An Aberdeen oil and gas consultancy has been snapped up by industrial giant Schlumberger for an undisclosed sum.
It is thought ADIL will take advantage of Schlumberger’s global reach to expand its services including a novel oil and gas industry collaboration project.
The firm expects to expand its estimated 100-strong workforce after majority shareholder James Paton sold the company he founded in 2006 in a surprise move.
Mr Paton is expected to remain as the firm’s managing director.
In a statement on the firm’s website, ADIL said the deal happened on the eve of Schlumberger’s £9billion takeover of rival Cameron International. The mega-merger completed on April 1 after clearing a series of international competition hurdles in recent weeks.
ADIL – also known as Asset Development and Improvement – had recently been working to deliver a major collaboration project in the South North Sea with gas giant, Centrica.
The project was the result of a long-standing vision of Mr Paton’s to create a shared services model, conceived long before the downturn forced North Sea companies to consider embracing collaborative activities in an effort to reduce costs. The concept had been presented to the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and the Department of Energy and Climate change (Decc).
The company established a London office in 2012. In February, the company said it had “upwards of 100 staff” at its offices in Aberdeen and London when it was listed as one of London Stock Exchange’s “1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain”.
According ADIL’s most recent accounts, the firm achieved a turnover of £33.4million in the year to the end of 2014, and a £2.5million pre-tax profit – a 22% decline on the prior year.
The optimism for ADIL comes as Schlumberger plans to cut 10,000 more jobs from its global workforce in the first half of this year, in addition to 20,000 axed since the start of last year.
The oil-field services company is estimated to have had more than 5,000 people in its UK North Sea operations as of last April, both offshore and in offices in Aberdeen and Westhill.
Schlumberger was unavailable for comment.
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