The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Jobs saved as collapsed Arbroath firm sold on
Oil and gas firm bought out of administration after pre-pack deal
An Angus oil and gas services firm has been rescued after being sold in a prepackaged administration sale.
Struggling Mountwest Petroleum Engineering Ltd (MPEL), on Arbroath’s Kirkton Industrial Estate, was placed into administration last week after “suffering the effects of the prolonged downturn in the North Sea.”
However, the company was immediately sold on by joint administrators Gordon MacLure and Ewen Alexander of Johnston Carmichael in a pre-pack deal to new venture Mountwest Petroleum Ltd.
The move means the jobs of MPEL’s 18 workers are all secure.
However, The Courier understands chairman Siegfried Grabner has left the business.
The firm provided licensed connection repairs and manufacturing services to the oil and gas sector, including specialist VAM and API threading services.
Richard Bathgate, restructuring director at Johnston Carmichael, said: “Like many companies MPEL has suffered over recent years from the downturn in the oil industry and had accumulated significant liabilities.
“However, being able to move rapidly with the sale of the business was a critical element in preventing 18 people being made redundant from their jobs, and avoiding the knock-on effects of that on the local economy.”
Companies House filings show the new owner was incorporated on March 28 and its registered address is Salvesen Tower, Blaikies Quay, Aberdeen. Stuart Noble and Ulf Eide are directors of the new entity. Legal firm Maclay Murray & Spens is listed as company secretary.
Johnston Carmichael said both the business and assets of MPEL had been sold to MPL.
It, in turn, will now be operated by Independent Oil Tools Group, a subsidiary of Petrolia SE, and will continue to operate from MPEL’s former premises.