Oceaneering International Inc. (NYSE: OII) said March 6 it expanded its service line capabilities to the growing renewable energy market with the acquisition of Ecosse Subsea Ltd.

Headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, Ecosse builds and operates seabed preparation, route clearance and trenching tools for submarine cables and pipelines on an integrated basis that includes vessels, ROVs and survey services. The company serves the renewable energy and oil and gas industries.

Houston-based Oceaneering said one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries acquired Ecosse for about 50 million pounds sterling (US$69 million).

Roderick A. Larson, president and CEO of Oceaneering, said in a statement, "We are pleased to complete the acquisition of Ecosse, which we believe offers Oceaneering the opportunity to expand our service line capabilities and grow our market position within the offshore renewable energy market, and provide our customers with proven tools to optimize installation projects. The addition of Ecosse reflects our commitment to expand into the adjacent renewable energy market to more comprehensively serve the offshore energy industry. We expect the acquisition to be accretive to Oceaneering's 2018 cash flow and earnings."

Mike Wilson, former chairman of Ecosse, said in a statement, "This is a strategic opportunity for our customers and our employees. Oceaneering has outstanding people, a global presence, innovative technologies and diversified services and products. Together we can establish a stronger platform to take on even larger and higher profile projects in the renewables and oil and gas industries."

Enabling technologies acquired in the transaction include Ecosse's modular SCAR Seabed System, capable of completing the entire trenching work scope (route preparation, boulder clearance, trenching and backfill), and its newly developed SCARJet trenching system. The SCARJet is an evolutionary trenching system designed for use with standard work class ROVs and adds state of the art jetting and post-lay trenching capabilities to the existing pre-cut methods offered by the SCAR plowing tools. (US$1 = 0.72 British pound)