Aker Solutions ASA, an engineering company based in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, provides the products, systems and services required to unlock energy from sources such as oil, gas, offshore wind and capture. The company, founded in 1841, was known as Aker Kværner until 2008. In 2020, the company announced a merger with Kværner ASA Aker Kværner (OSE: AKVER) was founded in 2004 from the major restructuring of a complex "Aker Kværner" business unit, formed originally in 2002 by the merger of

Aker Maritime Aker Maritime is a defunct Norwegian petroleum industry supply company. Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange it was controlled by Aker RGI, owned by Kjell Inge Røkke. The company was created in 1996 when Aker's oil and gas division was merged with ...

and Kværner Oil & Gas. On 3 April 2008, Aker Kværner was renamed Aker Solutions, partly due to the difficulty that most non-Scandinavians found in pronouncing "Kværner". The company was majority controlled by

Aker ASA Aker ASA is a Norwegian industrial investment company with ownership interests concentrated in oil and gas, renewable energy and green technologies, maritime assets, marine biotechnology, and industrial software. The company is listed on Oslo St ...

until 2007. Then, via a major ownership restructuring on 22 June 2007, Aker ASA completely gave up its holding in Aker Solutions, and transferred a 40% stake to

Aker Holding Aker Holding is a holding company that owns 40.27% of Aker Solutions. It manages the ownership of four major owners in the company, through a common agreement to insure negative control over the company. Ownership: *Aker ASA (60.0%) *Norwegian ...

, which in turn was owned by

(60%), the

Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry ( Norwegian: Nærings- og handelsdepartementet) was a Norwegian ministry responsible for business, trade and industry. On 1 January 2014 it was merged into Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheri ...

(30%),

SAAB Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB * Saab Automobile, a fo ...

(7.5%) and

Investor AB Investor AB is a Swedish investment and ''de facto'' conglomerate holding company. It was founded in 1916 and is still controlled by the Wallenberg family through their Foundation Asset Management company FAM. The company owns a controlling st ...

(2.5%).

History

Aker Solutions is a result of mergers between several Norwegian companies during the 20th century.

Evolution of Aker Kvaerner: 1841 to 2002

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 Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 200 ...

was founded in Oslo. **1922: Kværner Brug began cooperation with

Myrens Verksted Myrens Verksted is an industrial area in Norway on the east side of the Akerselva river, situated between the bridges Bentsebrua and Vøyenbrua in the southwest part of Torshov, in what is today the Sagene, Sagene Borough of Oslo. Production star ...

**1943: Kværner and Myren jointly acquired the majority shareholding in

Thunes Mekaniske Verksted Thunes Mekaniske Værksted A/S, Thune for short, was a Norwegian manufacturing company that among other things built locomotives. The production facilities were last located at Skøyen. History Thune traced its roots to a workshop founded by And ...

. **1960: Kværner Brug's president, Kjell Langballe, was appointed president of all companies within the '

Kværner Group Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008 ...

' **1967: Joint holding company

Kværner Industries Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008 ...

AS was established in December that year, and listed on the

Oslo Stock Exchange Oslo Stock Exchange ( no, Oslo Børs) (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway’s only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, deriv ...

. 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 Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008 ...

, 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 Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

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. **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,

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 Aker Solutions ASA, an engineering company based in Oslo, provides the products, systems and services required to unlock energy from sources such as oil, gas, offshore wind and capture. The company, founded in 1841, was known as Aker Kværner u ...

brand for the entire Group.

Aker Kværner, and transition to Aker Solutions: 2002 to 2008

Aker Kværner was the result of a merger of

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 Aker may refer to: Places * Aker, Norway, a geographic area in Oslo and a former municipality in Norway * Vestre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Nordre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Aker Br ...

, specialist shipbuilders. In addition, Aker Kværner became a minor shareholder in the Finnish engineering company

Aker Arctic Aker Arctic Technology Oy (often shortened to Aker Arctic) is a Finnish engineering company that operates an ice model test basin in Helsinki. In addition to ship model testing, the company offers various design, engineering and consulting serv ...

in 2004. The new Aker Kvaerner started trading on Oslo Stock Exchange under ticker symbol 'AKVER' on 2 April 2004. In 2006, the company's paper/pulp and power businesses were sold to Finnish-based

Metso Metso Oyj was a Finnish industrial machinery company focusing on providing technology and services for mining, aggregates, and oil and gas, recycling, pulp and paper and other process industries. On 30 June 2020, Metso's partial demerger and ...

in a deal worth €335 million. 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. The new company would be owned by

(60%), the

(30%),

(7.5%) and

Investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

(2.5%). In 2007, the company was identified by

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

as an accessory to torture and other human rights abuses for its collaboration in constructing and maintaining the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Aker Solutions: 2008 to 2020

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 Noble Energy, Inc. was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Houston, Texas. In October 2020, the company was acquired by Chevron Corporation. The company was known as Noble Affiliates, Inc. until 2002. As of December ...

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 The Tamar gas field is a natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. The field is located in Israel's exclusive economic zone, roughly west of Haifa in waters deep. The Tamar field is considered to have proven reserves o ...

in Israel. Together, the contracts were worth NOK 1.1 billion. 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

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 Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB * Saab Automobile, a fo ...

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 Aberdeen International Business Park (AIBP) is a major commercial building project located on the south eastern edge of Aberdeen International Airport, at Dyce, with direct road links to the Scottish motorway network, and close to Dyce railway st ...

as part of a consolidation and strengthening of its oilfield services in and around

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. 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. In November 2020 Aker Solutions merged with Kværner ASA.

References

External links

*
2017 Annual Report
{{Coord, 59, 53, 50.46, N, 10, 37, 39.98, E, type:landmark, display=title Oil companies of Norway Oilfield services companies Engineering companies of Norway Shipbuilding companies of Norway Aker ASA Companies based in Oslo Energy companies established in 2008 Manufacturing companies established in 2008 Non-renewable resource companies established in 2008 Norwegian companies established in 2008 Companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange