Acquisition of Norwegian company next move in DeepOcean’s effort to grow subsea offering

A couple of days after news about a charter of a converted, battery-powered vessel to boost its subsea offering, DeepOcean announced it was acquiring digital transformation company Btwn AS as part of its ambition to grow its offering within digitalization and automation of subsea operations.

Btwn – pronounced “between” – is a digital transformation company that specializes in replacing manual processes with automated solutions, with a track record from digital transformation activities within ocean-based industries such as renewable energy, oil & gas, aquaculture and maritime.

DeepOcean acquires 100% of the shares in Btwn from the company’s employees for an undisclosed amount. Btwn is headquartered in Sandnes, Norway, and has eleven employees.

“Digitalisation of our subsea services and projects, autonomous capabilities and unmanned vessels are the cornerstones of our technology development strategy. Adding Btwn’s competence and capacity will allow us to further ramp-up these efforts to the benefit of our customers,” said Øyvind Mikaelsen, CEO of DeepOcean.

“Btwn will strengthen our in-house development team and customer-facing digital innovation projects within all these areas. Further, our cooperation with the Remota JV, which provides Remote Operations Centers for maritime and offshore operations, complements this offering. Our primary focus is to help reduce operating costs and emissions for operators of offshore energy assets.”

Btwn has together with Aker BP developed a drilling simulator and onshore collaboration center, and supported Westgass Hydrogen to provide technology solutions that support the efficient delivery of hydrogen for its filling stations and off-grid applications. Btwn is also involved with a project to develop a control system for semi-autonomous offshore fish farms.

In addition to becoming an integrated part of DeepOcean’s digital innovation team, Btwn will continue to operate as a stand-alone brand, serving the company’s current and other potential customers.

“DeepOcean and we share the view that digitalisation is the key to unlocking huge efficiency, safety and environmental gains for ocean-based industries. Becoming part of the DeepOcean team will enable us to jointly realise numerous technical and commercial synergies between the two companies, to our customers’ benefit,” said Stig Arne Nordli Andersen, CEO of Btwn.

Earlier this week, DeepOcean announced it had entered into a long-time charter agreement with Island Offshore for the Island Condor – to be re-named Island Ocean multi-purpose support vessel (MPSV) – following conversion and upgrade.