Previously the owner of 51%, Inocean has bought up the remaining 49% of shares in Anchor Contracting (AC).
"We expect a mounting demand for the services that AC provides in the subsea oil sector. We want to develop the company further while benefiting from synergies between the two companies," says Inocean's managing director, Jon Erik Borgen.
Whereas Inocean has focused its activities on design and engineering of floating offshore constructions, particularly the FPSO market, Anchor Contracting has its niche in the subsea market as an EPC supplier of foundations for riser support and mooring systems for floating offshore constructions. The company was founded in 1995 and has built a superb reputation in the market. In recent years AC has demonstrated its excellence in successful projects and it has chalked up solid economic results.
"The acquisition of Anchor Contracting enables us to pool our resources and achieve a greater impact on the subsea market," says Jon Erik Borgen. "Anchor Contracting possesses a portfolio of solutions and technologies with a potential for more extensive use than is the case today. By contributing, among other things, our engineering capacity and marketing resources, Inocean can help open up exciting, new markets for Anchor Contracting solutions."
Today, Anchor Contracting's chief product is mid-water arches (MWAs), i.e., buoyancy and support structures for risers between the seabed and production units - both FPSOs and rigs. In recent years Anchor Contracting has delivered MWAs to installations in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, offshore Brazil, the Far East and Africa.
"We see an increased interest in our anchor technology and currently, a major oil company for ultra deep waters is doing the field testing of our HiVel anchor for taut mooring systems, a further development of the HiCap anchor used for the Visund FPU in the Norwegian Sea," says Jon Erik Borgen.