Acquisition of The Scotia Group by RPS Energy

The Scotia Group Inc (Scotia) and RPS Energy are pleased to announce that, with effect from 2 November 2007, Scotia has become part of the Energy Division of RPS Group plc (RPS). Scotia will now trade as RPS-Scotia. The combined group operates worldwide from regional offices in the USA, Canada, Europe, SE Asia and Australia.

RPS considers Scotia to be one of the foremost consultancies of its kind in North America and this move, which comes in response to developing global market opportunities, brings additional world-class capability to the Energy Division of RPS. By bringing the organisations together under a common management and investment strategy and taking advantage of geographical and functional synergies, RPS Energy will be able to respond quickly and effectively to the consulting requirements of its worldwide clients.

RPS Energy offers an in-depth technical, commercial and advisory capability and this will be further strengthened by Scotia. The enhanced offering in North America will also allow RPS to access key markets in Central and South America. Both RPS Energy and Scotia have a reputation for providing flexible, independent consultancy with an emphasis on developing long-term relationships with their clients. This ethos will continue within, and be strengthened by, the combined organisation.

The management teams of both organisations will remain with the businesses and contribute to its future success. Both RPS Energy and Scotia place significant value on developing and maintaining an excellent relationship with their employees and consultants, and consider that the expanded group will provide new opportunities for its personnel on both technical and career development levels, leading to increased value for clients.

This is an exciting time for Scotia and joining RPS Energy provides a platform for further development and success. 



Notes to editors:

RPS Group Plc, the ultimate parent company of RPS Energy, is quoted on the London Stock Exchange and provides high quality advice in a range of areas including energy consulting, development planning, environmental assessment and risk management, health, safety and engineering across a number of industry sectors. .RPS has been trading since 1970 and has a network of regional offices throughout Europe in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and international offices in Canada, USA, Australia and Malaysia. The Group moved to the full Stock Exchange in 1995, is now a member of the FTSE 250 on the London Stock Exchange and has been named in the FTSE4Good index of socially responsible companies since the scheme’s inception.

The Energy Division, one of the largest divisions within RPS, specialises in providing advisory and consultancy services to the oil and gas, renewables and nuclear sectors of the energy industry. World-wide, the division offers a wide range of skills and undertakes consultancy projects of all types including: exploration, integrated field studies, due diligence, transaction support, licence round support, reserves reporting, asset valuations and optimisation, project management and risk analysis. In addition to these integrated disciplines, RPS Energy also offers specialist services in well engineering, production engineering, reservoir simulation, sedimentology, biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy and petrophysics. It also undertakes more operations-focussed consultancy to provide support for seismic acquisition, geological well operations, site investigation, geotechnical and survey services.

In the USA, RPS Energy has offices in Houston and Dallas, Texas, and specialises in consulting services to the oil and gas and renewable energy sectors. These include geological well operations, seismic operations, project management, geotechnical and survey services.

Scotia began trading in Dallas, Texas in 1981, as and has steadily expanded since that time in terms of both the scope of services offered, and the size of its professional staff. The business has expanded its operating base to Houston, Texas, and Reynosa in Mexico. Its key areas of high-end geoscience and engineering expertise are complementary to those offered by RPS and include consultancy services providing support for: integrated field studies; reservoir engineering and field modelling; reserves evaluation, acquisition and divestment, and reserves reporting.

RPS-Scotia is an integrated, sub-surface geoscience and petroleum engineering consultancy that levers the creative thinking of an experienced team of specialists; state-of-the-art software; and a broad spectrum of world-wide experience to provide innovative and cost-effective solutions to the evaluation and development of oil & gas resources both in North America and overseas, particularly in Central and South America. The combined group excels at taking on complex technical problems and economic challenges, such as those involved in converting known resources into reserves and the optimisation of declining production.