Merrick Systems is a market leader in information technologies for the midstream and upstream oil and gas industry. Recognized for its industry expertise and innovation, Merrick is focusing on operational solutions to improve production operations. Utilizing best of breed industrial IT, Merrick extends oil and gas producing asset life, lowers lifting costs, increases production, and improves health, safety and environmental protection.

"I am honored to be nominated, alongside some of Houston's foremost emerging business leaders, for this prestigious award which stands for excellence in entrepreneurship. This nomination is a statement of validation for our long time strategy of bringing top-of-the-line, innovative technologies to oil fields worldwide and taking a leading role in the digital oilfield revolution, helping better utilization of reservoirs and meeting the rapidly rising global demand for oil and gas" stated Kemal Farid.

The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards program celebrates its 22nd anniversary this year. The program has expanded to recognize business leaders in over 135 cities in 50 countries throughout the world.

Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year national program. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the overall national Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award winner, will be announced at the annual awards gala in Palm Springs, California on November 15, 2008. The awards are the culminating event of the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum, the nation's most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year awards are pleased to have the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and SAP America as national sponsors. In the Houston & Gulf Coast Area, sponsors include Bowne of Houston, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., Lockton Companies, LLC, Longnecker & Associates and the Houston Business Journal. Regional Patrons are Pierpont Communications, Inc. and Spur Digital Marketing.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick Systems provides innovative software and hardware technologies for the upstream and midstream oil & gas industry. The company's suite of technology solutions covers the full range of operational needs, from field data capture, hydrocarbon accounting, regulatory compliance, web-based production monitoring, technical data management, engineering workflow management, patented RFID technology to track down hole, subsea and drilling assets, to production optimization tools. Headquartered in Houston, Merrick has regional offices in Canada, Mexico, Norway, Indonesia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Recognized as one of the top 50 fastest growing technology companies in Houston, Merrick is also an active player in establishing and promoting open data exchange standards for the oil and gas industry. Visit www.MerrickSystems.com.

About Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year

Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The award makes a difference through the unique way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 135 cities in 50 countries.

About Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. Worldwide, our 130,000 people are united by our shared values and an unwavering commitment to quality. We make a difference by helping our people, our clients and our wider communities achieve potential.

For more information, please visit www.ey.com.

Ernst & Young refers to the global organization of member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited.

"eVIN is the most widely used mobile application for oil fields in North America, utilized for capturing daily well information on roughly 25% of the producing wells in the United States and about 15% world-wide", stated Kemal Farid, President & CEO of Merrick Systems. "With Merrick's 2008 release of eVIN, we are broadening its use and expanding its capabilities to remote environments around the world. eVIN's new framework provides integration into production forecast systems, putting production targets into the hands of the pumper down to the measurement point level," he added.

eVIN 2008 provides operators and management with:

• Complete route and stop management
• Advanced field data capture of daily data, run ticket, and tank volumes
• Automated alarms and graphs for problem resolution
• Accountability to meet production targets

The new application, eVIN 2008, is currently being deployed at Exco Resources (XCO), a Dallas based independent oil and gas production company with approximately 15,000 active wells in the United States. Exco uses a combination of hand held and Tough Book PCs running eVIN for over 300 pumpers on a daily basis.

Kimberly Gartrell, System Administrator of Exco Resources, said, "Exco has teamed up with Merrick by using eVIN to manage the daily data for over three hundred pumpers. eVIN 2008 will help us reach our optimization goals by providing our pumpers with production targets at the well level — this approach places the information directly in the hands of the people most responsible for hitting those targets."

eVIN's creator at Merrick, Darren Beeksma, added, "The ability to create and map eVIN screens to external tables represents a major milestone for the product and the industry as a whole. This extremely flexible software architecture combines with the ingenuity of our customers to satisfy the needs of specific production scenarios. eVIN allows field operators to compare on a daily basis actual versus forecasted performance of a particular tank battery or gas meter, validating the forecasting process and allowing for adjustments in order to reach production targets."

The eVIN field data capture software platform established itself as the industry leader by porting to rugged hand held devices, enabling instant communications to production accounting systems such as Merrick's ProCount and TOW. eVIN is based on a new architecture that provides greater flexibility for tracking operational information and enables users to send and receive data from any database tables in addition to the core tables associated with production accounting systems.

eVIN provides Pocket PC and PC-based field data capture with on-line AGA calculations, error checking, data validation and graphing. Used daily by over 2,000 field operators world-wide for quick data entry, eVIN applies the same process of collecting data as gauge sheets.

Merrick Systems provides innovative software and hardware technologies for the upstream and midstream oil & gas industry. The company's suite of technologies cover the full range of operational needs including field data capture, hydrocarbon accounting, regulatory compliance, web-based production monitoring, technical data management, engineering workflow management, patented RFID technology to track down hole, subsea and surface drilling assets, and production optimization tools.

Headquartered in Houston, Merrick has regional offices in Canada, Mexico, Norway, Indonesia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Merrick is recognized as one of the top fifty fastest growing technology companies in Texas, and is an active player in establishing and promoting open data exchange standards for the oil and gas industry.

