Bermuda-registered Seadrill has established a $49.8 million separate entity for its well services activities with the ambition to create a large international well services company.

The new company will be named Seawell Limited where Joergen Peter Rasmussen will be appointed board chairman and Alf Ragnar Loevdal will be appointed chief executive officer of Seawell Management AS.

Seawell's core business is platform drilling, engineering and well intervention services.

The Platform Drilling and Engineering Division delivers production drilling and well maintenance services on 21 platforms, as well as drilling facility upgrading and modifications, while the Well Intervention Division offers multi-skilled personnel and state-of-the art equipment packages for mechanical and electrical wireline services.

The business employs approximately 1,800 skilled and experienced employees.

In order to set up Seawell Limited on a stand-alone basis, new equity has been raised through a private placement of a total of 20 million shares to a subscription price of NOK13.75 per share. Gross proceeds from the equity issue amounted to NOK275 million (equivalent to approximately $49.8 million). The total number of shares outstanding after the issue will be 100 million. Following the private placement, Seadrill will remain an 80 percent shareholder in Seawell Limited.

According to ther company the share issue was managed by Carnegie ASA and Pareto Securities ASA and was significantly oversubscribed.

• Joergen Peter Rasmussen, 48, has been elected executive board chairman of the newly established Seawell Limited.

He has 25 years of experience in the petroleum industry, mainly with Schlumberger Oilfield Services, and has held various senior management positions in Schlumberger in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA. He was managing director and chairman of Schlumberger Norway and Denmark from 1998 to 2001.

Kjell E. Jacobsen, chief executive officer of Seadrill Management AS, said: "We are pleased to have Mr. Rasmussen heading Seawell Limited. With his background and experience from a leading international service company he was our first choice for taking on the responsibility of establishing Seadrill's well services activity as a separate entity with the ambition of growing a large international well services company."