Norway: Aker Solutions Cultivates its Core Businesses

International oil services, engineering and construction company Aker Solutions has decided to cultivate its core businesses by creating three separate companies. The new streamlined entities have a clear ambition to grow in their respective markets.

The new strategic direction, which will be announced at the company’s capital markets day in Oslo today, is the conclusion of a strategy process initiated by the Board in second quarter 2009.

“We have listened carefully to feedback from our customers and investors and analysed how we should position ourselves to meet their expectations,” says Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman of Aker Solutions.

“Their feedback is consistent. Our company enjoys strong positions in several market segments. However, to further accelerate our growth, we should be more focused, more flexible in our approach to customer specific requirements, and much more transparent,” he explains.

Leading on from this, the next step is to cultivate the current Aker Solutions business into three separate companies:

· The future Aker Solutions will be a fully-fledged provider of engineering, technologies, solutions and services for the upstream oil and gas industry. Its range of offerings will include deepwater drilling technologies, subsea oil and gas production systems, well services, mooring and offloading systems, wellstream processing technologies, as well as life-of-field solutions through its maintenance, modification and operations business.

· Aker Contractors will be a specialised EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) company with a strong position in the North Sea field development market, key positions in selected international target regions, and a strong offering of distinct offshore products with a global market. The new company will continue to target offshore and onshore EPC field development projects with the ambition to maintain its strong position in the North Sea and further grow its international presence

· Process & Construction International, a leading global supplier of engineering and construction services to onshore industry segments.

Aker Solutions

After establishing P&C International and Aker Contractors as separate companies, Aker Solutions will become a thoroughbred engineering and technology company in the oil and gas industry. The company has a wide range of technologies and solutions for deepwater drilling and subsea oil and gas production systems and products. It also offers mooring, loading and deck equipment as well as well stream processing technology.

With the maturing of the oil and gas industry, increased recovery of oil and gas from old fields and field life extension programmes are becoming increasingly important for oil companies. Aker Solutions offers a wide range of technologies and services in this respect. It is market leader in the well services segment on the Norwegian continental shelf and a technology leader in the emerging riser-based light well intervention market.

Its offering to customers worldwide is based on an engineering base which is second to none in the international oil and gas industry. The new Aker Solutions will have a dedicated engineering business stream, with more than 700 engineers located at its hub in Oslo, Norway. Its detailed engineering offices in Mumbai, India, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, count 1650 and 350 staff respectively. Engineering resources dedicated to subsea, drilling, process, well services and other business units are in addition to the above.

Aker Solutions’ head office will remain in Norway.

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Source: BG Group  ,December 9, 2010;