PRODUCT CONTACT: Faisal Kidwai, Merrick Systems, Inc. +1-713-579-3400, Faisal.Kidwai@MerrickSystems.com

At the 5th Annual IT and Web 2.0 Venture Forum in November the most promising IT and Web 2.0 companies were selected based on the commercial potential of the company’s proprietary technology and the impact the technologies are expected to have on the information technology industry. Companies showcased their new venture for an audience of more than 350 attendees. The most promising companies were chosen by 45 judges from the Rice Alliance Information Technology Advisory Board.

Merrick Systems has also received the Fast Tech 50 award through the Houston Business Journal for the fifth year in a row. This award is given out to the 50 high tech companies, which have experienced the greatest percentage revenue growth in 2006. The top executives of the Fast Tech 50 were honored at the official awards luncheon in November 2007 in which there were over 700 people in attendance.

Merrick has also been the recipient of many other prestigious awards including Deloitte and Touche’s Technology fast 500, Fastest Growing Women Owned Businesses, Regional Minority IT Firm of the Year, Largest Houston Based Software Development Company, and Software 500 offered by Softwaremag.com. Merrick has also been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Texas.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick is a leader in upstream oil and gas technology industry. Merrick Systems produces sophisticated, data-driven software that helps the upstream oil and gas industry manage and exploit assets. The company offers a variety of products to meet the full range of production and operational needs: field data capture, hydrocarbon accounting, regulatory compliance, web-based production monitoring, drilling operations, and engineering workflow management. www.MerrickSystems.com.

Samina Farid is the CFO and Chairman of Merrick. She founded the company along with her nephew in 1989. Samina had already been in energy since 1970 & was then working for a gas marketing company. In mid-1992, when the software was developed, both quit their respective jobs to start marketing Merrick Systems’ software from Samina’s house on Merrick Street in Houston, TX. They moved to their first office six months later and within eight months had their first three clients.

This award is based on financial growth of the company for the next year. Merrick has shown continued growth throughout the years and is forecast to have substantial growth in 2007. With the acquisition of a Engineering Workflow software (One Virtual Source) and an RFID asset management to for tracking down-hole components (Rig-Hand) Merrick is estimated to triple in the 2007 financial year.

Merrick has aslo been the recipient of many prestigious awards including Deloitte and Touche’s Technology fast 500, Fast Tech 50, and Software 500 offered by Softwaremag.com. Merrick has also been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Texas. This can be attributed to the fun family environment that Samina and Kemal have created at Merrick. Samina has worked with many business development programs over the years.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick is a leader in upstream oil and gas technology industry. Merrick Systems produces sophisticated, data-driven software that helps the upstream oil and gas industry manage and exploit assets. The company offers a variety of products to meet the full range of production and operational needs: field data capture, hydrocarbon accounting, regulatory compliance, web-based production monitoring, drilling operations, and engineering workflow management. www.MerrickSystems.com.

Merrick is headquartered in Houston, Texas with locations in Calgary, Lafayette, Villahermosa, Abu Dhabi, Dammam, Minsk, Bangkok, & Tripoli.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick is a leader in upstream oil and gas technology industry. Merrick Systems produces sophisticated, data-driven software that helps the upstream oil and gas industry manage and exploit assets. The company offers a variety of products to meet the full range of production and operational needs: field data capture, hydrocarbon accounting, regulatory compliance, web-based production monitoring, drilling operations, and engineering workflow management. www.MerrickSystems.com.

RFID tags provide an asset management/inventory control process to track equipment used during drilling and production of oil and gas wells. The tags are embedded in downhole tubulars such as drill pipe, casing, production tubing and other BHA (Bottom Hole Assembly) components. They provide fast, accurate and consistent collection of information on each component before, during, and after it is run into a well. According to Ian Binmore, Director of Drilling Products at Merrick Systems, “The more knowledge that service companies and drilling crews have about what is going into the hole before it goes into the hole, the less likely there is of a costly delay or a catastrophic situation. The only way to confidently know this information is to be able to track the components and the VICTREX PEEK polymer tags enable that to occur.” RFID tags can save time and money by speeding up inefficient operations, making sure that operations can go as planned, enabling engineering optimizations and ensuring that assets are properly deployed and used.

Previous techniques for mounting RFID tags included simply epoxying them to steel. “These techniques typically result in failure,” said Binmore adding “they can also present a danger to personnel if pressure gets trapped behind the tag while pulling equipment out of a well.” He continued, “We needed a housing that could be mechanically shaped to prevent pressure buildup while withstanding the downhole conditions and providing a mechanical mounting. We found that VICTREX PEEK polymer was the best material available for the housing as it could meet all of our design requirements.”

Merrick’s material requirements included the ability to withstand the high pressures and temperatures of the downhole environment, strength, corrosive resistance, acceptability in the industry, moldability, expansion coefficients, brittleness, abrasive resistance, epoxy bondability, dielectric properties, and long term stability, including resistance to deterioration under UV exposure. VICTREX PEEK polymer met all these requirements. “In addition,” said Binmore, “It met our requirements for a material that could be manufactured in bulk to provide quantities of product at a price point that would promote wide adoption of the technology.”

