Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised British drilling contractor, GeoSonic Drilling Ltd (“GeoSonic”) in connection with its acquisition of the on-going business of the coring activity of COFOR (Entrepose Drilling).

Already one of Europe’s leading sonic drilling contractors, now thanks to its acquisition of COFOR which specialises in oil & gas, geothermal and water drilling, workover and deep coring, GeoSonic has its first subsidiary in France from where it can consolidate its position on the Continent and expand its expertise in sonic drilling, a technique which is used in the nuclear, infrastructure and renewable energy sectors.

The WFW Paris team which advised GeoSonic on all the corporate aspects of this acquisition was led by partner Pascal Roux, assisted by senior associate Anne-Kelly d’Amécourt and associate Pierre Chipaux.

Entrepose Drilling was advised by an in-house team comprising Finance Director, Jérôme Bannier and Alexandra Taupin, in charge of International Contracts in the Entrepose Group’s legal and insurance department.

GeoSonic’s Managing Director, David Dennis commented: “Spurred on by Mike Mulraney, the head of the Mul Drilling Group, our plans don’t stop there and this transaction is only the first step in our future expansion. Furthermore, we are very pleased with the quality of the relationship which we have built up with Entrepose during the course of this operation.”

David Richard, the Chairman of Entrepose Drilling, said: “Drilling is becoming increasingly more specialised and we are confident that, with the addition of GeoSonic’s knowhow, COFOR’s business cannot fail to grow.”

WFW partner, Pascal Roux, commented: “We were able to conclude this transaction rapidly thanks to an excellent working relationship with Entrepose’s legal department. GeoSonic’s dynamism and pragmatic approach were the key success factors which enabled the process to be completed in less than three months.”