Baker Hughes, a New York-listed oil services company, has taken a minority equity stake in Verdande Energy, a subsidiary of Norway-based Verdande Technology.
Baker Hughes will become a user of Verdande Technology’s case-based reasoning (CBR) software platform for oil and gas applications, DrillEdge.
Scott Schmidt, president of drilling and evaluation for Baker Hughes, said: “Integrating this [DrillEdge] capability into our portfolio of real-time optimization and remote drilling services complements our Beacon remote operations platform.”
Verdande Technology AS was founded in 2004 by a group of professors and students at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.
Verdande Technology’s investors include Norway state-owned oil producer Statoil’s corporate venturing unit, now managed by venture capital firm Energy Capital Management (ECM), state investment company Investinor, venture firm ProVenturefounders and employees.
Statoil took some of its minority equity portfolio back in-house in April 2011 after setting up ECM in 2008 as an independent venture capital firm from its original Statoil Corporate Ventures unit but at the time said “ECM will remain Statoil’s preferred partner in the area of venture capital”.