RFID tags have been in existence for quite some time in the drilling industry, but have had a less than stellar performance history. In the past, the problem has been the reliability of the tags to sustain the high temperatures, high pressures and well-documented severe conditions incurred during a drilling operation. “We are not the only company offering RFID tags,” said Binmore. “However, we have demonstrated that tag reliability is no longer an issue through the use of a well thought out strategy that includes tag design, the use VICTREX PEEK polymer, special epoxies and tag installation methods that will endure during sustained drilling operations. This has created a tag that can survive the extreme physical and chemical environments that the tags routinely encounter in a downhole environment. “Victrex has been integral in the development of a product that works,” added Binmore. “Together, Merrick Systems and Victrex have turned it into a valued working product, at a price point that the industry can rapidly accept.”

Victrex USA Inc., a division of Victrex plc., is the sole manufacturer and supplier of VICTREX PEEK polymer worldwide. For more information on the properties and performance advantages of VICTREX PEEK polymer, please call (800) VICTREX or visit the Victrex website at www.victrex.com.

About Victrex

Victrex plc is the leading manufacturer of high performance materials, including VICTREX® PEEK™ polymer and VICOTE® Coatings. These materials are used in a variety of markets and offer an exceptional combination of properties to help processors and end users reach new levels of cost savings, quality, and performance.

The company is headquartered in the UK. Invibio®, Victrex’s biomaterials business, provides access to specialized products and services for medical device manufacturers. Victrex Japan, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Victrex plc. For more information visit www.victrex.com or www.victrex.mobi.

VICTREX® is a registered trademark of Victrex Manufacturing Limited. PEEK™ and PEEK-HT™ are trademarks of Victrex plc. VICOTE® is a registered trademark of Victrex plc.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick Systems is a global Houston based software development and professional services company providing enterprise-class applications for upstream oil and gas operations. Merrick has an excellent reputation in the industry for handling complex operational and regulatory issues, producing robust software products and delivering outstanding customer service. Merrick’s product offerings extend oil and gas producing life, lower lifting costs and optimize field operations. For more information visit www.MerrickSystems.com.

Ian Binmore, the Director of Drilling Products at Merrick Systems says “Wells costing anywhere from one to one hundred million dollars to drill and complete are typically managing all critical drilling assets in a manner similar to how they were doing it when Spindletop was drilled over one hundred years ago – by paper and pencil.” The idea of using RFID technologies to manage drilling equipment has been around for many years with various companies trying different approaches. Merrick’s key differentiator is that it works by taking a new approach to the design and materials used to create commercially reliable downhole RFID tags.

Rick Coleman, a Tools Asset Manager and Process Control Specialist with BJ Services, says of the tests “My main purpose with this test was to make sure the product would work in a real world environment.” He continued to say that BJ Services “Ran them [the tags] in the field, sixteen hundred plus hours in the hole, 343°F under every type of fluid situation you can think of, including acid. [We] have not had a failure…it looks like the re-runable (downhole) tags will work.” Coleman added that “[these tags] would be an excellent way to track our equipment”. 0000 The patented technologies developed by Merrick Systems will have a sweeping impact on how downhole operations are performed, how equipment control systems are applied, and how components are selected, supplied, and managed to upstream oil and gas operations.

Merrick’s Rig-Hand™ and Tool-Hand™ software products work in conjunction with the unique identifiers contained in the extremely rugged RFID tags for surface and downhole drilling equipment to effectively track and manage equipment through inspection, transportation and operations. Binmore states, “Five years from now tagging of surface and downhole drilling equipment will likely be the norm. The industry has been waiting for a system that would work. Simply put, ours does.”

Merrick’s Rig-Hand™ system is comprised of RFID tags, industry certified intrinsically safe ruggedized handheld computers with built-in tag readers and software modules for handhelds, PC’s and inspection stations. It is designed for fast, accurate and consistent collection of information on downhole equipment for drilling, and workover and completions operations. The Rig-Hand™ solution contains a wealth of information about components but is also configurable to accommodate virtually any user-specific information that is desired to be tracked.

Tags utilizing newly developed and patented RFID technologies are embedded in downhole tubulars such as drill pipe, casing and other BHA (Bottom Hole Assembly) components. Rig-Hand™ provides rig operations, inspection services, storage yards and the transportation sector with immediate access to component information. Accurate dimensions, certifications, inspection records, or even sales and use history is accessible. Information collected from the downhole components is seamlessly available to both Rig-Hand™ software modules and to a variety of existing 3rd party applications via WITSML data output.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick is energizing technology for the business of upstream oil and gas production and drilling. Merrick’s product offerings extend oil and gas producing asset life, lower lifting costs, increase production, and optimize operations. Merrick is headquartered in Houston Texas with a global presence in the major producing regions. For information visit us at OTC booth #1372 or contact Merrick Systems at 1-800-842-8389 or www.merricksystems.com.

Prior to joining Merrick Systems, Philippe Flichy was co-founder and CTO of GlobaLogix. Preceding this experience, Philippe Flichy was Solutions Manager Oil Field Services North and South America at Schlumberger overlooking Real Time Production Optimization. Previous engagements include being the Info Diffusion (intranet) supervisor for the XIX Olympic Winter Games held in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Philippe Flichy holds an MIS degree from Boston University School of Management.

Kemal Farid, Co-Founder and CEO of Merrick, states, “Philippe's knowledge and track record in both the upstream industry and in the strategic application of technology makes him a strong addition to our team. I am very excited to have him aboard.”

