Offshore engineering firm Aquaterra Energy has secured a multi-million pound investment from EV Private Equity as the company gears up for service expansion and new technology launches.
The deal is the first to be agreed following EV’s pledge last year to invest US$200 million in North Sea businesses with new technologies and high growth potential.
The independent private equity firm confirmed it was seeking to invest between $10 million to $40 million in each company.
Aquaterra has appointed Alan Wilson as chairman. Wilson is a Chartered Engineer with 33 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry.
The company has also appointed its co-founder Mark Boyd and the former CEO of Expro, Gavin Prise, as non-Executive Directors.
Aquaterra, which has operations in Aberdeen and Norwich, in the UK, and Cairo, in Egypt, provides riser systems, offshore structures and rental equipment to the global oil and gas industry. The company recently designed, fabricated and installed a new Sea Swift platform for PICO Petroleum Integrated Services, the lead contractor for the Amal field in the Gulf of Suez, offshore Egypt. Aquaterra is also supplying high-pressure riser equipment for a subsea abandonment project in the central North Sea.
Aquaterra says it is seeing growing interest in its specialist WellStart service, which minimizes third party interfaces in early stage well construction, providing the expertise to overcome the technical and economic challenges in setting out the first phase of the well.
George Morrison, managing director of Aquaterra Energy said: “We have a robust plan for service and product expansion including a strong focus on our WellStart capability and the investment will help us to fuel the growth of the business. EV’s support to the existing management is a vote of confidence in the hard work of the team and the success that has been achieved during what has been a challenging period for the industry.
“We have exciting opportunities for ongoing investment in new technologies and will be looking to maximize value from our innovative field development solutions including Sea Swift, WellStart and riser analysis. We look forward to working together with EV to continue to deliver the high quality, high value products and services needed by our customers in the improving oil and gas environment.”
As part of the deal, a re-finance package has been agreed with HSBC.