Well management company AGR Petroleum Services has bought Aberdeen’s TRACS International Consultancy in a deal worth £20million.
TRACS, a global provider of integrated services and training in the geology and petroleum engineering sectors, employs 70 people – half in Aberdeen and the remainder in Guildford and Moscow.
Among the shareholders are three TRACS directors – Mark Cook, Mark Graham and John Gallivan.
The Granite City firm, which was founded in 1992, made pre-tax profits of nearly £1.9million in the year to the end of last August.
Mr Cook said: “The opportunity to work within AGR Petroleum is a significant and exciting step in the development of TRACS.
“It allows TRACS subsurface and commercial expertise to be combined with AGR’s well management, existing subsurface, field development and subsea design capability.”
Norway-based AGR Petroleum said the acquisition was a key step towards fulfilling its ambition of providing total asset management services from initial prospect to first oil.
Ian Burdis, vice president of well management at AGR Petroleum, said: “We are delighted to welcome the teams from TRACS to our company.
“They bring with them extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of geology, geophysics and petroleum engineering and will be a huge asset to our growing service offering around the world.”
AGR Petroleum describes itself as the world’s leading independent provider of offshore drilling services to independent operators. It also has the largest subsurface consultancy group in Norway. This year the company has 25 wells scheduled on the UK continental shelf – an increase of 80% on last year.
With its UK headquarters in Queen’s Terrace, Aberdeen, AGR Petroleum employs more than 80 people in Aberdeen and has more than 25 offices worldwide.
Richard Erskine, executive vice president of AGR Petroleum, said: “The TRACS acquisition represents another important step as AGR Petroleum Services builds its capability to offer integrated services and adds significant depth to our ability to provide current and future clients a skill set capable of delivering expertise and value at all stages of investment decision making in the upstream oil and gas industry, from gaining entry to a region, through exploration, appraisal, development planning, production and reservoir management.”
The TRACS workforce will move from Union Grove Lane to Union Plaza later this year, where they will occupy new offices with colleagues from AGR Petroleum.