Philippe Flichy will focus on two of Merrick’s fastest growing products, One Virtual Source (OVS©) and Rig-Hand™. OVS© provides a platform to deliver digital oil field workflows for managing and improving production process and surveillance. Rig-Hand™ utilizes RFID technology for virtually any surface or downhole piece of equipment; this gives you the ability to know what, where and how each and every component you rely on was manufactured, inspected and used.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick is energizing technology for the business of upstream oil and gas production and drilling. Merrick’s product offerings extend oil and gas producing asset life, lower lifting costs, increase production, and optimize operations. Merrick is headquartered in Houston Texas with a global presence in the major producing regions. www.MerrickSystems.com.

Fuge, who previously served as Merrick’s former Director of Professional Services, is ideally suited to play a strong role in the company’s overall development and engagement efforts – bringing with her extensive experience in areas ranging from development and quality assurance to professional services and customer satisfaction.

“We are positioning Merrick for continued strong growth, and that means putting seasoned talent in key management positions,” said Kemal Farid, CEO of Merrick Systems. “Clara has already proven herself to be an integral part of the Merrick team, and she is the perfect person to guide our operations and help us fulfill our mission to energize technology for the business of upstream.”

Fuge will kick-off her new assignment by implementing systems to ensure that the company’s individual product plans are consistent with its overall vision, while also ensuring that Merrick consistently exceeds each and every client’s needs.

“This promotion means that I will now take a more active role in guiding Merrick as it meets its budget and efficiency goals, while still working closely with our clients,” says Fuge.

Prior to joining Merrick, Fuge spent six years with Energy Planning, Inc. as Information Products Manager and consultant. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from The University of Texas at Austin.

About Merrick Systems

Merrick Systems produces sophisticated data-driven software that helps the upstream oil and gas industry exploit assets. The company offers a variety of products to meet the oil and gas industry’s full range of operational needs, from field-data capture and hydrocarbon accounting to regulatory compliance and business intelligence. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, La., and Calgary, Canada. Visit www.MerrickSystems.com.

Carte, is the only product on the market to provide what Merrick is calling “Web-based production volumetrics,” a term that refers to the use of online dashboards to monitor oil-and-gas production trends. 000000 “Think of Carte as a window into upstream operations,” says Kemal Farid, president and CEO of Merrick Systems. “In essence, it allows workers to pull together data from different engineering, operational and economic data sources, putting everyone on the same page.”

Carte’s cornerstone functionality lies in its ability to pull complex production data from hydrocarbon-accounting systems like Merrick’s ProCount software and Landmark’s TOW software. It then feeds this data, along with data from other business-critical sources, to online dashboards, which workers use to visualize, graph and export the information. Analysts, for example, use Carte to access variance reports, while managers use it to visualize a complete picture of their upstream-production operations.

Carte’s strength lies largely in its versatile data views. For example, the software allows users to view production data for both individual wells and groups of wells – often in near real time. It can also graph multiple wells simultaneously with overlaid views, allowing workers to compare their performance characteristics. Plus, users can filter wells by multiple groups using a variety of criteria, such as: name, API number, state, county, field, route, and reservoir. They can also monitor trend performance using multiple graphing formats that include stacked production graphs with drill-down capability.

Carte even allows users to easily customize data views in dozens of variations. In addition, it allows users to design their own interfaces from scratch. Carte is also simple to navigate and operate; workers can learn how to use the software in just a few minutes, with minimal training. And because Carte highlights inconsistencies in data entries before they get rolled into monthly statements, it ensures data validity. From an enterprise perspective, Carte offers a low cost of ownership, primarily because it can be easily deployed from a central location to everyone in the field and main office.

About Merrick Systems

Merrick Systems produces sophisticated data-driven software that helps the upstream oil and gas industry exploit assets. The company offers a variety of products to meet the oil and gas industry’s full range of operational needs, from field-data capture and hydrocarbon accounting to regulatory compliance and business intelligence. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, La., and Calgary, Canada. Visit www.MerrickSystems.com.

The system, known as Rig-Hand™, uses tags based on Radio-Frequency Identification technology, or RFID, which are affixed to individual components used for drilling, workover and completion operations.

The tags, which are capable of transferring data via a low-level radio signal to nearby reading devices, can be installed on components at the manufacturer, or retrofitted to existing components in the field when they are inspected. Once the tags have been mounted, the Rig-Hand system uses rugged scanning tools to read them and feed relevant data to the system’s software – which then analyzes the data, providing operations personnel with instant knowledge about the equipment.

“The secret to the system lies in the right combination of tags, software, and hardware,” said Ian Binmore, director of drilling products at Merrick Systems. “Rig-Hand tags are developed specifically for the extreme conditions encountered during drilling operations. They have no moving parts or energy-storage components and are extremely durable.”

The tags themselves are quite small, ranging from about the size of a small button to about the size of a bottle cap. They can be mechanically mounted, epoxied, or screwed into components – depending on criteria such as available wall thickness, component diameter and the intended use or re-use of the component.

