Edinburgh-based company acquired by global oil services company.

Edinburgh-based MTEM has been acquired by global oil services company Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) in a $275 million deal.

MTEM was a spin out from Edinburgh University late 2004 and has been venture capital backed by a consortium consisting of Energy Ventures and the two co-investors HitecVision and Scottish Equity Partners.

MTEM has developed a pioneering electromagnetic survey technology which has the potential to provide oil companies with huge savings by determining whether reservoirs contain oil and gas before they incur drilling costs. The company was founded by Professor Anton Ziolkowski and Dr Bruce Hobbs and headed by Chief Executive Leon Walker, a veteran of the oil services industry. MTEM has grown rapidly to an organization of around 70 professionals over the last few years and is targeting a global market for geophysical services estimated to be worth over $12 billion.

PGS is a world leading, focused geophysical company providing a broad range of seismic and reservoir services, including acquisition, processing, interpretation and field evaluation. This services is used by companies to help them find oil and gas and to determine the size and structure of known reservoirs. PGS also possesses the world's most extensive multi-client data library. PGS operates on a worldwide basis with headquarters at Lysaker. PGS is listed on the stock exchanges in Oslo and New York.

Commenting on the deal, MTEM Chief Executive Leon Walker said: "We are delighted to secure this deal with PGS. PGS has a substantial client base and very strong relationships with major oil companies. I have no doubt that this will be extremely beneficial in driving the uptake of our technology".

Einar Gamman, Partner with Energy Ventures said: "This has obviously been a fantastic journey for us, and sets a really good example of how good ideas matched with competent capital can create great companies. We have seen the new emerging EM industry to have a game changing potential and it has been a pleasure working together with the first-class MTEM team in building a valuable business. We are proud that MTEM now has attracted the interest of such a world-class company as PGS. I am confident that MTEM will benefit greatly from being able to access the global infrastructure, the people and the industrial trustworthiness offered from being part of such a group".

For more information:

Einar Gamman
Partner
Energy Ventures
+47 91 63 71 05
www.energyventures.no