Halliburton To Launch Stimulation Vessel, Stim Star Angola

Halliburton Company (Halliburton), a provider of services and products to customers in the energy industry, said that its Completion and Production Division is launching a stimulation vessel, the Stim Star Angola, in response to operators' needs for stimulation treatments on offshore West Africa assets. The new vessel will serve as a high performance platform for delivering technology and helping reduce rig downtime and associated costs for operators.

We are committed to meeting the needs of operators in the Offshore Angola Region, one of the premier deepwater basins on the globe, said Marc Edwards, vice president of production enhancement, within Halliburton's Completion and Production Division.

With the new Stim Star Angola stimulation vessel, operators will have cost-effective access to all phases of production stimulation including acidizing, fracturing, sand control and conformance solutions for this developing deepwater market.

The new vessel was designed to help minimize rig downtime. Certified for DP2 dynamic positioning, the Stim Star Angola will be capable of working in difficult sea conditions in deepwater locations at tension leg platforms, drill ships, large semi-submersibles, or single wellheads. Cycle time will be minimized by the vessel's proppant, acid and liquid additives capacity, which permits loading sufficient material for multiple treatments, reducing trips to the dock. Cycle time will also be reduced by using the vessel's onboard crane and water maker system.

The vessel is capable of delivering specialized fracturing and acidizing treatments supported by the Halliburton technology developments, including for example, the patented SurgiFrac service for fracturing deviated and horizontal wellbores.

In keeping with Halliburton's commitment to outstanding health, safety and environmental performance, the Stim Star Angola is engineered to meet or exceed all regulatory requirements enabling the vessel to operate in any international location. The Stim Star Angola will be available by the third quarter of 2009 and will be based in Soyo, Angola.