Binmore points out that since drill-string components can be tagged at the factory, Rig-Hand makes it possible for the user to track them from the “cradle to the grave,” opening the door for the economical management of components throughout their life cycle. “In essence,” he said, “Rig Hand gives you the ability to know what, where and how each and every component you rely on was manufactured, inspected and used. With this information, users can reduce risk while maximizing the component’s use and life.”

A major oil company is preparing to launch a pilot project using Merrick’s Rig-Hand system in March and expects to see tremendous benefits -- most notably improvements in drill-string efficiency and personnel safety, while reducing operational incidents that cause fishing jobs or expensive operational delays.

“Rig-hand offers dramatic benefits when you consider the fact that drill-pipe fatigue has been credited for 14 percent of drill string failures in published SPE studies, and is of huge concern to deepwater and extended-reach drilling operations,” said Binmore.

According to Merrick, real-time knowledge of drill string stresses and strains will provide a significant reduction in catastrophic failure of equipment like drill pipe, casing, production tubing, gas-lift valves, etc. The level of detail provided by the tags will improve understanding of the limitations of downhole components and will help operators better manage the risks of using a drill string close to its safe design limits.

Binmore expects the system to offer many additional benefits as it progresses, including the easy integration of RFID data with other real-time operations information, as well as improved drill-string inspection processes and more efficient procurement and inventory management.

Kemal Farid, Merrick’s CEO, echoes this emphasis on long-term ROI. “We are hoping that one of the biggest impacts of Rig-Hand will be to shift perceptions of what can be done with component management in operations and procurement; users will be able to make decisions based on knowledge, not assumptions.”

According to Merrick, Rig-Hand presents cost savings to both operations and back office activities — offering an average savings of $1.5 million per-rig, per-year for offshore operations. What’s more, Rig-Hand could increase the resale value of pipe and other components by providing accurate identification, history and full traceability of industry equipment.

About Merrick Systems

Merrick Systems produces sophisticated data-driven software that helps the upstream oil and gas industry exploit assets. The company offers a variety of products to meet the oil and gas industry’s full range of operational needs, from field-data capture and hydrocarbon accounting to regulatory compliance and business intelligence. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, La., and Calgary, Canada. Visit www.MerrickSystems.com.

The system, known as Rig-Hand™, uses tags based on Radio-Frequency Identification technology, or RFID, which are affixed to individual components used for drilling, workover and completion operations.

The tags, which are capable of transferring data via a low-level radio signal to nearby reading devices, can be installed on components at the manufacturer, or retrofitted to existing components in the field when they are inspected. Once the tags have been mounted, the Rig-Hand system uses rugged scanning tools to read them and feed relevant data to the system’s software – which then analyzes the data, providing operations personnel with instant knowledge about the equipment.

“The secret to the system lies in the right combination of tags, software, and hardware,” said Ian Binmore, director of drilling products at Merrick Systems. “Rig-Hand tags are developed specifically for the extreme conditions encountered during drilling operations. They have no moving parts or energy-storage components and are extremely durable.”

The tags themselves are quite small, ranging from about the size of a small button to about the size of a bottle cap. They can be mechanically mounted, epoxied, or screwed into components – depending on criteria such as available wall thickness, component diameter and the intended use or re-use of the component.

Binmore points out that since drill-string components can be tagged at the factory, Rig-Hand makes it possible for the user to track them from the “cradle to the grave,” opening the door for the economical management of components throughout their life cycle. “In essence,” he said, “Rig Hand gives you the ability to know what, where and how each and every component you rely on was manufactured, inspected and used. With this information, users can reduce risk while maximizing the component’s use and life.”

A major oil company is preparing to launch a pilot project using Merrick’s Rig-Hand system in March and expects to see tremendous benefits -- most notably improvements in drill-string efficiency and personnel safety, while reducing operational incidents that cause fishing jobs or expensive operational delays.

“Rig-hand offers dramatic benefits when you consider the fact that drill-pipe fatigue has been credited for 14 percent of drill string failures in published SPE studies, and is of huge concern to deepwater and extended-reach drilling operations,” said Binmore.

According to Merrick, real-time knowledge of drill string stresses and strains will provide a significant reduction in catastrophic failure of equipment like drill pipe, casing, production tubing, gas-lift valves, etc. The level of detail provided by the tags will improve understanding of the limitations of downhole components and will help operators better manage the risks of using a drill string close to its safe design limits.

Binmore expects the system to offer many additional benefits as it progresses, including the easy integration of RFID data with other real-time operations information, as well as improved drill-string inspection processes and more efficient procurement and inventory management.

Kemal Farid, Merrick’s CEO, echoes this emphasis on long-term ROI. “We are hoping that one of the biggest impacts of Rig-Hand will be to shift perceptions of what can be done with component management in operations and procurement; users will be able to make decisions based on knowledge, not assumptions.”

According to Merrick, Rig-Hand presents cost savings to both operations and back office activities — offering an average savings of $1.5 million per-rig, per-year for offshore operations. What’s more, Rig-Hand could increase the resale value of pipe and other components by providing accurate identification, history and full traceability of industry equipment.

About Merrick Systems

Merrick Systems produces sophisticated data-driven software that helps the upstream oil and gas industry exploit assets. The company offers a variety of products to meet the oil and gas industry’s full range of operational needs, from field-data capture and hydrocarbon accounting to regulatory compliance and business intelligence. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, La., and Calgary, Canada. Visit www.MerrickSystems.com.

