Cameron typically shows off serious subsea technology during the annual Houston event but this year chose instead to put the spotlight on its purchase of the TTS Energy Division from Norway’s TTS Group, a transaction expected to close soon.
The division’s products include drilling rig control systems, top drives, travelling blocks, automated pipe handling, iron rough necks, drawworks, derrick structures, drill floor tools, fingerboards, BOP handling equipment, deadline anchors, and drill line spoolers.
Glenn Chasson, president of Cameron’s Drilling System Division, said TTS’s automation was ‘second to none’ and described the $270 million all-cash transaction as ‘the first step in expanding our product portfolio to include more rig equipment’.
In August 2011, Cameron announced it would purchase LeTourneau Technologies Drilling Systems and Offshore Products divisions from Joy Global in a $375 million cash deal to gain access to the company’s direct drive top drives and mud pumps. The deal, which closed last October, augmented the Cameron portfolio with elevating systems, skidding systems, cranes, top drives, rotary tables, drawworks, mud pumps and other LeTourneau product lines.
‘LeTourneau is the one that brings brawn to the portfolio . . . TTS is the company that brings the brains,’ Chasson said.