A SUBSEA operator employing more than 100 North-East workers has bought a company to expand its international presence.

DeepOcean has taken on French firm Searov Offshore SAS.

The business, which runs a number of operations from an office in Darlington, says the deal will open up greater opportunities in West Africa.

Bosses added DeepOcean will benefit from Searov’s reputation for delivering inspection, maintenance and repair and construction support services to oil companies.

The move comes just days after DeepOcean, known for helping install offshore wind farm cables, revealed a contract to support a German energy development.

The company, which complements its Darlington office with a marine site in South Bank, near Middlesbrough, will dig trenches and lay cabling for the 66-turbine Merkur scheme.

Referring to its Searov deal, Henk van den Ijssel, Africa region managing director, said DeepOcean will benefit greatly from its new acquisition’s services, which include ten remotely-operated underwater vehicles from operating bases in Congo and Gabon.

He said: “This will allow us to expand West Africa operations from current operations in Ghana into other countries in West Africa such as Congo, Gabon and Ivory Coast.

“Africa is a key region and building a platform for the provision of life-of-field subsea services to our customers is one of our main objectives.

“We are (also) excited Searov’s president Maxime Cerramon has decided to join DeepOcean; Maxime will play a key role in Deep- Ocean’s Africa activities.”

Mr Cerramon added: “Going forward we will be able to offer our clients more comprehensive and efficient solutions.”

The deal is another boost for DeepOcean, which, over recent months, has built its order book, with its North- East operations central to those projects.

It will carry out trenching and backfilling work on 56km of offshore power cabling in the United Arab Emirates and is also due to install cables for ScottishPower Renewables’ East Anglia One offshore wind farm and fit nearly 100 cables on Dong Energy’s Hornsea Project One wind farm.

Speaking to The Northern Echo earlier this year, Pierre Boyde, managing director for cable installation and trenching, who works out of Darlington, said the company had “irons in the fire” to expand globally, with officials eyeing contracts in Europe and China and the potential of interconnector cabling.

The business is already supporting the Nemo Link interconnector, which will deliver electricity between the UK and Belgium, but Mr Boyde said it wants to go further.

He added: “We’ve got a pipeline that stretches into 2022, so there’s a lot to go for.”