McDermott International has further expanded its subsea capabilities after entering into an agreement to acquire the UK-based subsea specialist DeepSea.

The US contractor has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the London-headquartered DeepSea operating companies, although terms of the purchase are not being disclosed.

DeepSea has engineering offices in London, Houston and Asia Pacific, with its specialty services including subsea engineering and project management, extending from the wellhead to fixed, floating or shore-based production facilities. “The acquisition of DeepSea by McDermott enables us to offer a greater number of subsea engineers with broader specialist services to reinforce our own engineering, procurement, construction and installation capabilities in executing subsea projects worldwide,” said Stephen M. Johnson, Chairman, President and CEO, McDermott. “It also allows us to accelerate the development of the company to reach global tier one status in subsea project execution, while also enabling us to be competitive in the European subsea market as well as in the international arena.”

DeepSea is undertaking work on some of the world’s leading SURF projects (Subsea, Umbilical, Riser, Flowline), including ongoing McDermott contracts. As these existing jobs close out, McDermott intends to integrate part of DeepSea’s 100-strong engineering talent pool into its current and potential projects to provide greater resources and improve flexibility for customer requirements and the growing offshore market, it said.

McDermott also intends to retain and expand the DeepSea brand, which will continue to focus on third party engineering services from concept to commissioning.

McDermott is currently working offshore Australia managing the US $2 Bn Ichthys gas condensate field development for EPCI and pre-commissioning of 17,600 tons of subsea structures and equipment, umbilicals, risers and flowlines. Project teams are also executing the Gorgon subsea project.

Offshore Malaysia, it is providing EPCI and commissioning services for the Siakap North-Petai Project for SURF, subsea hardware and controls.

In tandem, the company said it is improving existing installation vessels and growing its fleet with newbuilds.