Fugro buys ROV tools group

Offshore staff

LEIDSCHENDAM, The Netherlands --Fugro is acquiring Aberdeen-based ROV tooling provider Improv, and its subsidiary in Houston Improv Inc, for £5.8 million ($11.6 million).

Improv, which has 30 employees, supplies integrated tooling packages for intervention on subsea assets throughout all phase's of field life. Fugro believes this capability will provide synergies to its own, growing fleet of over 100 ROVs.

The acquisition also will add new subsea engineering and design and build capabilities to Fugro's geotechnical services. Improv – to be renamed Fugro Improv – operates mainly in the North Sea, Mediterranean, West Africa, and the Gulf of Mexico.

4/19/2007