Aker Solutions to create 500 UK jobs

19 August 2011 - International oil services company Aker Solutions aims to create 500 new UK jobs over the next year. In a bid to grow its business substantially, Norway-listed Aker Solutions is set to recruit 300 staff to its Aberdeen operation and create 200 positions at the company's newly established west-London engineering office.

The move follows a successful start to the year for the oil and gas engineering and technology services company, which has increased its order backlog by 19 percent since January 1st. It says that market outlook for both the UK and Norwegian North Sea as well as Brazil, West Africa and Asia Pacific remains strong.

"Last year we decided to take a much more proactive recruitment approach. Since then our strategy has been to man up ahead of the big waves of work that we know are coming. That offers much greater predictability for our customers and ourselves," says Alan Brunnen, a managing director with Aker Solutions in Aberdeen. The company aims to recruit 300 new employees in Aberdeen alone.

The majority of positions in Aberdeen are for the subsea technology business where 200 new posts will be created. A further 70 positions are being recruited to support work for maintaining and upgrading North Sea oil platforms in order to extend their field life. Aker Solutions' well service business, which provides technologies and services aimed at increasing oil recovery from producing wells, requires a number of technical and ancillary personnel. As does the drilling technology business, which provides drilling systems and life-cycle services to support new generation drilling assets that are entering the UK North Sea.

New London office
By tapping into the London oil and gas market, Aker Solutions in the next year aims to hire approximately 200 engineering personnel to its new London offices with a target of 500 by the end of 2015. Located in Chiswick Park, this global engineering hub will support field development projects for the North Sea and worldwide.

"Our company has had a historical presence in London, so this is a re-entry to an engineering market we know very well. So far we have received more than 2 000 job applications, which underlines that there is scope to grow this business rapidly," says Valborg Lundegaard, head of engineering in Aker Solutions.

Alan Brunnen adds: "We anticipate that workload levels will remain high over the coming years, which is why we are staffing up our UK organisation now. We want to be well placed to capitalise on future opportunities that arise in our markets".

Aker Solutions is one of Scotland's largest employers with a workforce of more than 2 500 people. In addition the company has smaller offices and facilities in Great Yarmouth, Maidenhead, Stockton-on-Tees and Whitstable. The company employs 17 000 employees plus 6 000 contract staff in 30 countries worldwide, and has annual revenues of approximately GBP 3.9 billion.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Media:
Endre Johansen, VP Communications, Aker Solutions. Tel: +47 22 94 58 91, Mob: +47 416 10 605, Email: endre.johansen@akersolutions.com

Investor relations:
Lasse Torkildsen, SVP Investor Relations, Aker Solutions. Tel: +47 67 51 30 39, Mob: +47 911 37 194, E-mail: lasse.torkildsen@akersolutions.com

Suppliers:
For further information about sourcing and potential subcontracts for this project, please visit www.akersolutions.com/suppliers

Career opportunities:
Visit http://www.akersolutions.com/careers

Aker Solutions ASA, through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("Aker Solutions"), is a leading global oil services company that provides engineering services, technologies, product solutions and field-life solutions for the oil and gas industry. The Aker Solutions group is organised in a number of separate legal entities. Aker Solutions is used as the common brand/trademark for most of these entities.

Aker Solutions' parent company is Aker Solutions ASA.  Aker Solutions has aggregated annual revenues of approximately NOK 35 billion and employs approximately 17 000 people in about 30 countries.

This press release may include forward-looking information or statements and is subject to our disclaimer, see http://www.akersolutions.com

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