New oil group has a Reservoir of talent
A NEWLY formed oil drilling business, based in Aberdeen and backed by a US private equity company, is targeting turnover of £250 million within five years, writes Scott Reid.
Reservoir Group burst on to the oil and gas scene last year with the £20m acquisition of Aberdeenbased Corpro, which was founded in the late 1980s. The deal will provide the foundations for Reservoir to build a "global business focused on downhole drilling products and services".
Corpro specialises in extracting "cores" – samples of rock – and bringing them to the surface. Geologists then analyse the cores to help oil and gas operators, including the likes of BP, Total and Chevron, pinpoint the location of reserves and work out how best to exploit them.
Reservoir, backed by Houstonbased private equity outfit SCF Partners, which last year opened an Aberdeen office, aims to achieve its turnover target through organic growth and further acquisitions of "niche, marketleading companies".
The group is being led by Pascal Bartette, formerly managing director of Corpro. He said: "The aim is to acquire complementary businesses with drillingrelated activities to create a group of companies that offer integrated, specialist services to the downhole drilling market.
"The equipment the industry uses has changed little in the past 30 years, and being part of the Reservoir Group will allow us to continue to invest in new techniques that give us an edge in the market."
Corpro has worked in 50 countries in the past 18 months. The Middle East accounted for more than half of its turnover in 2006.
Original source : Business.Scotsman.com
