About offshore

In recent years, the economy was in top gear and the global population was also growing fast. That pushed up the demand for energy, and therefore the prices of oil and gas. Energy companies set up major investment programmes in the search for new reserves of oil and gas. Easily accessible sources are already in production and so this search is concentrating on less accessible areas such as the polar regions and the deep oceans. The high oil prices made it worthwhile to invest in the innovative technology needed to access these new reserves of energy. IHC Merwede has been responding to these developments with a major expansion of activities in the offshore sector. We have built up a respectable position in the market for complex and integrated offshore construction vessels. Strategic takeovers such as those of Vuyk Engineering Rotterdam B.V., IHC Engineering Business Ltd. and IHC Sea Steel Ltd. have made a valuable contribution to this market proposition.