million, it will involve technology and equipment from two other United States firms and an Armco division. The Rucker Company of Oakland, California, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NL Industries Inc., will provide engineering and manufacturing technology for blowout preventers, riser and quidelene tension systems and drill string compensation systems. Rucker’s portion of the contract amounts to approximately $18 million.

In addition to the product technology, Rucker will provide training to Russian technicians in Rucker’s manufacturing facilities as well as assistance in the U.S.S.R. from Rucker engineering and technical personnel.

Stewart and Stevenson Oiltools Inc., of Houston, is providing specifications, drawings and rights to manufacture hydraulic subsea blowout preventer controls. National Supply Company, the Armco division which is the western world’s largest manufacturer of drilling equipment, is providing the specifications, drawings and rights to manufacture its Sea King and Marine Riser subsea systems. This wellhead and marine drilling equipment presently in use on offshore wells around the world will enable the Russians to drill wells on the ocean floor, test them and cap them for future production.

Signing the agreement on behalf of the U.S.S.R. was Anatoliy Aleksandrovich Butko, president of V/O Avtopromimport. The agreement, which becomes effective this year, includes providing technical assistance and machine tools to modify the Baricada plant at Volgograd which will enable that plant to manufacture much of the subsea equipment necessary for offshore oil and gas production. It is anticipated that the Baricada facility would begin production during the 1980s.

The Armco subsea equipment deal could be followed by another multi-million-dollar offshore technology contract involving the Soviet Union. A consortium including Britain’s George Wimpey and British Petroleum plus America’s Brown & Root has been negotiating with the Russians for several months over the establishment of a Caspian Sea fabrication yard for steel production platform jackets and other related oilfield hardware.

Shippers who suffer container cargo losses might find themselves unprotected unless the worldwide trend toward restrictive insurance legislation is reversed, according to Mr. Walter Kramer, assistant vice-president of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters (AIMU). Speaking at the Annual Shippers’ Dialogue of the Containerisation Institute in New York, he said it was not underwriters alone who stood to lose from the proliferation of regulations in foreign countries which restrict the placement of marine insurance.