The alliance, which will formally be known as the Intelligent Production-Optimization Alliance, promises to help oil and gas companies tackle one of the toughest problems in the petroleum business: efficiently extracting fuels from heavy-oil fields, watered-out oil fields, and non-conventional gas sources.

To achieve this goal, the alliance will provide what it calls field-wide production optimization – holistic programs that use data-based systems to improve the extraction of oil and gas from difficult wells.

“This alliance offers what amounts to a turn-key solution to help oil and gas companies satisfy growing industry pressure to increase the yield from hard-to-lift reserves,” says Kemal Farid, president and CEO of Houston-based Merrick Systems. “It’s the only one of its kind in the market, and far surpasses anything else available for improving such operations.”

The alliance will draw upon the complementary services and products provided by its member companies – all of which have strong track records in the upstream oil and gas industry. Merrick Systems, for example, has spent more than a decade developing and implementing systems to collect and organize field data from gas wells and oil fields, while NuTech Solutions has used its Intelligent Business Engines™ to optimize just this kind of field data. Advanced Resources International, for its part, has worked closely with companies like NuTech Solutions to develop customer-focused analytic and optimization systems that improve and manage steaming, CO2 injection and non-conventional gas operations.

“The net result,” concludes Farid, “is a service that provides real-time optimization of heavy-oil and non-conventional gas extraction.” Scott Reeves, executive vice president of Advanced Resources International, echoes this sentiment: "The combination of experience and advanced technology represented by this alliance is unprecedented in the complex-recovery market; technologies that have previously been limited to deepwater and other high-cost environments are now available to operators of non-conventional gas and enhanced-oil-recovery assets."

Meanwhile, Kevin Kostuik, vice president of industry solutions at Charlotte, N.C.-based NuTech Solutions, points to his company’s previous optimization successes as proof that the alliance will provide dramatic benefits to its customers. “A leading oil producer has already used our engines to enjoy production increases between 1.4 percent and 6.4 percent, while also capturing best practices in a field-level tool,” he says. “With the addition of Merrick and ARI to the mix, oil and gas companies can expect to see even more dramatic improvements in their numbers, making their lives easier and adding real dollars to the bottom line.”

“This alliance is the perfect three-punch combination,” summarizes Farid. “We expect to make a major difference for any company interested in optimizing its complex-extraction operations.”

Pricing for the alliance’s products and services is based on each customer’s unique needs. Companies interested in more information, should contact Merrick Systems at 800-842-8389 or by visiting www.MerrickSystems.com.

About Merrick Systems

Merrick Systems produces sophisticated data-driven software that helps the upstream oil and gas industry exploit assets. The company offers a variety of products to meet a full range of operational needs, from field-data capture and hydrocarbon accounting to regulatory compliance and business intelligence. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, Midland, Calgary and Vienna. Visit: www.MerrickSystems.com.

About NuTech

NuTech Solutions, Inc. delivers innovative solutions, powered by Intelligent Business Engines™ that forecast, optimize and learn – delivering insight and measurable results to Global 1000 companies. Our solutions are designed to solve complex problems in a variety of industries, including automotive, consumer goods, petroleum, financial services and national security.

Based in Charlotte, N.C. and with offices around the world, NuTech Solutions’ client roster includes General Motors, BMW, Oxy, Beiersdorf, BB&T, Ford Motor Company, Chevron, Air Liquide and many U.S. Government Departments and Agencies. For more information call (704) 943-5400 or visit www.nutechsolutions.com.

About Advanced Resources International

Advanced Resources International (ARI) is a leading independent consultancy specializing in non-conventional gas, enhanced oil recovery and carbon sequestration. Since the company’s inception in 1991, the company’s team of geoscientists, engineers and business analysts have provided a wide range of value-added services to our worldwide clientele, including major and independent oil and gas producing companies, multi-lateral lending institutions, research organizations, and governments. With offices Washington (DC), Houston, Denver and Pittsburgh, ARI’s services encompass the development of integrated business solutions at the highest corporate level, complex and non-traditional technical problem-solving, research, and consulting and training on a broad spectrum of exploration, production and reservoir topics.

Utilizing emerging RFID technology, tags are embedded in drill pipe giving Operators immediate access to information such as mill dimensions, certifications, inspection records, sale and use history.

“The pipe measuring method used on rigs today requires three to four people to measure, manually document and calculate readings. RigHand reduces this overhead to one person scanning pipe with a handheld computer that automatically calculates the pipe tally. This automation saves critical time on the rig floor,” says Ian Binmore, Director, Drilling Products at Merrick.

“But more than just saving time, RigHand provides critical drill string information that helps reduce pipe failures, fishing costs and downtime. The financial benefits RigHand can provide are significant, anywhere from $70,000 to $1,000,000 per rig per year,” says Binmore.

“Entering the drilling market is a natural fit for Merrick,” says Kemal Farid, president of Merrick Systems. “Our goal is to provide our clients the best technology available for turnkey data management from the wellhead to the back office. With RigHand, we can now offer more accurate, timely information than is currently available in a drilling rig environment. We are excited about that.” says Farid.

The first commercial test of the RigHand system has just been successfully completed on a workover project at SoCal Gas. A beta test is scheduled with Shell for later this summer.

