READ Well Services celebrates successful year and revenue of 100m NOK

Announcement of record NOK 100 million revenue to year end 2007 - sustaining 30% organic growth year-on-year.

READ ASA subsidiary READ Well Services Limited (RWS Ltd.) forecasts sales will increase by at least 25% this year to take revenue to NOK 130 million. The North Sea provider of seismic, cased hole, solid expandable tubulars and permanent downhole instrumentation solutions is on track to expand its operations internationally and increase employee numbers as the company continues to grow.

Celebrating a landmark year Paul Hazel, director, RWS Ltd. says “2007 has been our most successful year to date. We attribute this success and strong growth to strengthened activity from our operations in Norway and the UK. Our commitment to exploring new technology and widening our geographical net means this year will be even more successful than last as we plan to further develop our HETS (solid expandables) division and focus on extending our operations in West Africa.”

READ’s commitment to research and development has underpinned the company’s growth and provided resources to invest in assets. Paul Hazel, director, RWS Ltd. says “Due to our strength in research and development our net asset value has doubled since last year to over NOK 43 million. This has allowed us to plough money back into research projects within the oil and gas industry to further enhance the business and win new contracts. Our commitment to innovation and expansion will achieve all the more success throughout 2008 as we look forward to expanding into at least one new market by fourth quarter next year.”

To support the growth of the business RWS Ltd. will undertake a recruitment drive to increase staff numbers at their Aberdeen and Bergen bases from 85 to 115 spanning across many disciplines from engineering to IT.  

Paul concludes, “Revenue from our North Sea and international operations in West Africa is driven by the operational teams in Bergen and Aberdeen, and is the result of hard work and focussed efforts all round. We will welcome new recruits to join us this year in a period of exciting and rapid growth. We have already won two major contracts, which we will announce soon, as we look towards further organic growth of 25% through 2008.”