A LEADING environmental consultancy with offices in Denby Dale has completed an international takeover.
SLR Consulting has doubled its capabilities in environmental services for the offshore oil exploration and production sector with the acquisition of a leading Alaskan environmental firm Hoefler Consulting Group.
The move comes when the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has focused the attention of companies in the sector on how to plan to tackle major oil spills.
The takeover strengthens SLR’s position as a leader in onshore and offshore permitting and compliance.
HCG was set up in 1995 and has 55 employees with offices in Anchorage, Alaska and in Fairbanks, Portland and Seattle in the USA.
SLR Huddersfield office manager Elizabeth Simmons said: “This acquisition will further strengthen our offering in permitting and contingency planning for offshore drilling.
“This is a particularly strong growth area at present given recent events in the Gulf of Mexico and we are already working with a number of major companies to review their spill contingency plans.”
She said the announcement also represented a further milestone in SLR’s strategy of supplementing the growth of its own business through selective acquisition to strengthen and extend its technical and geographic coverage.
The acquisition of HCG follows the takeover of Heggies, an Australian-based environmental consultancy with 140 employees, which was completed earlier this year.
SLR now has almost 900 employees working from 21 offices in the UK and Ireland, 25 in the USA and Canada and 10 in Australasia.
Key areas of SLR’s business include the energy and mining sector where it is involved with both the oil and gas industry and renewable power including wind, energy-from-waste, hydropower and biomass.
SLR is also the leading consultant to the waste management industry in Europe and undertakes a significant amount of planning and environmental impact assessment work for major commercial developers.
HCG’s expertise includes successful permitting for both routine and project-specific oil and gas activities. It has also carried out 300 air quality projects throughout Alaska. Clients include BP Exploration (Alaska), Teck Cominco and the US Air Force.