About Merrick Systems, Inc. (Merrick) is a Houston based software development and professional services company providing enterprise-class applications for upstream oil and gas operations, specifically in the area of production operations. Merrick has an excellent reputation in the industry for handling complex operational and regulatory issues, producing robust software products and delivering outstanding customer service. Merrick’s product offerings extend oil and gas producing asset life, lower lifting costs and optimize operations.

For more information contact Merrick Systems at www.merricksystems.com.

Media contacts:

Laura Attwell, 713/579-3402

Tags utilizing newly developed and patented RFID technologies are embedded in downhole tubulars such as drill pipe, casing, production tubing and other BHA (Bottom Hole Assembly) components. Rig-Hand™ provides rig operations, inspection services, storage yards and the transportation sector with immediate access to component information. Accurate dimensions, certifications, inspection records, or even sales and use history is accessible. Information collected from the downhole components is seamlessly available to both Rig-Hand™ software modules and to a variety of existing 3rd party applications.

“The pipe measuring method used on rigs today requires three to five people to measure, manually document and calculate pipe tallies. Rig-Hand™ reduces this overhead to one-person scanning pipe with a handheld computer that automatically provides the pipe tally and more. This automation saves critical time on the rig floor,” says Ian Binmore, Director of Drilling Products at Merrick.

“But more than just saving time, Rig-Hand™ provides critical drill string information that helps reduce pipe failures, fishing costs and downtime. The financial benefits of the Rig-Hand™ system are significant, anywhere from $70,000 to $1,000,000 per rig per year,” says Binmore.

Kemal Farid, President of Merrick Systems, adds “Entering the drilling market is a natural fit for Merrick. Our goal is to provide our clients the best technology available for turnkey well information management, from the well site to the back office. With Rig-Hand™, we offer drilling operations more accurate information with greater efficiency than previously possible. We are excited about that,” says Farid.

The first commercial test of the Rig-Hand™ system has just been successfully completed on a workover project at Southern California Gas Company. A test of factory installed RFID equipped casing is scheduled with a major operator and one of North America’s largest casing and coupling manufactuers for later this summer. Various Rig-Hand™ modules for different sectors of the industry will be released over the next several months. Drilling contractors and operators are currently scheduling Rig-Hand™ for implementation onsite.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

(Merrick) is a Houston based software development and professional services company providing enterprise-class applications for upstream oil and gas operations. Merrick has an excellent reputation in the industry for handling complex operational and regulatory issues, producing robust software products and delivering outstanding customer service. Merrick’s product offerings extend oil and gas producing asset life, lower lifting costs and optimize field operations.

Rig-Hand™ is covered by one or more of the following U.S. patents No’s: 5,142,128; 5,360,967; 6,347,292; 6,480,811; and 6,604,063.

Additional patents pending. For more information contact Merrick Systems at www.merricksystems.com.

Decision Team’s benchmark product, Decide! for Oil and Gas, is the industry's first intelligent reservoir surveillance software to combine intelligent data mining and neural network modeling technologies with proven reservoir engineering methodologies. When integrated with Rio, Merrick’s E&P enterprise technical datastore, users have extraordinary access to their forecasting and production optimization data, saving time and money.

Data Mining allows efficient discovery of valuable, non-obvious information from an E&P Data Warehouse. When integrated with RIO, every facet of an organization will have real-time access to pertinent information, accelerating their ability to make timely business decisions.

“Decide!’s surveillance and reservoir management tools will be a valuable asset to our users,” said Kemal Farid, president of Merrick Systems, Inc. “The amount of data available, and the ability to manipulate that data will be tremendous. We are happy to be working with Decision Team to bring the features of Decide! to our users in a seamless integration of our products,” said Farid.

“Partnering with Merrick Systems is an excellent way for us to add value to our product and give our customers a competitive edge,” said Michael Stundner, Managing Director of Decision Team. “By seamlessly linking Decide! as the data mining front-end to Merrick’s technical data repository, our users will have their reservoir surveillance and management data at their fingertips,” said Stundner.

About Decision Team Software GmbH

Decision Team - Software GmbH (DTS), the E&P Data Mining Company, is based in Baden, Austria and provides the industry's first intelligent reservoir surveillance software - merging innovative data mining technology with proven reservoir engineering methods. The company’s website is: www.decision-team.com.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick Systems develops operational client/server software for the oil and gas industry. The company provides integrated software systems for field data capture, production accounting, plant allocations, regulatory reporting, production data management, and reservoir modeling and analysis. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, Calgary and Vienna. The company’s website is: www.MerrickSystems.com.

“Our commitment to providing truly integrated software solutions for the oil & gas operations sector has contributed to our explosive growth,” said Kemal Farid, president of Merrick Systems, Inc. “When we started this company over a decade ago, we leveraged on our knowledge of production accounting and regulatory reporting to develop products that make energy operations more efficient and successful. Since then, our responsiveness to the needs of our customers has allowed us to expand our suite of products, providing a depth of features and seamless integration that is unrivaled in our industry,” said Farid.

About Merrick Systems

Merrick Systems develops operational client/server software for the oil and gas industry. The company provides integrated software systems for field data capture, production accounting, plant allocations, regulatory reporting, production data management, and reservoir modeling and analysis. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, Calgary and Vienna. The company’s website is: www.MerrickSystems.com.

