Grapevine

70 Years of Successful Business for Magrath Energy Corporation

In 1998, Magrath Energy Corporation celebrates 70 years of successful business operation. Incorporated in 1928 in the Town of Taber as Majestic Mines Limited with some sixteen sections of freehold mineral rights in the area as its major asset, the company focus was coal mining. Unfortunately mining declined significantly in Taber following the discovery of better quality coal at Drumheller in the early 1930's.

Nevertheless, the president of the company for fifty years (1929-1979), C. B. Magrath, son of Alberta pioneer C.A. Magrath, remained convinced of the possibility of oil on the freehold lands. Several uncommercial wells were drilled through the 1940's and 1950's and it was not until Anadarko leased the lands in the late 1960's that commercial production was found.

The successor company to Majestic Mines Limited, Magrath Energy Corporation, has used its royalty revenues to develop its own oil and gas production, currently about 750 barrels of oil equivalent, and to diversity into independent power production. The company has investments in five hydro-electric projects in British Columbia and Alberta, and has a majority interest in a company, Magrath Cogeneration, developing cogeneration projects.

Magrath Energy Corporation's mission for the next decade is to provide long term economic benefits to its shareholders, employees and management while promoting cleaner, particularly renewable energy. It looks forward to another 70 years of successful operations.

SERCEL Announces New Release of its SN388 Software Package

SN388 Software Release 8.2 is announced for end of May.

New features include multiple fleet management, slip sweep acquisition (technique invented and initially promoted by Petroleum Development Oman L.L.C. PDO-), calculation of the preamp gain as a function of the source to receiver distance, increase of the maximum shot ld entries from 1200 to 3600, capability for the user to customize the Header in the Operator Report, calculation of the Centre of Gravity in Shallow Water opera tions and creation of a Field Unit History file to mention only the principal.

A New Vibrator is Born

Fruit of a cooperation between the Russian company GEOSVIP and SERCEL, a new tracked vibrator particularly well adapted to extremely cold weather conditions has been presented, March the 31st in Kimry (150 km North-West of Moscow) in front of Mr. Garipov, Vice-Minister of Fuel and Energy.

SERCEL supplies frames, vibra or kits, cabin, hydraulic tanks and heated battery compartments and GEOSVIP supplies complete undercarriage, including tracks, sprockets, planetaries and wheels. The engine is a 330 hp YaMZ model and all hydraulic components (pumps, filters, hydraulic hoses) are supplied by renowned companies.

GEOSVIP after assembling all those components in its facilities of Kimry, does the necessary winterization. The vibrator, names SVS24/PC27, has the following main characteristics: a Peak Force of 275.78 kN, a Frequency Range from 7 to 200 Hz, a gradeability of 60% for a Gross Weight of 29500 kg and a Maximum Speed of 18 km/h.