Helmut Sohmen, chairman of BW Group Ltd. may sell shares in its
offshore unit as producers order oil platforms to drill fields in deeper water, according to a Bloomburg report.
An initial public offering of shares in BW Offshore is possible within the next two years, Sohmen, 66, said, according to the report. The unit operates a fleet of eight tankers converted into platforms used to pump oil from undersea fields.
BW Group acquired the offshore business in 2003 when World-Wide Shipping, started in Hong Kong by Sohmen's father-in-law in 1955, acquired Oslo-based Bergesen d.y. ASA. BW Offshore's FPSOs, operate in seas off Mauritania, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea in West Africa, New Zealand, and Mexico.