National Oilwell Varco to buy Norway’s APL for $500 million

National Oilwell Varco, a manufacturer of land-based and offshore oil drilling rigs said today that it has agreed to buy Advanced Production and Loading PLC (APL), a subsidiary of BW Offshore of Norway for $500 million in cash.

Houston-based National Oilwell, which reported a turnover of $13.4 billion in 2009, designs, manufactures and sells the major mechanical components for both land and offshore drilling rigs as well as complete land drilling and well servicing rigs.

It  also designs and manufactures drilling motors and specialised drilling tools for rent and sale and also provides distribution services through its network of distribution service centres located in the US, Canada and near major drilling and production activity worldwide.

APL is a maker of turret mooring systems and other products for offshore oil and gas vessels and terminals. APL, based in Norway has approximately 230 employees and operates in six other countries.

As part of the transaction BW Offshore, one of the largest owners and operators of floating production, storage and offloading vessels in the world, and National Oilwell will enter into product supply and non-competition agreements. 

''We are excited about this opportunity to expand our product offerings in the FPSO Market; which we consider to be the next phase of deepwater development in the oil and gas sector.

APL brings with it the industry-leading technical design capability of the turret mooring and production systems NOV needs to enhance its offshore production equipment offerings,'' said Pete Miller, chairman, president and CEO of National Oilwell.