“Our customers want flexibility in the ways they can integrate, manipulate and report their production data with other technical and business information,” said Kemal Farid, president of Merrick Systems, Inc. “By partnering with Aclaro, our clients can have an advanced reporting solution that seamlessly integrates the data in Merrick’s suite of products with other company information. The power of PetroLook lies in its ability to deliver customized, web-based, corporate-wide reports and charts that connect to any combination of database or spreadsheet applications,” said Farid.

“Data integration and analysis are major issues in the oil and gas industry today,” said Christoph Faig, a founder and director of Aclaro. “By combining our expertise in web-based reporting and data-integration with Merrick’s field data capture, production and plant allocation, and data warehousing capabilities, we will be able to deliver enterprise-wide solutions for production operations data access, even across disparate data sources,” said Faig.

About Aclaro Softworks, Inc.

Aclaro provides web-based data integration, conversion and reporting solutions for the oil and gas industry. Aclaro’s founders are former oil and gas professionals and are specialists in data analysis and reporting. Their innovative applications and customer focus have established Aclaro as a leader in Internet solutions for the oil and gas industry. Aclaro is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta with an office in Houston. For more information, please visit www.aclaro.com.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick Systems develops operational client/server software for the oil and gas industry. The company provides integrated software systems for field data capture, production accounting, plant allocations, regulatory reporting, production data management, and reservoir modeling and analysis. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, Calgary and Vienna. The company’s website is: www.MerrickSystems.com.

“At Merrick Systems, we are constantly responding to our customers’ demands for more efficient and more versatile data management,” said Kemal Farid, president of Merrick Systems, Inc. “By integrating the flow of well data between WellView® and Merrick’s ProCount™ and RIO™ applications, our customers will have easier access to information as well as reduce their data entry time,” said Farid.

“By combining our areas of development expertise, we are able to provide best of class software solutions to our customers. This technical alliance is a natural fit for us. Integrating these products to work together seamlessly creates a valuable tool for energy professionals,” said Glen Gray, president of Peloton.

Peloton is a software development company specializing in drilling and well information systems with offices in Houston and Calgary. Peloton's software solutions are used by over 300 oil and gas companies worldwide. WellView is a registered trademark of Peloton Computer Enterprises Ltd. The company’s website is: www.peloton.com.

About Merrick Systems

Merrick Systems develops operational client/server software for the oil and gas industry. The company provides integrated software systems for field data capture, production accounting, plant allocations, regulatory reporting, production data management, and reservoir modeling and analysis. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, Calgary and Vienna. The company’s website is: www.MerrickSystems.com.

RIO adds value to the exploration and production process by providing single point access to all operated and non-operated well and completion-related data, including: well header detail; production; bottomhole pressures; well tests; directional surveys; perforations; tops, contacts, reservoir parameters, and geological detail.

“The quality of data in an E&P organization improves immediately because of the broad accessibility of information,” said Kemal Farid, president of Merrick Systems, Inc. “Adding the functionality of a data management repository to our existing product suite allows our customers to utilize their data in virtually any manner they choose across their organization. The benefits of this enhanced quality and availability of data are enormous,” said Farid.

RIO was initially designed and developed by Ocean Energy's reservoir and production engineers to quickly and accurately answer most of the commonly asked questions about a well or completion. When integrated with Merrick’s ProCount, FieldCap and DynaCap applications, data can be captured at the platform or field, allocated and seamlessly fed directly into RIO.

“RIO is extremely easy to use because it is patterned after a spreadsheet interface,” said Farid. “Its flexibility in storing information makes it a useful tool for production and reservoir engineers, as well as geologists and petrophysicists. RIO also provides an environment where data from different departments is integrated and reconciled. RIO is a valuable addition to our software suite,” said Farid.

About Ocean Energy, Inc.

Ocean Energy, Inc. is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development, production, and acquisition of crude oil and natural gas. North American operations are focused in the shelf and deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, Permian Basin, Arklatex, Anadarko, East Texas and the Gulf Coast regions. Internationally, Ocean holds a leading position among U.S. independents in West Africa with oil and gas activities in Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Cote d'Ivoire. The company also conducts operations in Egypt, the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, Brazil, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

About Merrick Systems, Inc.

Merrick Systems develops operational client/server software for the oil and gas industry. The company provides integrated software systems for field data capture, production accounting, plant allocations, regulatory reporting, production data management, and reservoir modeling and analysis. Merrick is headquartered in Houston with offices in Lafayette, Calgary and Vienna. The company’s website is: www.MerrickSystems.com.

“We started this company more than 10 years ago with the belief that technology could make oil and gas production operations more efficient and successful,” says Kemal Farid, president of Merrick Systems, Inc. “We have dedicated ourselves to developing solutions that benefit our clients. This commitment to quality and responsiveness to the needs of our customers have made us a market leader. This is really an exciting time for us.”

About Merrick Systems

Merrick Systems develops operational client/server software for the oil and gas industry. The company provides integrated software systems for field data capture, production accounting, plant allocations, regulatory reporting, production data management, and reservoir modeling and analysis. The company’s website is: www.MerrickSystems.com.