Aker Solutions

The timeline below summarizes the main events leading to the foundation of Aker Kvaerner—from its origins as Aker Mechanical Workshop (1841)—until the merger of Aker Maritime with Kværner Oil & Gas to form Aker Kvaerner (2002).

• Timeline
  • 1841: Aker established its first mechanical workshop along the Aker river in Oslo called Aker Mechanical Workshop
  • 1853: Kværner Brug was founded in Oslo.
  • 1922: Kværner Brug began cooperation with Myrens Verksted
  • 1943: Kværner and Myren jointly acquired the majority shareholding in Thunes Mekaniske Verksted.
  • 1960: Kværner Brug's president, Kjell Langballe, was appointed president of all companies within the 'Kværner Group'
  • 1967: Joint holding company Kværner Industries AS was established in December that year, and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The Kværner Group comprised 10 Norwegian companies with 3,200 employees and operating revenues of NOK 385 million. It entered the offshore oil and gas market from its base in Oslo through Kværner Engineering, which was established as an engineering and contracting company in the late 1960s.
  • 1978: Offshore construction work started at Kværner Egersund, and during this period the shipyard in Stavanger was converted into an offshore fabrication facility.
  • 1993: Construction work began at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp through its jointly owned subsidiary, Kværner Process Services Inc. (KPSI), initiating a business partnership with the US Department of Defense that would last until 2006.[4]
  • 1996: Kværner sought to strengthen its engineering base internationally through the acquisition of the UK-based conglomerate, Trafalgar House and became an international player in shipbuilding, oil and gas, pulp and paper and engineering and construction. It moved its international headquarters to London.
  • 1998: Kværner's pulp and paper became a core business area in its own right
  • 1999: The company initiated a major sell-off, focusing on realising capital through divestments. These efforts did not solve the mounting financial and operational challenges, which eventually brought the company into an acute liquidity crisis in August 2001.
  • 2000: In July of that year, Aker Maritime ASA, a Norway-based offshore products, technology and services provider, bought a 26 per cent of the shares in Kværner ASA.
  • 2001: In November of that year, an agreement was reached between Aker Maritime ASA and Kværner ASA. Aker Maritime injected NOK 2.8 bn in net assets, raised another NOK 3.5 bn through two direct issues and renegotiated NOK 8.6 bn of Kværner's debt.
  • 2002: The Group decided to adopt the Aker Kvaerner brand for the entire Group.

Logo of Aker Kværner prior to company renaming.

Aker Kværner was the result of a merger of Aker Maritime and Kværner Oil & Gas in 2002, and a major restructuring of the Aker Kværner business unit in 2004.

Earlier in 2003, the group structure of Aker Kværner was split into six business areas; Field Development Europe, MMO Europe, Subsea & Oilfield Products, Oil, Gas & Process International, E&C Europe and E&C Americas. A need arose in 2004 to simplify a rather complex group structure which led to the formation of two focused industrial groups: Aker Kværner, specialists within Oil, Gas, Energy and Process; and Aker Yards, specialist shipbuilders. In addition, Aker Kværner became a minor shareholder in the Finnish engineering company Aker Arctic in 2004. The new Aker Kvaerner started trading on Oslo Stock Exchange under ticker symbol 'AKVER' on 2 April 2004.[5][6]

In 2006, the company's paper/pulp and power businesses were sold to Finnish-based Metso in a deal worth €335 million.[7] On 7 June 2007, an agreement was announced where a 40.1% stake of the company would be sold from Aker ASA to Aker Holding.[2] The new company would be owned by Aker ASA (60%), the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry (30%), SAAB (7.5%) and Investor (2.5%).[3][8]

In 2007, the company was identified by Amnesty International as an accessory to torture and other human rights abuses for its collaboration in constructing and maintaining the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.[4]

During the AGM held on 3 April 2008, Aker Kværner announced that it was rebranding as Aker Solutions, referencing the connection with Aker's businesses heritage, but also recognizing that non-Scandinavians find the name Kværner difficult to pronounce. The new company trades under the symbol 'AKSO' on the Oslo stock exchange.

Between April 2010 and June 2010, the company was awarded three contracts by Noble Energy to supply steel tube umbilicals, a complete mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) reclamation unit, and subsea control equipment for the construction of offshore oil platforms in the Tamar gas field in Israel. Together, the contracts were worth NOK 1.1 billion.[9]

However, on 6 May 2011, the Kværner name re-emerged when Aker Solutions' EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) division was rebadged, with the resulting new company being spun off and listed on Oslo Stock Exchange in 2011/Q3. Aker Solutions' holding company – Aker Holdings AS – was also renamed to Aker Kværner Holding AS owning around 40% of Kværner ASA. Aker ASA took over the 10% stake owned by Saab and Investor AB, raising its stake in Aker Kværner Holding AS to 70%.

In 2014, Aker Solutions was further divided to two companies, Aker Solutions and Akastor, then in August Aker Solutions leased the entire first phase of the new Aberdeen International Business Park[10] as part of a consolidation and strengthening of its oilfield services in and around Aberdeen, Scotland.

However, on 18 February 2015, the company announced the loss of around 300 jobs in Norway as a response to falling oil prices and the decline in demand for drilling services.[11]

In November 2020 Aker Solutions merged with Kværner ASA.[12][13]

Aker Solutions weathered the Covid-19 supply-chain and energy-price disruptions of 2020 and emerged a changed company. Restrictions related to the declared Covid-19 pandemic had primarily impacted the mobilization of personnel in and out of Norway.

The structural change embarked on by management late late in 2020 saw the successful spinning off of Aker Carbon Capture and Aker Offshore Wind. The move won praise for unlocking significant shareholder value, and the newly merged company assumed a leading position as consultancy and execution partner for existing and emerging energy industries.

Though serving renewable and oil-and gas clients, the end of 2020 revealed the company was still a powerhouse of offshore energy engineering. A contract from Chevron to provide subsea umbilicals for the Jansz-Io subsea gas compression development, offshore Australia, affirmed the company's position as a cutting-edge subsea technology company. Jansz-lo's subsea gas compression system marked an international breakthrough for world-leading subsea gas compression technology that marked a major leap in improving recovery rates, reducing costs, enhancing safety and lowering emissions.

After securing the largest decommissioning contract seen in Europe in 2021 (the Heimdal and Veslefrikk infrastructure), tendering activity to start 2021 remained high, and Aker Solutions was bidding on contracts worth about NOK 78 billion, some 30 percent which derived from offshore wind, carbon capture, hydrogen, and low-carbon solutions for oil and gas such as subsea gas compression.

The company announced in early 2021 that it would reduce its environmental footprint by targeting a 50 percent reduction in its own CO₂ emissions by 2030 (over 2019 levels).

The year started with a Memorandum of Understanding with Doosan Babcock for the joint delivery of low-carbon renewable energy projects in the UK. The partnership aims to design and build onshore plant for the production of hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).

A number of energy-transition project awards followed by mid-2021. ScottishPower Renewables' East Anglia THREE offshore wind project called for the delivery of engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) of a large high-voltage, direct-current (HVDC) platform. A front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract to develop an e-Fuel facility for Nordic Electrofuel envisions the production of synthetic fuels based on hydrogen, CO2 and renewable power.

In late 2021, Aker Solutions won a contract to provide wind energy developers Ørsted and Eversource with an HVDC transmission system for the Sunrise Wind offshore wind project, New York's first.

By late 2021, the company had announced a commitment to be Net Zero (net zero-emmissions of CO₂) by 2050.