IHS GROUP Acquires IEDS and consolidates subsidiaries. (October 1998)

Information Handling Services Group has addedUK-based Integrated Exploration and Development Services (IEDS) to its list ofacquisitions. IEDS now joins PI/Dwights, Petroconsultants, ERICO and MAI Consultants inwhat is described as 'the industry’s primary information partner.'

IEDS’ valiant efforts to raise its profile (see PDM Vol. 3 No. 8) appear to have borne fruit as it has just been snapped up by acquisitive Information Handling Services Group Inc. (IHS). IEDS will join IHS’ Energy Group, hitherto comprising PI/Dwights, Petroconsultants, PI/Erico and MAI Consultants. IEDS’ operations in the UK, Singapore, the USA, and Australia will be added to those of Petroconsultants. IHS Energy Group now boasts over 1000 employees, 4000 customers and around 10,000 users of its products. Chris Meyer, president of IHS Group and chairman of IHS Energy Group, described the primary focus of the combined business as "blending complementary information products and developing new, best-of-breed information tools that add significant value to the exploration and production process and justify the industry’s confidence in IHS Energy Group as their primary information partner."

Below Meyer, IHS Energy’s Office of the CEO – already a busy place (PDM Vol 3 N° 5) – will get even more crowded as Lyndon West and Nick Robinson, directors and co-founders of IEDS join the fray. West and Robinson are to jointly manage IEDS’ and Petroconsultants’ operations and international sales activities. Keith Neal, managing director of Petroleum Information (ERICO) Ltd. in the UK, will assume additional responsibility for the newly-founded Data Logic Services Corp. (DLS) in the US as executive vice president of worldwide custom data management for IHS Energy Group. DLS is PI/Dwight’s data management arm, managing oil company archives and file rooms and operating Business Archives, a commercial well log data archiving service. Keith Doherty will continue in his role as president of IHS Energy Group’s Petroconsultants-MAI international consulting business and Economic Policy and Analysis Group. Neal and Doherty are both members of the Office of the CEO for IHS Energy Group, reporting to Meyer. IHS Group (www.ihsgroup.com) boasts annual sales of $480 million. Subsequent to the acquisition of IEDS, IHS has announced that it will be formally merging the operations of the US based PI/Dwights group with those of Petroconsultants and IEDS. More from www.ihsenergy.com