Mikaila Adams
Editor, The Financial Update: International Edition

Changes abound at Hamburg, Germany-based Germanischer Lloyd. Just last week the company merged with London-based Noble Denton to form a fully-integrated technical assurance and consulting company to serve the worldwide energy industries. Before that, the company appointed a new managing director for the UK.

At a Houston press conference last week, executives from both companies promoted the merger as a major step forward and emphasized the timing as perfect for holistic service offerings.

With a combined 240 years of experience, the new entity will provide assurance, inspection, and consulting as well as project management on a worldwide scale. It will focus its worldwide services along the entire life cycle oil and gas - upstream, midstream, and downstream, renewables and energy installations onshore and offshore. This includes safety, integrity, reliability and performance management.

"The merger is a reflection of the needs of our clients who increasingly face challenges in technology, environment and asset integrity. They are looking for partners who can provide a single source of engineering, consulting and project management services in the geographies in which they are based," said Pekka Paasivaara, member of the executive board of Germanischer Lloyd.

Both companies serve clients from oil and gas companies, contractors, shipyards, ship owners, consultants, designers and financial institutions across the marine and energy industries. The joint workforce will amount to more than 6,400 employees in 80 countries.

John Wishart, group managing director of Noble Denton commented, "This is not a synergy merger, it's a growth merger." The merger is not about saving money, he explained. Becoming the "full service provider" hitting on all segments of the industry, the company actually plans to increase the workforce.

The largest segment in the oil and gas value chain, upstream, is also where the newly-created venture anticipates the most growth - particularly offshore deepwater. "With Noble Denton's expert knowledge in assurance and consulting as well as project management and transportation and installation services relating to offshore assets we will enter a new dimension of services and expertise for the marine, offshore oil and gas industry," said Paasivaara.

"We've got a unique mix of technical competence, but hands-on experience as well. I think no one else has that combination of skills," beamed David Rowan, Noble Denton's managing director, Project Management & Execution.

In late February, the company hired Arthur Stoddart as the new managing director of GL in the UK. Stoddart now heads a growing business segment providing testing, certification, software, asset management, and consulting services focusing on oil and gas, renewables, and utilities sectors. Special focus will be on technical support and consultancy to the international oil and gas (including LNG) and water industries.

Going forward, the company has continued plans for growth - both organic and by acquisition. Together, the new entity will work to build a relevant service portfolio for all offshore, onshore, and subsea assets and increase its presence in all key areas. In the eyes of Paasivaara, clients "don't need to go to ten different companies," the new entity will serve as a one-stop shop with the ability to "take care of it completely."