A well known drilling business, headquartered in Aberdeen, has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by private equity house Sun European Partners, affiliates of which have invested in over 330 companies worldwide since 1995, with combined sales in excess of 35billion euros.
Applied Drilling Technology International Limited (“ADTI”) has been bought from Transocean where it no longer fitted.
Negotiations started mid-2013 and were essentially complete by December 1 when a new business entity was created. Tying up the loose ends took until mid-February by which ADTI had also relocated in Aberdeen to a new home at Denburn House.
Led by VP North Sea and Europe, Andrew Stannard, ADTI is an integrated turnkey and project management business focused on well design, construction and completion services, today primarily in the UK North Sea.
Established in the UK in 1991, ADTI has managed around 370 wells and 180 completions in Northwest Europe, with an emphasis on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).
Overall, however, the firm has turn-keyed more than 2,300 wells and drilled more than 5million metres (16million feet) of hole. Locations include the world, including the Gulf of Mexico, Latin America, the North Sea, the Middle East and West Africa.
For now at least, the focus will be the North Sea.
The company currently employs 84 professionals and support staff, though contractors bring the head-count to around 100 at present.
ADTI’s business is divided into five business segments:
– Turnkey drilling
– Turnkey completion
– Project management
– Decommissioning
– Well engineering studies.
According to Stannard, the company has a significant number of long-standing client relationships . . . from majors to large independents to new entrants, including Hess, Tullow, Summit Petroleum, Premier, Sterling Resources, Ithaca Energy, GDF Suez and Xcite, among others.
A very recent project was drilling the UK’s first carbon capture well for National Grid using the jack-up rig Energy Endeavour.
Well 42/25d-3 had been previously drilled for gas, but none was found. The work was part of a project to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) solutions as part of National Grid’s Don Valley storage work programme, funded by an EU grant to advance CCS in Europe.
Lionel de Posson, VP at Sun European, said: “ADTI has deep knowledge of the UKCS market and has built an unrivalled and unique offering in turnkey solutions.
“The company has established a strong reputation in the market, underpinned by its best-in-class workforce who are all skilled operators in their specialist fields.
“ADTI is well positioned to take advantage of the positive market trends in the region and we look forward to working with the management team to explore further opportunities for growth in new products and geographies.”
Stannard told Energy that the firm would stick to its knitting and that expansion outwith Northwest Europe is on the cards. He has been with ADTI for 13 years; prior to that spending 16 years with Shell.
ADTI has a long-standing graduate programme and currently has 15 in its system with two to three years under their various belts.
Another eight are due to join in the autumn, for which there were 800 applications.
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